The Pitch HK

Groupon’s strange concoction

2011-10-27T13:14:00.001+08:00

If Groupon wasn't having a bit of a giggle over its daily offering of aJapanese BBQ, followed by a semen analysis and a drainage breast massage - wecertainly were.

For those of you with a slightly wry sense of humour, we thought youmight enjoy this.

Alivenotdead at the races

2011-06-11T08:03:00.000+08:00

Alivenotdead COO Raffi Kamalian tells Marketing TV about the company's growth plans on its fourth anniversary, particularly in Mainland China on platforms like Weibo.

Chui Sui Central: The rise of home-grown talent

2011-03-25T12:11:00.002+08:00

Published by Elizabeth Low on 22 March

Regional - Jean-Paul Burge, president for SEA and CEO for Singapore of BBDO/Proximity says that in the past, when he traveled to London for work or on a personal trip, he would interview 10 candidates from the UK and Europe. But now, he interviews on average one candidate per trip as much talent resides in the region.

"There is a growing pipeline of good people here particularly in strategy and planning. Great local talent is key to our agency network being strong in this region," Burge adds.

Succession planning is something the agency takes seriously with Burge saying the next in line to lead the agency in Singapore will most probably be an Asian.

Ogilvy's group chairman for Singapore Stephen Mangham agrees that the industry is seeing a rise in Asian talent though he believes this trend is not new.

"Creative businesses need a good mix of people. Ogilvy Singapore has 27 nationalities working in the company. Seventy per cent of our staff are Singaporeans," Mangham said. "Ogilvy is strong in Asia because we have Asian legends."

In Asia, Ogilvy has Piyush Pandey in India, TB Song in China, Khai Meng Tham who was the creative head for APAC for many years before moving to New York to be the creative head worldwide and Eugene Cheong as creative head for APAC in Ogilvy.

Mangham reveals the agency takes succession planning seriously and he was told 18 months ahead of time that he would be moving to Singapore. He declined to reveal who will be taking over Ogilvy in Singapore.

Haresh Khoobchandani, Microsoft's chief marketing officer, consumer and online Asia Pacific, talks about how Microsoft has various talents from Asia taking on senior management roles, including APAC president Tracey Fellows, an Australian and Singapore GM Jessica Tan, a Singaporean.

"With globalisation, I believe we will see more Asians assuming leadership roles in international firms in the near future. At Microsoft, rather than focusing on the nationality, we are more focused on hiring the best possible talent based on their skillset, creativity, engagement and passion for our business," Khoobchandani said.

Khoobchandani cites himself as a case in point having worked at Microsoft for almost 14 years and having experienced various leadership roles across different business functions and geographies.

"Bringing people from different ages, gender, nationalities and cultural backgrounds together also helps us to better engage with our customers. Customers today live in a global world with varying needs," he said.

"By mapping our organisation to embrace diversity, this has allowed us to better understand and strategise solutions to cater towards their needs."

One marketer at a Singapore-listed company who did not want to be named looks at it from a different point of view saying it's not about Asian talent, but the ability to have Asian insights leading to great Asian creative work.

"Honestly, I don't think it's about the skin colour, but the ability to move the creative standards up. As to whether they will be given an opportunity, well.... That's a question on who's the head honcho and the relationship of the Asian with the boss," said the marketer.

Chui Sui Central: Understand the basics

2011-02-28T11:24:00.008+08:00

Henry Wood, Senior director, Waggener Edstrom Worldwide

As we move into the second decade of the 21st century, we’re now in a place where any marketing division is convinced by its potential if not agreed on how to maximise it.

In any disruption there are defined stages an industry goes through in order to normalise the processes involved. Often the disruption is called a ‘paradigm change’ as though all the information previously built up is useless.

This is simply not so. Regardless, we tend to see four distinct levels and this is no different in the rapid appearance of digital tools for marketing and the means by which we incorporate them into our work flow.

Initially, it’s simply chaotic. Ideas are thrown out on an ad hoc basis and treated like an add-on, answering the question: what can we do on digital? After this series of experiments, certain factors contributing to success or failure begin to appear and reappear and lessons begin to be learned. As such we come to the second level whereby we see the beginnings of process applied to the medium.

This is essentially the stage we’re currently at in digital communications in general (and social media in particular): companies are applying processes that define how they integrate their digital outreach into a cohesive marketing plan. The next level is to create industry standards that are widely understood and applied by all. We have these processes for traditional media from print to TV to direct mail, we simply forget we have them because they’re so understood.

Hence we often see half-hearted efforts at online and social media because we treat them as one-off campaigns, not aligned to communication goals and understood ROI. Often social marketing efforts are not integrated to regular workflow and the decision hierarchy is murky—who does what? And when? There’s no infrastructure to support or amplify the campaigns and audience media habits are not properly understood.

We would never take this approach to traditional media but, to some extent, we don’t need to because the processes are normalised over decades of practice. We’ve forgotten what we know.

There are basic steps we need to undertake when looking at overall online planning and it genuinely requires going back to the basics to create an overall framework through which campaigns are delivered. At Waggener Edstrom, we call this foundation a Social Influence System. The first step is simply to analyze your current situation - what are you currently doing?

What’s working? Where are you on search engines in relation to your business? What content do you own that is suitable for social media channels? How can social media support advertising?

Who owns this and who do they report to?Once this basic understanding is met, the second step is familiar to anyone in marketing but often executed wrongly in practice. We need to be asking - Who are we looking to influence and what appeals to them in the online medium? What is the ultimate goal of the communications? How will the audience benefit and how will we measure success in a way that crosses the different campaigns? And most importantly how are we tracking conversations in the social sphere and how are we responding and engaging?

If this seems obvious, it’s because it is. However, time and time again, we see these basics ignored because the first step has not occurred. Without that, one remains in the chaotic, ad hoc space of online marketing.

The final step is really one that needs to occur on a wider scale. Companies need a dedicated digital department that is not just an extra responsibility for someone in the marketing division or, worse, handed to the IT department because ‘they know about computers’ (yes, I’ve actually heard that before).

Once the first two steps are correctly understood and implemented, then questions about the number and type of people required can be assessed, what defines content and who owns the process is formalized, the chain of information can be developed so that different divisions and management are aware and able to input timely information. Finally, a process of creating efficiencies occurs as the online marketing process becomes normalised throughout the company.

We went through this with television through the 60’s and 70’s. It is no failure that we’re taking similar time with the Internet but your competition is moving into the process of normalising processes to reduce wasteful, purposeless and disintegrated campaigns and they will reap the benefits moving forward.

How bad can it get?

2011-01-20T23:50:00.001+08:00

After last month’s editorial (see below) about the increasing abuse of language in the marketing industry, this lands in my inbox: “Asia is experiencing a shift to consumer facing, brand-led sustainability initiatives". Well, bugger me if I can figure that one out.
So in the spirit of keeping 2011 jargon free, we’re on a mission to update that classic game "Bullshit Bingo".
The idea behind Bullshit Bingo is simple. Simple tick off five words in one meeting and shout Bingo! It’s that easy.
So if you're concerned about this new pandemic of jargon sweeping the marketing industry, Download the document and add in your own horrendous words and join the campaign against jargomania. Here's some testimonials from past players that are sure to spur you on.
“I had only been in the meeting for five minutes when I yelled Bingo,” said one enthusiastic player.
“Bonza! You could have cut the atmosphere with a cricket stump as we waited for the fifth delivery,” said another.

Forget the jargon, keep it simple

2011-01-20T23:41:00.000+08:00

It’s that time of the year when I get to step back and make my predictions for the coming year. But unlike the many crystal ball gazers out there, I’d like to see the industry take a turn of a different kind. One thing that strikes you about the marketing and advertising business is the strange and, at times, absurd lexicons we use to describe what is usually quite simple and obvious stuff. Of course every industry is guilty of abusing language in some form, but marketers and advertisers seem to revel in it.
Classic terms like above-the-line, below-the-line, through-the-line (shudder), long-term sustainable growth, incentivized strategies, go-to-market marketing and client-facing strategies are some of the more confusing ones. But what about channel agnostic, digital integrated campaigns and how many times have you heard of any agency embracing 360 degree touch-points?
Now let’s face it, these terms might be great when impressing office interns or beefing up PowerPoint presentations, but I can bet you they will be of no help when you’re trying your luck at Lan Kwai Fong on a Friday night. More recently, newer and equally as silly titles have emerged along the lines of scenario planning, digital relationship managers, blogger engagement strategies.
One media agency wrote in a recent book that by 2014 marketers will be dealing with audiovisual buyers, marketing investment managers, consumer psychologists and social anthropologists. Are we facing a pandemic of jargon? So here’s to keeping it simple in 2011 by synergizing win win situations and taking a bold stance against jargonmania. Who knows it might even stamp out some of the more painful copywriting out there.

Social Media Week Hong Kong

2011-01-20T21:54:00.001+08:00

CASBAA 2010: Unlocking the event

2010-10-26T19:13:00.006+08:00

First day of CASBAA 2010 and I have to say the industry feels like it is back in full swing. Attendances to many of the sessions throughout the week were high. We even struggled to find a seat during the keynote presentation from Lions Gate Entertainment vice chairman Michael Burns.

The stand out session of the three-day festival goes to Nick Brien, CEO of McCann Worldgroup. Fresh from a meeting of some 400 top McCann executives in San Francisco, Brien presented an inspired session about improving the relationship his network holds with pay-TV operators, content creators and distribution partners and how to make it easier for advertisers to buy ad space across pay-TV networks. Sadly Brien was one of very few agencies represented throughout the entire conference.

Not surprising, piracy continues to be a hot topic for speakers. Lions Gate boss came out swinging when he suggested pay-TV piracy boarders on anarchy and the single biggest threat to the media businesses today. Sadly, no one has yet to develop a way to combat piracy and in China, new technologies are making it easier for consumers to circumvent legitimate channels and get their content for free.

The infamous CASBAA parties are about to get underway, but here's a selection of photos from the first few sessions.

Chui Sui Central: Tips for holiday marketers

2010-10-22T11:27:00.004+08:00

Emily Cheung, Assistant marketing manager of Radica Systems

Every October, many tourists from mainland China rush to Hong Kong to shop during their Golden Week holiday. Well, I am proud to say “Hong Kong really is a shopping paradise!” But holiday seasons may be the worst days for marketers as they stress about having to spend a large proportion of their budget on eye-catching, out-of-the-box marketing campaigns. Is there a way around it? Here are a few tips for attracting these big spenders.

1. Plan ahead and Review experience

Some marketers like to stick with traditional channels, but is it wise? Some of them succeeded, but most failed. Reviewing past failures is as important as planning ahead for your next campaign. The earlier you plan and review, the better.

2. Carefully measured ROI

The channels you’re spending on may be the most popular but not necessarily optimising your return. Carefully measured ROI from different marketing campaigns in different stages is the key.

3. Provide coupons and hot deals

A recent research by HKUST found that over 70% of respondents made purchase after reading eDMs. And these purchases have been made mostly due to the coupons (68%), free gifts (66%), retail discounts (63%), free product or service trial (44%) sent through emails.

Chui Sui Central: Old Tricks and New Dogs

2010-09-30T10:49:00.003+08:00

Sandy Burns
Managing Partner
Red Spider

“You can’t teach an old dog new tricks”. Or so my father reminded me as he was searching for his email via Windows Live.

It’s a saying we hear a lot from clients about their traditional agencies also. Where is your CRM team? What about digital?

Sure, it’s a valid concern, but one that needs a fair dose of perspective. As networks scramble to replace old dogs with new, acquiring the latest digital people and places, one question beckons: What tricks do these “New Dogs” really possess?

Are they industry saviours? Or will they be traded for a new breed once we find them in the living room tearing up the expensive cushions??

Yes, we live in a “new brand world”– that is certainly true. People congregate and communicate in entirely different ways, the power has shifted from brands to the people that purchase them, everything is immediate, unvarnished and campaigns are deemed successful in minutes rather than months.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some agencies harnessing this new world very effectively indeed. I love TBWA’s claim to no longer make ads but make news, and Old Spice/W&K took the online community by storm last month.

Both recognise that the power has shifted, and brands can no longer just talk at captive consumers - the world moves to fast for that. Instead they try to genuinely excite their audience, create movements and help people participate in fresh new ways.

By way of example, last week our education charity client, Room to Read, chose not to make an ad campaign for International Literacy Day, but instead decided to promote a new ‘’language‘’ we have been calling Illiteranese. (It reads like this: Wehn you jmbule eevry letetr ecxpet the frsit and lsat oens, ecah wrod is sitll raedalbe – jsut!).

When people saw this, the idea was to get people to feel, rather than just read, what is it like to be illiterate – 776 million people are. This language was then used on International Literacy Day by celebrities on Twitter with a link to the charity’s donation page. It became the hottest conversation on Twitter for the two days it ran. Over 5 million retweets (and counting). Zero cost to client.

Yes, a blatant self-promotion, but two things became painfully clear to us along the way. The Old Dogs knew little about the backroom workings of new media like Twitter, and New Dogs knew little about what makes an idea stick and how to generate the desire amongst people to share it. It’s not one in replacement of the other. We need both.

Paper is being swapped for pixels, and ink for noughts and ones. And you are no doubt being told that the pioneer of this new landscape is a digital strategist or a "connection planner" but before you buy, just be sure your New Dogs have learnt a few Old Tricks along the way.

www.redspiderglobal.com

Chui Sui Central: Work less, achieve more

2010-09-24T12:13:00.002+08:00

By Francis Kwok, CEO of Radica

"Less is more" is a famous advertising slogan advocated by a cosmetic brand. It is simple, mysterious yet at the same time elegant. Its implications do not end at the cosmetic world though, we can also apply it in the practical business world.

Obviously, "EVERYBODY wants to spend LESS". If you want to acquire new customers or retain the relationship with your existing customers, think "how to save their time, money and effort".

Nowadays people can easily get any information they want from the internet in seconds. If your customers are spending over two minutes to search for your company or product information, tomorrow they may just walk away.

Stay calm - it is not impossible to grab their heart with the "Less is More" strategy.

First, remember what kind of products your customers like. Don't overlook the effectiveness of your first meeting with your new customers. If you can store these experiences in your knowledge bank, it will help lower the drop-out rate and switching possibility of your customers. It is a very easy step but it is more powerful than what the majority of marketers are doing right now.

Second, try to stay focused and targeted. Humans are greedy - we always want to do as many things as we can at one time, but that is impossible and ineffective. For example, marketers tend to include more than one message or graphic in single eDM - they think that the more they included in an eDM, the more response they can collect. However, 90% of the cases tell us that this type of campaign fails. Customers will be confused on what you are trying to tell them. Simplicity is always a key to success.

The less you bother your customers, the more they like your brand and the more likely they will purchase your product. If they perceive you as their beloved brand, you don't need to keep giving them as much information as before. You just need to offer what they valued most, pay less on mass promotion, get more responses from your beloved target audience.

When you are frustrated with the low response rate of marketing campaigns, your customers are just as frustrated as you. So stop thinking about your upcoming big marketing plan for a while and learn how to "Work Less and Achieve More"!

Great expectations and why Apple failed

2010-09-13T11:05:00.014+08:00

It's got the lead on almost every single consumer product in the world, so why then was a much hyped Apple press briefing reduced a mere power point presentation?

Last Friday afternoon Apple held a press event to unveil its new line of iPod’s for the first time in Hong Kong and no doubt deflect some attention away from its red hot iPhone 4 and iPad products.

As a first timer to an Apple press conference, I was expecting something good, perhaps even a black skivvy. Here was the undoubted leader in consumer technology, presenting its new range of iPods to a seriously hungry electronics market which thrives on image.

Apple has sold a quarter billion iPod’s around the world and has made some great changes to its new suite of products from iPod touch with retina display, A4 chip, FaceTime Video Calling, HD video recording and game center, along with a completely redesigned iPod nano with multi-touch and a new wearable shuffle.

Naturally you'd think this would be reflected in its presentations, but sadly all Apple managed to deliver was a 35-minute power point-style presentation that largely failed to excite.

Photographers talked throughout much the presentation given by Apple's senior manager for iPod Product Marketing Yeo Eng Yiong (pictured below). Questions about the opening of an official Apple store in Hong Kong were largely shot down by its PR managers.

Even the tech reporters looked bored.

INVITE: HK4As Creative Showcase

2010-09-01T11:42:00.006+08:00

The Association of Accredited Advertising Agencies of Hong Kong (HK4As) would like to invite you to attendthe HK4As Creative Sharing Showcase.

This is a Sharing of the winning creative works showcasing HK4As’ 2010 Winners at Kam Fan, Cannes & HK4As Young Creative Competition. These winners were sponsored by Create Hong Kong to attend the overseas awards.

They will be sharing their experiences and works with you:

At: World Trade Centre Club Hong Kong(38/F World Trade Centre, 280 Gloucester Road, Causeway Bay)
On: 3 September 2010 (Friday)
From: 6pm to 8:30pm

Winning creatives from Leo Burnett Hong Kong and Grey Hong Kong, as well as winners of the HK4As Young Creative Competition will be there to share their inspirations and experience in making these outstanding works. Furthermore, they are going to share their experience in attending the local Awards Shows as well as the International Awards Shows.

This event is sponsored by Create Hong Kong, Commerce and Economic Development Bureau. Jerry Liu, head of Create Hong Kong, will be present as a support to our winners and the Creative Industry.

RSVP before 2 September to
Karli Li, HK4As
Tel: +852 2882 2504 Email: hk4as@aaaa.com.hk

Interactive zombie movie - DELIVER ME TO HELL

2010-08-24T18:46:00.001+08:00

Awesome video from New Zealand pizza shop Hell Pizza. This is going nuts on YouTube and scored more than 3 million hits in its first week. Follow the trail and see where it takes you.

Cheeky: Kam Fan ad in the HKET today

2010-08-24T18:42:00.003+08:00

If you're getting ready for the Kam Fan Awards you might have noticed a fair bit of publicity starting to hit the streets and newspapers of Hong Kong. I think this ad will also be run in the September issue of Marketing. Let's hope so, anyway. The theme for this year’s Kam Fan Awards is “Glamour‘s Back” meaning that the good times - and the lifestyle which comes with it - are back. The awards night will be held in Hong Kong on 26 November at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center.

Kam Fan Awards 2010: Glamour's Back

2010-08-23T19:45:00.004+08:00

Chui Sui Central: Measuring your online campaigns

2010-08-13T15:51:00.003+08:00

By Sammy Heish, CEO, iClick

Online marketing is undoubtedly the area to soar in the coming years for its capabilities in bringing marketers proven return-on-advertising spend (ROAS) and complete analytics in evaluating the campaign performance, hence allowing on-going campaign optimisation. Nevertheless, not all marketers have yet taken the full advantage of measurability in online marketing to turn the campaign a truly successful one.

Looking ahead, data analytics and optimisation technology would be the key areas most needed by marketers in online marketing. Thanks to the availability of tracking technology today, marketers are now able to trace when and from where customers are first exposed to the online marketing message, all the way step-by-step to how they finally access and complete a real transaction through online marketing channels. The insights not only facilitate marketers in optimising the campaign alone, but also allow them to better understand the customer behaviour and further apply the market knowledge in other components of the marketing communication mix.

Moreover with rising popularity of cross-media campaigns, optimisation technology will become a must-have tool for every marketer. Optimisation works require capabilities beyond manual calculation in the complex and dynamic online environment. It is never easy for marketers to allocate budget amongst online channels for the best results under such uncertainty. With various campaign optimisation technologies, marketers know precisely the ROI of each online channel, what is working and what is not, and thus investing in the right amount of spend amongst different online medium to maximise the overall campaign performance.

It’s apparent that online marketing has been moving towards performance-based campaigns. The industry is on the verge of bringing new and more comprehensive metrics. Marketers should firmly grasp the skills in understanding performance metrics and leverage technology to reach the full potential of their online marketing campaigns.

Chui Sui Central: 2010 Expo “Better City Better Life”

2010-07-09T13:13:00.003+08:00

By Francis Kwok, Founder and CEO, Radica Systems Limited

On its 10th anniversary, a group of Radicans from Hong Kong and Guangzhou were invited to visit the Radica Office in Shanghai and have an Eco-Challenge trip to dig out how “Better City Better Life” can be from the 2010 World Expo Shanghai.

This year, apart from the national pavilions and the corporate pavilions, there are five central theme pavilions at the Expo 2010 with aspects of urban development including Urban Footprints, Urban Planet, Urban Dwellers, Urban Beings, and Urban Dreams. From the expo pavilions to the energy-saving LED lighting in the street, China Governments’ efforts on sustainable urban development is well recognized. “Low Carbon Green Life” is now a trendy phrase among every Chinese citizen under the promotion from the government.

How can we commit to be “Low Carbon Green Life” and grow our business at the same time? Innovations of science and technology and remodeling of the marketing strategies can help. Here are my 3R tips from marketers to marketers:

3R Strategy - the key for marketers to succeed for “Low Carbon Green Life”

Right Target: Mass marketing is no longer effective especially for some global retailers and luxury brands; target marketing is being valued today. Segmenting your targets seamlessly and understand more about their preferences and interests through every e-campaigns, the up-selling and cross-selling successful rate can be enhanced. E.g. Email marketing can help MaBelle.com and MBLife.com generate as high as 30-40% repurchase rate at this moment. Moreover, it can also help in saving DM paper to those who are not interested in your promotion at all.

Right Content: Delivery of the relevant content in your email campaigns is also important. For example if you are big fan of Japan travel but your travel agency send you a promotion package of Europe of US, will you click the link and go to read through the message? Customers are keen on the information which related to their interest and preference, so marketers need to careful when choosing messages for the main content, otherwise customers may treat it as a spam email. Spam email also is not environmental friendly and waste energy as well.

Right Timing: Every customer will have their own purchasing life-cycle, if you can deliver the messages at the right time in their life-cycle; you can not only amuse your customers but also increase the brand loyalty. For example send a welcoming email at the right time can help a luxury brand to increase her campaign response rate by 20-30%. Sending email saving marketers time and let them know the status and response from the customers immediately e.g. open-rate, click-rate etc. At the same time, it can also help on reducing wastage on stamps; envelopes and printed brochures.

If you can adopt the 3R strategy wisely, you can spend less money but gain more business and at the same time save more trees. MaBelle.com and MBLife.com use email marketing saving 90% cost and 6 millions papers in 1 year and this action already saved 720 trees. Committed to be “GREEN” at the same time to grow our business is easy. We can do it, you can do it!

Marketing Hong Kong goes bilingual

2010-06-18T16:42:00.005+08:00

Here's our first bilingual cover and the news story about the relaunch from here.

Marketing Hong Kong goes bilingual

Hong Kong - More than three years after its Hong Kong launch, Marketing magazine has unveiled its first bilingual edition.

From June, the magazine will offer readers its quality editorial content in both English and Traditional Chinese. The magazine has undergone a major redesigned with both languages integrated into a single format.

As part of the move, the Hong Kong Marketing team has been expanded with Garbo Yip, a former technical writer for Disney Hong Kong, joining as bilingual sub editor and Leon Fok joining as senior designer from Blu Inc magazines.

The relaunch of Marketing Hong Kong as a bilingual edition marks a major step forward in the evolution of the Marketing brand, said Marketing's editorial director, Tony Kelly. "As we seek to align ourselves closer to the Hong Kong market, a bilingual move was the next logical step," he said.

"With the elegant design the team has come up with I feel they have produced a magazine that is not only inclusive for all readers in the Hong Kong market but also as sophisticated and easy to access for our English audience."

Chui Sui Central: Score with the World Cup

2010-06-04T10:51:00.003+08:00

By Sharon Ng, head of marketing, Google Hong Kong

With the World Cup just two weeks away, Google Hong Kong offers up five tips on how to maximise online football fever

The World Cup is still two weeks away, but searches on Google are already beginning to spike. In the last month alone, searches on Google for World Cup have increased 40% worldwide! But how does a small business get in front of all the people searching online for World Cup-related information? Especially as the World Cup has always been a game for big global brands with large marketing budgets, creative agencies, and months of preparation?

Online advertising is helping a new league of small, local businesses compete with the world’s largest brands and reach consumers as they’re looking for World Cup keywords online. With AdWords, businesses bid on keywords in an auction to place their text ads next to relevant Google search results. By bidding on phrases like World Cup TV schedule, team apparel, Cape Town flights, and beer keg deliveries - businesses can tap into World Cup fever and get their ad in front of customers looking for relevant information.

How to get started? Follow these five steps to World Cup sales success:

1. Pick keywords related to the World Cup that are also relevant to your business. For example, if you’re an online retailer that sells team jerseys for several World Cup teams, try adding phrases like “Australia World Cup jersey” to your keyword list. Or if you’re a local bar offering that will be showing World Cup games, consider phrases like “World Cup schedule” or “bars for World Cup.”

2. Write must-click ads. Get the attention of soccer fans with ads that are crisp and to-the point. Use keywords in the title and ad text so they appear in bold font and so users know your ad is relevant to their search. Highlight any key product benefits, special offers like free shipping, low prices and discounts. Encourage your potential customer to take action through active verbs and phrases like "Learn More” and "Order Now."

3. Tweak your keywords and ad text based on the latest World Cup news. Did an unknown player just become a worldwide sensation because of a game-changing goal? As the tournament progresses, experiment with new keywords that are in the news and relevant to your products. You should also update your ad text. For example, if England beats the USA, consider updating your ad text to promote your England jerseys more heavily.

4. Identify new fans for your products and services - either in your hometown or Cape Town. Google’s Insights for Search allows you to see how search trends vary across countries, regions, and cities. For example, you can find what state in your country has the most relative searches for soccer and make sure you’re shipping your products or offering your services in that state.

5. Give your website a workout. There’s no point in having must-click ads if visitors leave as soon as they reach your site. Website Optimizer is a free tool from Google that allows you to compare multiple versions of a webpage and statistically determine which version performs the best. This helps you make the most of the search traffic that they're paying for through AdWords and other online campaigns: you pay for the same number of clicks, but a higher percentage of them turn into customers.

Delaynomore's 3D crotch

2010-05-30T19:13:00.003+08:00

Hilarious ad from Hong Kong retailer Delaynomore which plays on the media's current obsession for all things 3D. I still have the pair of 3D glasses I knocked off from Avatar, so I'll have to report back to see if it actually works.

Chui Sui Central: Communication Revolution

2010-05-28T13:10:00.004+08:00

By Chris Tang, managing director of The Hoffman Agency Asia Pacific

The impact of the financial downturn and social media were some of the topics discussed at last month’s ABF (Asia Business Forum) PR & Media 2010 Congress in Singapore, where I was invited as a guest lecturer and panelist.

The events of 2009 have, indeed, forced PR agencies and the companies they represent to evaluate their communication practices. The economic crisis saw the weakening of the public’s trust on corporations while the ever-growing popularity of social media continues to challenge traditional PR methods.

So, where does the PR industry go from here? 2010, I believe, is about reinvention, and in the wake of recent events, I see three major trends arising.

Demand for McKinsey-esque communications
With corporations playing a bigger role in the world’s issues, the way they manage and communicate their standpoint on these issues will have a big impact on their corporate reputation.

Take, for instance, a recent survey conducted by Ogilvy about the public’s expectations of companies during the economic downturn. The survey revealed that people are expecting brands to have a point of view on where and what they stand for during the global crisis.

In another survey, the public was asked who they think should play a leadership role in managing climate change and improving the world’s sustainability. An overwhelming 73% of those surveyed said that they would like to see companies demonstrating leadership in this initiative. Ironically, however, only 1% believed it will happen.

What do the survey results imply? It’s telling us that the world is changing and along with it, the general public’s expectations of corporations. People think that companies should take bigger social responsibilities although, at the same time, they are quite skeptical of the corporations’ willingness and capability to do so. With all the “scandals” that happened during the recent financial tsunami, it is understandable why many have lost trust and faith in the corporate world.

Implications to the PR industry: Our ability to move beyond product communication and better understand issues - by identifying the “common ground” between commercial gain and the benefits to society - will be crucial in helping our clients win the hears and minds of their stakeholders. Developing though leadership content and choosing the most relevant communications platforms, as well as driving advocacy and managing corporate reputation/crisis can help build trust and, ultimately, shape a positive ecosystem for our clients’ business. It’s all about McKinsey-esque communication.

Digital media will soon become the mainstream channel/platform for us to create WOM and build advocacy for our clients. Social media is not a fad; it is definitely here to stay. In fact, it will only become more influential as time passes. How soon we, as PR practitioners, master the skills involved in digital communication will make or break the future of our business.

Check out the “Is Social Media a Fad?” video on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtFsmVI2RwM) and you’ll understand the breadth and depth of social media’s influence. Facebook, for one, is proving social media skeptics wrong. The sheer number of Facebook users — equivalent to the population of the world’s fourth largest country — is evidence enough of just how popular social media has become.

Beyond building online communities, social media is instrumental in revitalizing the interest in WOM marketing. Nielson reported that in 2009, 90% of survey respondents said they trust recommendations of people they know as opposed to 69% who trust editorial content (e.g. newspaper articles). On top of that, the decline of the “fourth estate” (media) means that we are left with a smaller pool of journalists to work with. For example, in Singapore today, there are only 2 to 3 mainstream publications.

Implications to the PR industry: Our competitiveness over the next few years and beyond will depend on how fast we learn and master digital communication skills and how soon (and well) we can apply them in business communications. The role I see we play in digital PR is three-fold: helping clients strategize and advising them on who they should engage with (identifying i-fluencers); defining what they should communicate and developing relevant content; and determining how to communicate with the digital “tribes” by identifying the most relevant platforms/communities to share the message.

The core is not overly different from what we are doing today. It’s all about listening well and understanding the concerns and interests of our target online communities. By doing so, we will be able to shape a content strategy that speaks to the needs of our online audience and tell stories that resonate with our clients’ customers.

Demand for more tangible and measurable PR results
By leveraging digital media, companies can reach out directly to their customers, prospects and other stakeholders who are important to their business. The result can be unprecedentedly instantaneous and impactful - ranging from pushing WOM, raising advocacy, generating leads, cultivating customer loyalty to making a positive impact on the top line as well as bottom line of our clients’ business.

I tend to believe that the reason why PR agencies do not enjoy as much recognition and credibility as much as other professional firms (such as accounting and law firms) is not so much because we have a relatively shorter history but because of the perception that we are “nice to have” rather than a “must-have”. The results we create tend to be intangible, long term and hard to measure. Corporations do not see a direct and immediate link between what we do and the growth/success of their business.

Implications to the PR industry: For the first time ever in PR history, the results we generate and the impact we make can be measured in a much more tangible and quantitative fashion.

Today, we are challenged to step out of our comfort zone (counting press clips) and to develop more complex and sophisticated analytic tools to monitor online visibility, measure quality and quantity, count leads generated or recommendations made, and assess tangible impact on a client’s business. Admittedly, embarking on this new frontier will take both new skills and gut, but once done properly, we can expect to become indispensable and trusted partners to our clients.

Through the black box of search marketing

2010-05-12T11:01:00.005+08:00

These days, millions of consumers go to a special place to get information, decide what to buy and make those purchases – with one simple click at Yahoo!, Microsoft’s Bing, or Google.

Search strategy is becoming a core business strategy, but former Google employee Vanessa Fox says in her new book ‘Marketing in the age of Google’ that many companies are focusing on narrow goals such as optimising their sites or boosting page rankings, which do not contribute to their long-term success.

A bit of a yawn is that everyone knows online search and social media search are useful tools in raising awareness and brand building. User-generated content and word of mouth online, either positive or negative, affect brand reputation drastically is not exactly inspiring insights.

But Fox does shed a new light on how organic search can help businesses connect with the right audience and explore new customers who they may have been missing.

From investigating how search engines work to how to make use of the enormous amount of data about potential customers that search engines provide, she guides marketers through the technical jargon of search to the ultimate goal of connecting with potential customers.

Beyond Google, the book gives a sneak preview of where search marketing is heading – mobile search, as well as social search and real-time search with which users search for comments from friends, instead of unknown stranger on the web.

Chui Sui Central: China's smart buyers

2010-05-06T18:36:00.003+08:00

By David King, regional CEO iris, China

I was intrigued this month to receive a leaflet in the post that reminded me of Littlewoods catalogues in the UK back in the 1970’s. It contained pictures of the very latest computers, cameras and mobile phones, but at amazingly affordable prices.

How was this possible? Simply pay 12 equal instalments and receive the latest iPod, camera, smart phone or computer today, without having to save up first! This in China - a country which has boasted one of the highest savings rates in the world, and where the notion of debt for any purchase other than a house is still viewed with disdain by most people over the age of 30.

What does this tell us about today’s China? Actually it reveals more than you might think:

1. SELF CONFIDENCE. Never before has there been a generation of Chinese more certain of their destiny. There is a universal belief that China will regain it’s rightful place as the most powerful and important country on the planet – a position it has previously held for thousands of years (apart from the unfortunate hiccup of the last three hundred years).

2. TODAY, NOT TOMORROW. In the eight years that I have lived and worked as a marketeer in China it has all been about tomorrow, not today (and certainly never about yesterday). Well, it seems tomorrow has finally come with China no longer willing to wait for the trappings of success.

3. DISPOSABLE VALUES. The traditions and values that have helped make the People’s Republic of China what it was and is are disposable when they do not suit the aspirations of these same People.

And who is behind such a polar shift in Chinese values? None other than the Bank of China, who proudly head up their supporting website with a special “Smart Buy” logo.

So what this REALLY tells us about China is that these changes are permanent. This is a sea change.

The many generations of cautious, prudent savers are being replaced by a new generation of spoilt, flashy debtors. And this is the same generation that already has unrealistic expectations of life resulting from the “Little Emperor” effect of the one child policy, where 6 adults dote and provide for every whim of every child.

These young adults with an unbridled appetite for gain with no pain will no doubt lap up this new way to buy the latest “must have” gadget, ensuring the success of this and the inevitable clone credit schemes which the other banks (and switched on retailers?) are already crafting/launching.

Congratulations China. You have started down the same slippery slope that got the rest of the world into the mess we are still clearing up. Until now, I really did believe that China might just tread a new path.

Chui Sui Central: Top tips for a successful brand

2010-04-29T16:27:00.013+08:00

A lot of effort goes into creating and developing a new brand. However once the framework is put in place, then follows the monumental task of bringing the brand to life through key touch points within the organisation.

Implementation is more than a simple task of applying a new logo to letterhead or packaging. One must bear in mind all the different places and contexts in which the new brand will have an impact, including internal staff who must embrace their new brand ethos mentally and emotionally.

The success of a branding programme – one that truly takes hold within an organisation over time – hinges on implementation.

Implementation is a complex process to undertake, and one that should be started early and organised meticulously. So here are a handful of practitioner tips on what to consider during implementation that will help lead to a successful brand roll-out.

1. Selecting the Right Roll-out Strategy

Developing an implementation plan in the early strategy stages can ensure that the programme roll-out is executed consistently and cost-effectively across all customer touch points. Decide whether you want to adopt a “Big Bang” approach i.e. adopting a new identity across the board at one go, or a “Phased” approach which is a phase-by-phase implementation process with the most important touch points – be it the website, stationery or showroom – first on the list to be changed.

2. Finding Efficiencies

Rolling out a new brand is also an opportunity to revisit how the existing brand design system is being produced. Assessing internal systems and streamlining production and purchasing methods can often achieve economies of scale and allow companies to coordinate their agencies and marketing spend more efficiently. This then frees up valuable resource that could be directed towards other areas of implementation.

3. Adhering to Standards and Guidelines

VTC ensured a consistent, high-quality brand roll-out by strictly adhering to the guidelines and monitoring production.

Vendors, suppliers or even other employees within the organisation can dilute and confuse the brand message if they do not systematically follow the guidelines and start to execute haphazardly with a range of different materials or construction techniques.

This is especially a problem if brand roll-out is being carried out over multiple geographies and over more complex channels such as retail or customer service, which usually require a separate sub-set of guidelines to be developed specifically to suit those needs.

Appointing trained up and empowered Brand Guardians that are empowered to vet communications based on the parameters of the guidelines, as well monitor the quality of production outcomes can help to manage this.

4. Gathering Internal Support

New uniforms were one of the most well-received applications by Hongkong Post employees during their brand roll-out.

Employees are the ambassadors of any organisation. They are the key to delivering the brand on a day-to-day basis, and thus internal engagement should be a crucial component of any roll-out programme.

Employees tend to be individually motivated and thus, need to be addressed in ways that are most relevant to them. But in order for them to collectively buy into the new brand, they need to understand the reasons behind the re-branding and its benefits.

Paying special attention to improving and changing over key touch points such as uniforms and namecards will pay dividends with employees, as these touch points are closely linked to employee identity and demonstrate in a very tangible way that the brand change is for the better.

5. Maintaining Momentum Over Time

A large amount of effort and money are often expended when a brand is first rolled-out, but many organisations fail to maintain the momentum. Thus, any good roll-out programme should include initiatives that sustain the brand in the longer-term.

There’s no doubt about it. Rolling out a brand can be an extensive task – co-ordinating vendors, production outcomes, legal permits, logistics with project teams across multiple sites, touch points or even countries. But with the right amount of planning and organization, any branding programme can be successfully implemented with great integrity, consistency, and longevity.

Sara Tang is director of strategy at The Brand Union. The global brand agency has spearheaded branding programmes for Hongkong Post, VTC, China Resources and Jardine Matheson Group amongst others.

Chui Sui Central: Advertising's well and alive

2010-04-23T09:38:00.008+08:00

Ad agencies are finished. Advertising’s dead. How often have you heard this recently?

It seems every week some pundit is declaring the end of the ad agency. See video. And it’s all because of digital. Digital my ass.

The fact is advertising is not dead. It’s alive and kicking.

As long as clients engage their customers and excite them, ad agencies will thrive. If anything, digital is forcing agencies to reinvent themselves and rediscover what they are really good at.

First and foremost, digital is changing the speed at which new media and marketing alternatives become available for clients to use. But that just makes the creative solution more complex and the ad agency even more vital to the client than ever.

Secondly, digital is forcing many agencies to address their ambivalence to creativity. In the early days of advertising, agencies basically gave their creative ideas away free. They earned their money largely from the commission by the media they bought to deliver their clients’ messages.

That probably seemed like a clever idea at the time and it earned agencies squillions for decades but it’s proving to be a nightmare today.

In truth, the big agencies fostered the idea that their core product, their creative genius, was actually worthless! Amazing, but true. To some extent ad agencies are still struggling with this legacy today.

As media commission now goes mostly to the big media conglomerates, ad agencies have been faced with the problem of how to charge clients for something they used to give away for almost nothing.

They’ve come up with all kinds of new methodologies and special sub-divisions with weird names to pry extra dollars out of their clients. But what clients want hasn’t changed much at all. Clients simply want great ideas delivered through whichever medium best persuades their customers to purchase their products, buy into their messaging or fall in love with their brands.

I have absolutely no doubt that the agencies who understand this and have invested in their ability to deliver high quality creative ideas within today’s media environment will flourish. But successful agencies today, not only need to be more creative, they also need to be smart, fast and offer genuine value for money.

It’s not a question of digital versus traditional, or internet versus TV, it’s about ideas that work versus ideas that don’t!

Of course some smart agencies might re-label some of the things they are good at doing. Who needs a TV commercial when you can call it a viral video, a tweet-flic, mobile content or an online visual experience. Maybe a few years from now ad agencies will be called something else too – Idea Agencies perhaps?

But call the final product what you may, clients are still looking to ad agencies to provide creative ideas. And they are willing to pay for them – provided they work of course. What they want and what they are willing to pay big bucks for is an idea. Pure and simple. A big, brilliant, show-stopping piece of communication delivered in any medium you like – facebook, radio, tv, your aunty’s shopping bag. They couldn’t care less, provided it works. And for that they are looking to one place and one place only: an ad agency.

So maybe it’s time we cut all this constant harping on about advertising being dead and agencies being finished and digital versus traditional and concentrate on what we are good at – creating brilliant ideas that work for our clients in every medium available.

By Keith Ho, ECD for Grey Hong Kong

Chui Sui Central: Spare a thought for online publishers

2010-04-16T11:53:00.003+08:00

By Jayne Leung, Director of publisher development, the Rubicon Project Asia

It’s not only the frantic discussions taking place all over the world right now among the premium publishers about how to monetise content and get people to pay for ‘high quality journalism’ but the simple fact is that the advertising market remains undoubtedly tough.

While online advertising growth continues to rise – albeit slower than recent years - revenues for many publishers are falling. No wonder even the big guys are looking to additional ways to monetise their inventory outside of their direct sales teams through exchanges or affiliate networks.

Before you switch off with thoughts of “the likes of Yahoo and MSN and co are quite big enough to look after themselves”, it’s important to remember that the more effective a publisher’s online ad strategy is, the better their ability to deliver the responses you want from your advertising.

Over the past 10 years, creative, advertisers and media agencies have been provided with a myriad of tools and technologies – products to make the creative more impactful; products to convert video; products that help choose the best place to serve ad; and even more products to cover the numerous reports to clients on everything from the number of eyeballs to response-rate to advertising campaigns.

Meanwhile the publishers, especially those here in Asia, have been stranded without the proper tools and technologies they need to effectively price and sell their inventory. As a result publishers face a large number of challenges that result in less flexible and informed pricing compared to some international markets.

One major challenge is not having the appropriate measures in place to take advantage of unexpected fluctuations in demand and cross-region inventory distribution; another is a manual and cumbersome reporting/optimization process for advertisers and for internal use, to name a few. Unlike offline media we know the number of online eyeballs can oscillate wildly. This is where online and more traditional forms of advertising differ greatly.

With traffic arriving at sites from all over the region and rest of the world, particularly the US and Europe, it is impossible for publishers to have a sales team in every country. This is also where I believe Asian publishers could be utilising the strength of ad networks more.

Currently most publishers sell direct to advertisers and agencies through their own sales forces and through either none or just one ad network, because of a lack of internal resources, priorities and, of course, time differences when really they should be working with multiple ad networks in region that offer different technology and different advertisers’ profiles to maximise the distribution of their inventory.

Managed properly, ad networks are a terrific way for both advertisers and publishers to get what they want but I’ve heard of two main reasons they feel they can’t work with multiple ad networks – (1) loss of control of their inventory and the quality of ads that are served up to its audiences; and (2) their own inability (lack of time and resources) to manage multiple sales channels, and access fast, accurate comparative reporting on pricing and inventory.

This is simply because publishers don’t have the tools and technology to effectively manage all the various distribution streams. It can be time-consuming, labour-intensive and frequently pricing cannot keep up with changing demand for inventory.

However in the US and Europe, publishers are able to effectively work with ad networks and ad exchanges to maximize the yield of their inventory. The online display advertising market in the United States is thriving and as a result within companies like the Rubicon Project, we’ve seen yield growth an average of 50-60%.

Even in the US, there was until recently, a widely held belief that the crowded online marketplace, falling CPMs and mass publisher revolt would force a stream of ad networks out of business.

Rather, the reality has been that instead of dying out, ad networks in the United States collectively grew from accessing 21% of the total US market in March 2008 to 57% twelve months later.

Today ad networks have captured the attention not only of advertisers and publishers in the US but also big media companies and venture capital firms which have invested US$74 million on seven ad network-related deals in the second quarter of 2009 alone - an investment that is up 16 per cent on the previous quarter.

It’s a trend we are highly likely to follow in Asia. As publishers start using the tools and technologies becoming available to them, they will be increasingly able to save time, resources and increase their revenues, while delivering up a better quality audience and response for advertisers.

If you’re a publisher today, have another look at ad networks – my prediction is you’re going to discover they’re an incredibly powerful business partner for you.

Jayne Leung, Director of Publisher Development, the Rubicon Project Asia is based in Hong Kong. She has worked with publishers and agencies across Asia Pacific and prior to her current role, she was Head of New Media at Google for Japan and Asia Pacific.

Chui Sui Central: Human social responsibility

2010-04-08T17:50:00.002+08:00

By Francois de Riviere, Euro RSCG Southeast Asia Creative Strategy Director.

Up till now, CSR has, by-and-large, been practiced along the traditional command and control model most companies are still using.

It has been the donation companies give to feel better about anything they are doing wrong.

The general plan of CSR attack goes something like this: Get some money, if it reaches a big number of people and the right charity (children are always a good pick) it will make headlines, and then forget about it, because business is the real thing.

Cynical? This is the reality of how 90% of the world’s boardrooms practice CSR. It’s even expressed in percentage terms – X% of revenue equals Y% of the boardroom’s attention, adds up to Z% of column space or buzz.

But this is changing fast. It is by now a well-established fact that social media has brought about a fundamental and enduring shift in the conversation dynamic between brands and consumers. But less discussed is that it is already beginning to turn the established practice of CSR upside down, too.

In fact, people have long been doing more for social causes than corporations – and according to 2009 Euro RSCG research into Prosumer attitudes, they know it too, with 90% ¹of Prosumers in Europe believing that corporations are taking more than they are giving. People are not only aware of what corporations are and are not doing – they also have their own ideas about social responsibility, and with the help of social media, original initiatives can come from the opinions of your customers.

Put simply, social media is changing CSR by turning the focus squarely on what is important – the social dimension. As such, social responsibility shouldn’t be practiced to produce PR coverage or solely to generate goodwill. Nor should it be from a cheque book to a bank account, or from an organization to another with cameras flashing in an attempt to create buzz.

Rather, it should involve putting “doing good” at the centre of the business strategy, rather than as an afterthought.

Some innovative companies have already realized this. GE’s Ecomagination, which “aims to solve the world’s biggest environmental problems while driving profitable growth” – has done more for GE than any other initiative. Smarter Planet is an IBM initiative that involves sustainability issues and began a global conversation about how the planet is becoming smarter. It is now at the centre of IBM’s business model and involves the company, staff, and clients interacting across social media in a true trialogue. These trailblazers have not only tapped into people power to help their CSR, they have also adopted a triple bottom line – and found out that it has helped their business.

Another emerging trend of social-media powered CSR is there is nothing too small to attract the attention of a small group of people. Social media now gives us the power to congregate and agree on almost anything, from saving Haiti to cleaning a waterfall, and to give microdonations of a few bucks – amplified by the power of the Internet.

In this way, what social media does to CSR is an exact application of the Long Tail principle – where businesses can become innovative leaders in CSR through improving their social responsibility in a large number of relatively small ways – through leveraging the inspiration and imaginations of their customers.

Check out Carrotmob – an excellent example of this principle at work. These guys leverage the power of social media to challenge manufacturers to innovate and improve in areas (normally environmental issues) that are important to them – and reward the companies that act on these challenges with their purchasing power. For example, one typical blog post on the Carrotmob site reads: “The Bonn turnout was great – approximately 300 carrotmobbers spent 2,269 Euros in only 3 hours. Bioladen “Biokultur” in Kessenich promised to donate 20% of their revenue from the day to energy efficiency improvements, making for a total impact of 453 Euros!”

Brands that are true leaders – such as Innocent Drinks, WestBank, and Banyan Tree have implemented similar social initiatives that are achieving positive outcomes within a few miles from their business. Banyan Tree helps local fishing communities, and Innocent Drinks asks clients to knit bottle caps (really), sell them and collect the money for the elderly during winter. WestBank even buys gardening services for grandmothers.

In fact, because corporations are usually made of decent human beings, in the age of people power, CSR needs to move beyond corporate social responsibility – and instead be considered as HSR – Human Social Responsibility.

Unlike CSR, where corporations are often seen writing cheques, taking a photo, and then returning to work, HSR needs to comprise acts of generosity that people can see, feel, touch, and track to the end destination. They want accountability and transparency; to be able to see the faces of the recipients, and (why not?!), chat over the Internet at the same time.

The message here for companies is that instead of trying to rally people to their causes using social media, they should put their ample financial and human resources at the service of people’s causes. In a nutshell, Human Social Responsibility is about one group of human beings focused on achieving positive outcomes for other groups of human beings.

This new marketplace – driven by social media-powered HSR, means that acts of kindness, being green, and practicing business ethically are seen as the hallmarks of true leaders – companies which will reach the future first.

[1] 2009 Prosumer Study

MTR Best of the Best

2010-03-29T20:14:00.000+08:00

Bit hard to see, but the annual MTR Awards are underway.

Chui Sui Central: Amnesty for Media

2010-03-25T17:31:00.010+08:00

By Glenn Hansen, President and CEO of BPA Worldwide

Today’s publishing environment in China is not unlike that which existed in the Middle East prior to BPA Worldwide’s arrival there.

It is not the world’s most hospitable environment for the concept of independent circulation auditing. Many publishers are lukewarm, if not openly hostile, to the idea of external verification of their claimed figures.

Certainly, there is no easy road toward transparency.

The region’s media owners perhaps believe that their own research gives advertisers detailed information on their readers’ demographics, disposable income and spending preferences. In their eyes, bigger is better and they will be disadvantaged by disclosing circulation figures that are not impressive in their sheer numbers.

Given the depressed state of the global economy, it is the advertisers in China who must be proactive and carry the banner of full circulation disclosure.

While this will bring far more credibility to market as a whole, audited circulation figures will provide advertisers with the valuable information they need to make the most informed media buying decisions and thereby make their jobs more efficient.

Adding to the challenge is the fact that ad agencies are not unanimous in backing what would appear to be an unarguable benefit: accurate measurement of how well their clients’ media budgets are being spent.

That attitude must change. And change can only come if advertisers and media buyers lead the fight.

I am here to propose a year-long period called "Amnesty for Media.”

Under this plan, advertisers will offer a period of amnesty to media owners who submit for independent verification.

This will be done with the understanding that the audited circulation figures are likely to be lower than what has been marketed in the past.

The same scenario existed in the Middle East just a few years ago. Yet within a few short years, circulation auditing has developed inexorable momentum in the UAE. The number of titles being formally audited – or in the process of applying for audit – is growing almost by the day.

What brought about such an apparent change of heart in such a relatively short period?

Leading the drive to full acceptance of circulation auditing in the UAE is a body called CASTOR – an acronym for the Circulation Audit Steering Organization. CASTOR was formed in 2005 as a joint initiative by the International Advertising Association (IAA), the GCC Advertisers’ Business Group (ABG), and the Media Agencies’ Council (MAC), respectively representing the region’s largest advertisers and media agencies.

CASTOR represents 30 of the Gulf region’s biggest advertising spenders and was assigned to promote the widespread adoption of circulation auditing as part of the IAA’s drive to raise professional ethics and standards in the industry.

Those in favor championed the advantages of transparency and derided their competition with tales of insider deals between media buyers and publishers.

Even advertisers were not immune to “special arrangements” with friends in the publishing business, irrespective of the credibility of the title concerned. These vested interests would ensure that auditing would never become accepted practice, they claimed.

With a strong push from CASTOR and the advertising community in the UAE, the tide is turning from mainstream daily newspapers to niche-market magazines. Although auditing is still far from being a routine procedure as it is in many countries (nearly 40 around the world), acceptability of the concept has passed the point of no return. It is now only a matter of time before it achieves critical mass and the last bastions of resistance will have little option but to accede to market forces.

These same efforts must take place in the Asia-Pacific region where the winds of change are already blowing.

With BPA’s guidance and following the steps taken by CASTOR, the Advertising Alliance for Honestly Audited Media for China was created. Representing ad agencies and media buyers, the AAHAM can serve as the tool of change within China’s media industry.

I strongly urge all agencies and individual media buyers to volunteer and support this important industry organization.

In a similar move to promote best practices in the media industry, BPA brought its BuySafeMedia campaign to China early in 2009. The first initiative was the launch of the BuySafeMedia Chinese micro site.

In December BPA launched BuySafeMedia Week on its BuySafeMedia Chinese micro site to assist Chinese advertisers to recognize the risks of buying unaudited media. During BuySafeMedia Week, the site unveiled seven common tricks played by publishers–one trick per day.

These are only the first steps toward full transparency and true accuracy in China’s media marketplace.

We need far greater support and pressure from the advertisers and media buyers to force media buyers to provide accurate circulation data as verified by an independent audit.

I urge you to join us in the fight.

Nestle in Facebook hell thanks to Greenpeace

2010-03-22T23:33:00.004+08:00

A lot has been said about the power of social media, but this is one case study that shows how NGOs such as Greenpeace can use Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to pressure a big corporation like Nestle on its corporate responsibility.

The global campaign features a mini site equipped with a YouTube video (below) and logos such as Nestle Killer that people could use to lobby against forest destruction.

Greenpeace has also launched a blog about how the online community could support the anti-Nestle campaign tactics and updates on how Nestle not-fans are giving the company hell on Facebook.

Greenpeace International's Facebook fan page includes a column called Ask Nestle and encourages its more than 425,000 fans to join the campaign and make it viral to force Nestle to give rainforests and orang-utans a break to stop buying palm oil from destroyed forests.

Ironically, Nestle's Facebook fan page boasts more than 93,000 fans but most of the latest posts are its 'hate fans' protesting their boycott and disappointment of the brand.

Its latest Facebook status update features a Q&A that links to its website.

Key Takeaways:

What happens when a global brand faces consumer backlash with this intensity? Should they censor the videos and go against Greenpeace or shut down its Facebook fan page? How could they turn it around to their advantage?

Would be interesting to see the next advertising campaign from Nestle/ Kit Kat, would they ignore the protests from consumers or try to win them over?

In what space will the campaign be launched? Traditional TV media or social media?

What are your thoughts about this saga?

Next Media promo

2010-03-20T14:58:00.000+08:00

People will watch anything these days!

Chui Sui Central: Government 2.0

2010-03-19T10:47:00.003+08:00

By Chris Tang, MD, The Hoffman Agency, Asia Pacific

As soon as social media started penetrating the business world, it was just a matter of time before the technology came knocking on governments’ doors.

But for an institution that is steeped in traditional policies and procedures, changing the way a government communicates with its constituencies is a definite challenge.

However, change is inevitable.

The era of a faceless, nameless government is slowly eroding and the days of top-down, one-way communications is almost obsolete. In its place are rising expectations for governments to be more transparent, accountable, effective and efficient.

So far, it remains to be seen how soon — and how well — governments adopt Web 2.0 technologies. What’s good to know is that they get the message loud and clear.

And it is obvious to me that governments are quite serious about learning and understanding social media.

As an advocate of the technology, I have been frequently invited as a lecturer in various social media marketing conferences around the region and, more often than not, the number of attendees from the public sector is quite high. That shows to me a certain level of commitment.

Talking to them gave me valuable insights on the governments’ perception of social media. Not only are they fully aware of how social media influences how the public regard government bodies, it is also compelling them to change their behavior and response towards decision making and engaging people. Many of them, in fact, are already listening closely and actively monitoring online conversations where the government is concerned.

They feel that it is time to take it up a notch. The problem is where… and how.

Some government agencies in the region have “ventured out into the wild”, so to speak, and built their own social media profiles.

Hong Kong CEO Donald Tsang has his own blog where he constantly shares his take on key local and international issues.

The Singapore Police Force has created its own Facebook page that focus on crime prevention advisories, public education and recruitment, while the South Korean government has launched its own YouTube channel with Lee Myung-bak — the Korean president — addressing the audience with subtitled speeches.

The government also introduced a Twitter feed that provides information about the developments in South Korea.

And then there’s China.

Despite certain Internet restrictions, Chinese Web users still remain as one of the most active social media participants in the world. In fact, social media plays a central role in some of the most talked about business, social and environmental issues in the mainland.

Who can forget CCTV anchor Rui Chenggang’s online petition to remove a Starbucks coffee shop in the Forbidden City? Or the blogger coverage about the Chongqing Nail House, which led to the story becoming a national sensation?

Indeed, the adoption of social networks in China goes beyond building online personalities or playing Happy Farm. For the majority of the Chinese, it is a platform for them to express their opinions, voice out their grievances and, perhaps, alter certain government decisions.

Having seen the way social media empowers its citizens, the Chinese government initiated a program called the Government Portal 2.0 Era. At the core of this new initiative is the emphasis on putting people at the center of issues. It aims to push for government affairs transparency and use public participation as the motivation for an integrated e-government era.

As a gesture to show that the powers that be are keen to engage the public, no less than President Hu Jintao himself instigated an online conversation and willingly answered questions from the general public.

While this act, I believe, is no more than just a show, the good thing about it is that the government knows that they should not underestimate the power of the public opinion generated in the Web 2.0 world.

Just like in other countries, the role social media play in China’s governments is still evolving. So far, it has proven itself as an effective method to mobilizing public opinion and acting as a watchdog for corruption. We are also seeing glimpses of how it can shape the government’s decisions and policy-making and in improving transparency and social equality.

Ultimately, I believe that what social media will continue to do is to propel the democratization process in China.

Put it this way: China still has its very unique political system but things are changing gradually. To a large extent (thanks to Web 2.0) they are leveling the playground and increasing the level of transparency and pushing the government to make decisions that consider people’s well-being as the priority.

Celebrating Hong Kong's creative talent

2010-03-08T15:55:00.003+08:00

In July last year the Hong Kong government outlined an ambitious plan to transform the territory into Asia’s creative hub. As part of this wide-ranging plan, it set aside $300 million for a CreateSmart initiative and announced a new organisation, CreateHK, would be dedicated to improving its creative stature right across the Asia Pacific.

Innovation and creativity, it said, would be a strong driver of future economic growth and the government set the wheels in motion to make that happen. While some took its promises with a grain of salt, to its credit the government has so far failed to disappoint.

In the midst of a crushing economic downturn, CreateHK in partnership with the Association of Accredited Advertising Agencies of Hong Kong (HK4As), managed to place 100 new jobs for budding Hong Kong creatives and a similar graduate trainee and internship programme looks set to return this year.

Last month the HK4As and CreateHK held the first Young Creatives competition that will see staffers from Leo Burnett, Grey, Euro RSCG and JWT shipped off to international award festivals, most notably the Asia Pacific Advertising Festival in Thailand later this year, to test their wares against the regions best.

The HK4As is also in the process of securing funding from CreateHK and the Trade Development Council to send a delegation of the industry’s brightest to the Shanghai World Expo.

Richard Thomas, the newly elected HK4As chairman and president & CEO for DDB Group Hong Kong, admits that more could have been done in the past to support the creative industries, but says there is now a desire at all levels to see these new initiatives work, and give the creative industry the push it deserves.

In his recent budget statement, financial secretary John Tsang hinted that the government would inject $3 billion into a new arts and sports development fund as seed money for creative projects like the revitalisation of the former Hollywood Road Police Married Quarters, which is now being converted into a centre for promoting creative industries.

This is all great news for the advertising business, which in the past has not been given the kudos it deserves.

"We hope it's just a building block to really catapult the industry and the young people and work together with the government to secure Hong Kong's position as a creative hub,” Thomas says.

"We are very pleased to see that the government continues to support creative industries in Hong Kong and we applaud that.”

Chui Sui Central: Rise of the avatars

2010-03-05T11:45:00.008+08:00

By Simon Newstead, CEO and co-founder of Frenzoo.com based in Hong Kong

Here's a statistic that may wake you up: There are more people on Stardoll than there are iPhones in the world. Let me guess, you've never even heard of Stardoll before? Maybe you've heard of Second Life, but have you heard of IMVU - it has over 30 million users and growing like gangbusters (you may have seen the ads). Or the granddaddy, Habbo, which has over 100 million registered accounts. Whilst much web buzz is around Twitter, there's a whole category of media emerging. Something very big is happening here, before our eyes.

The rise of the online worlds

All of these are example of avatar communities, where users can escape the everyday grind and live out virtual realities.

There are a different worlds in service today, ranging from simple pixel graphics such as Habbo through to high quality 3D graphics in services such as Second Life. Some are purely social, others are more game play oriented. They run on different platforms - there are worlds on PC/Mac, on facebook, on mobile and console, for example Sony Playstation's 'Home'. In China, QQ rules supreme in the online avatar space, although there are other up and comers.

Despite their differences, they all center around the notion of the user as an avatar and interacting with others through this identity.

In our case with Frenzoo.com, a consumer creates their own 3d character and escapes to a virtual fantasyland where they can chat, shop and create in 3d, all within the web browser.

Underwater club in Frenzoo

So what goes on in these worlds? Socialization in all its diverse forms.

More mature platforms such as Second Life feature chat, parties, sex, events, training, business meetings etc. Other worlds such as Yoville (popular on Facebook) are more around social gaming and lightweight fun interactions between friends. IMVU is themed towards chat and virtual dating. Younger worlds such as Stardoll are focused around celebrities and fashion, others like Club Penguin and around gameplay for tweens.

Virtual relationships in virtual worlds

In in between hanging out, there is also a lot of virtual shopping going on. Predictions for the size of the total virtual goods market, encompassing games and virtual worlds and everything in between range between $US 2 and 10 billion dollars for 2010. Yes, billions. Of real world dollars.

In a down economy, that may sound crazy, but I'd argue it makes perfect rational sense. Instead of heading out for a night out to view Avatar at the cinema, spend one tenth of that amount at home being your own avatar and exploring and enjoying an interactive world.

Lifestyles are changing, and media mix is changing as well.

So what's a brand marketer to do?

With the media mix now including avatar experiences, whether in social games in Facebook, online 3d games or virtual worlds, there is an opportunity to get involved to engage consumers where they are.

However custom platforms and single-brand environments have not on whole been succesful with the exception of entertainment franchises). Participating in 3d platforms often requires an adjusted approach working best when brands think from the user point of view and what will add to their experience, rather than just pushing just virtual product X. Avatar communities also works best when the brands are prepared to have their content combined with other products in different creative ways, which is par for the course in these types worlds. Toyota just setting up a Toyota Island in Second Life to put up banners of its new car wouldn't work as well as for example, Toyota setting up a virtual zero-gravity raceway and letting users make their own modified virtual cars to compete, and promoting them in world.

For more closed online games or console environments, there is more brand control, but again the most succesful examples are those where something that is creative and in sync with the world vibe works best. A good example is the Scion promotions done in the popular US platform Gaia Online, where users could personalize and pimp out their own virtual autos, or in Asia, Adidas engagement in online sports games in Korea, as well as some Microsoft Xbox avatar crossovers.

Consumers are spending time, money and attention in these new platforms, brands would be well advised to too.

Hong Kong people love their fast food

2010-02-26T23:52:00.011+08:00

As McDonald's celebrate 35 this year, the chart below provide a quick summary of the Fast Food industry.

Some fast facts:

McDonald's revenue is worth $23billion from 31,000 locations.
Over the years, McDonald's serve some unusual menu items - Did you try the Hong Kong Rice Burger?
Hong Kong tops the world to eat fast food at least once at week at 61%.

One cannot deny that Fast Food has become part of our lives but with people becoming more health conscious, will we see a dip in demand any time soon?

Chui Sui Central: Free Pitch

2010-02-26T09:29:00.005+08:00

By Helen Griffiths, creative director, Fluid

The concept of -and debate over- free pitching is certainly not new to any creative industry.

Sadly in Hong Kong, free pitching is not only a harsh reality of winning work but, worryingly, more and more clients seem to demand speculative design work for small value, ad hoc jobs such as brochures or catalogues.

Now, last year was tough for all of us, and perhaps a lot of agencies had no choice but to compliantly agree to free design submissions just to be in with a chance to win work. That said, are we letting our clients push us too far?

Fluid just entered a pitch (with what we believe to be another nine agencies) in which we had to sign away all rights to the pitch content so that it can be used to whatever end the client sees fit.

Sigh.

Admittedly, it’s a lucrative contract, and would be a fantastic win for us but what keeps me up at night is the thought that a) if we do win it, we’ll probably be asked to plunder and pillage all of the other pitches for ideas or b) if we don’t win it, we will no doubt see our ideas being plundered and pillaged by another agency.

We’ll probably also realise that all those hours/days/ weeks of work were simply done so that the client could impress their superiors with how thorough they were in appointing an agency and negotiating the most competitive package possible rather than honestly searching for a company that would be the best fit in terms of creativity, culture and capability.

As a side note, I should also quickly mention a pitch that we did win recently - against 12 other agencies - which promised a fantastic opportunity to ‘think outside the box’ specifically calling for something ’really creative’.

After deciding that they liked our concepts, they then decided to coordinate the majority of the work by spreading it amongst various ‘production houses’.

They managed to execute our campaign literally rather than employing the subtler more figurative approach that we’d intended. I almost cried (actually I did) when a bus whizzed past me one day with our concept gazing blandly at me with flaccid impotence from its side.

This isn’t meant to be a big whinge about clients or even pitch work (though seems like it’s turning into one) but more a genuine appeal to companies to support smart creative.

Find an agency that can take deep insights into your brand and products and translate them into well thought out, meaningful marketing and communication activities.

How? Do your due diligence and ask for a thorough portfolio of credentials. Meet the team who will be working on your account. Find out what the agency’s creative and strategic processes are. Find out about fees and milestones.

Please don’t ask for free designs, ideas or concepts. Why? Because giving someone a crap two-page PowerPoint presentation that vaguely explains what your brand is and what you’ve done in the past is not going to lead to them developing a profound understanding of your corporate culture and the potential of your brand.

And with limited time and no budget what you might get is something the agency knows you’ll be “comfortable” with rather then going out on a limb with something that is a bit more risky, but would be infinitely more impactful.

So rather than giving an agency the account/ job/ 2-page leaflet just because they made a lucky stab in the dark with their pitch, make a commitment to work closely with one who can demonstrate that they will work with you to achieve your goals for the long term.

Chui Sui Central: Telco in 2020

2010-02-18T16:22:00.005+08:00

For the telecoms industry, the last few decades have seen a steep acceleration in the pace of change, technology maturity and business adoption of mission critical communication solutions.

The Internet has matured and revolutionised the way people live and work, while copper voice networks have given way to converged optical fibre networks carrying voice and data at ever-faster speeds.

What’s more, with Ethernet now becoming a utility, social networking changing the dynamic of how people communicate and converged communications solutions transforming the way global organisations operate – network service providers now find themselves at the cusp of a brave new world.

As businesses expand globally, intelligent cities in places such as China are emerging and the need for seamless collaboration across the world is a reality. Against this backdrop, technological development is restrained only by the limits of imagination.

As we enter a new decade, Cable&Wireless Worldwide believes that the next ten years will be every bit as exciting as the preceding ten. In particular, markets such as China will witness a number of trends that will fundamentally change and influence the way our industry works in the future. Specifically, we’ve identified the following:

#1: Generation ‘Y’ Communications - Businesses to follow the consumer market

Traditionally, companies have led the way in communications innovation because of business demand and the fact that they had the cash to pay for it. Over the next ten years this will no longer be the case and we will increasingly see businesses follow where the consumer market leads.

In the first half of 2009 the number of internet users in China increased by 40 million, in just six months1. As this next-generation of increasingly internet savvy office workers moves into the workplace, they will demand the multi-channel approach of social networking sites and instant messaging communications to be carried with them.

Communication channels will be more and more location independent and device independent. Social media and instant messaging platforms will evolve into an online business environment where multiple users can seamlessly communicate and collaborate across a variety of media, increasing productivity.

#2: The office of 2010 - The home and office blurs

Over the next ten years, the concept of an office will become more irrelevant and the lines between home and office will become increasingly blurred. Devices carried by an individual will be dual purpose – serving both consumer and corporate purposes as required.

For example, the iPhone and the BlackBerry smartphones have already started this trend, but we will see this grow exponentially over the decade. Laptops, for example, will become much lighter as hard-drives are replaced by chips which can route to the corporate or consumer Cloud as desired by the user.

Almost 50% of all internet users in China are already accessing the internet via their mobile devices2 and this percentage is expected to continue to increase. The ability to continually connect will be extended duing the decade and the performance of remote networking will increase as 4G mobile networks become commonplace, allowing employees to access high-speed broadband wirelessly and anywhere.

For developing markets such as China, broadband will be offered on-demand allowing them to request additional broadband resource for peak times; ensuring business operations are at their most effective when they are most needed. This flex-up and flex-down approach will provide businesses with a uniquely tailored broadband environment.

#3: Trusted partners - Changing relationship between businesses and telecoms operators

The result of this change is that relationships between businesses and telecoms operators will become more important. With a wider variety of communications services layered across the network and offered over the Cloud, businesses will need to trust their communications providers in a way never seen before. It is up to the telecoms industry to ensure that they are even more flexible, reliable and secure than today. Telecoms providers that manage to do this successfully will prosper in this new landscape.

By Alex Connors, Head of International Product Management, Cable&Wireless Worldwide

1&2 Source: China Internet Network Information Centre (CNNIC), 24th Statistical Report on Internet Development in China published in July 2009

Chui Sui Central: Google tips for CNY

2010-02-12T12:17:00.007+08:00

By Isaac Shao, Head of Hong Kong Online Sales & Operations, Google

With Chinese New Year (CNY) a few days away, here in Hong Kong, everything is abuzz with activity as the city prepares for the Lunar New Year.

We Hong Kongers are renowned for celebrating the CNY in a unique way and that is why every year thousands of tourists descend upon our city to share the festivities with us. On the flip side, many locals take advantage of the holiday to enjoy a long weekend overseas.

CNY is one of the busiest times for businesses, particularly for those in the travel sector. Given the short window to sell CNY holiday packages, competition is rife among travel agencies. When you’re selling almost the same products, it can be hard to differentiate your offerings. Without an effective marketing and advertising plan, standing out in the crowd can be quite a daunting task.

One company that seems to get it right is Macau.com, a leading online destination marketing and travel company. Its online CNY marketing campaign is generating a lot of high quality traffic to its web site.

I recently bumped into Carrel Ieong, Head of Marketing of Macau.com and the man behind the successful campaign, and we got to talking about the secret to his success.

According to Carrel, to ensure that your online ad reaches the right people, it needs to appear and link to relevant sites. For instance, Macau.com’s CNY ad appears whenever someone googles the keywords “ferry ticket + hotel” or “hotel show ticket”. To maximize its visibility, especially in China, the company linked its CNY ad to both global and local popular travel web sites, such as flightstats.com, Qunar.com and Kuxun.cn through Google global content networks.

Macau.com’s case is an example of online advertising done right. And it has the numbers to back it up. For instance, its online CNY holiday ad boosted its web traffic by 30% from December to mid-January. With a conversion rate of about 30%, the company has seen a 30% growth in online sales.

Local online advertising has really started to pick up the pace. The financial crisis, I guess, forced companies to assess where they invest their marketing and advertising budgets. Now, with the economy improving, companies have realized that what they need is a high-impact marketing option, one without a hefty price tag attached — and online advertising seem to fit the bill.

In fact, online advertising has seen the highest growth (19.3% in 2010) among all media in Hong Kong (eMarketer, December 2009). This year we have seen a 50% YOY growth on online ad spend from our top clients in Hong Kong compared to 2009. I think the desire to expand their client base globally without having to spend too much is what’s pushing most companies to market themselves online.

Advertising online can be a bit tricky, though. You need to make sure that you reach the right audience in the right place at the right time. Otherwise, there’s a slim chance of your ad finding its way to your customers.

For those in the travel business, here are a few tips on how to get the most out of your online ads:

* Create a user-friendly, well-structured web site that search engines can find and index easily is critical to amplifying your brand’s presence on the Web. The more relevant your web site is to search engine users, the higher your page rank will be, and that will increase the chance of customers visiting your web site.

* Select keywords that are highly relevant to your business and make sure to include variations. You can check the keywords suggestion from Google tools. For instance, apart from “accommodation”, use common misspellings such as “accomodation” or “acommodation” to maximize the exposure of your online ads.

* Study the market’s buying behavior via free Google Insights for Search, is critical. Always be on the lookout for the latest travel destination searches and be sure to customize your keywords, budget and geographic coverage in accordance with market response. For CNY, Hong Kong seems to be a popular choice, with keywords such as “travel to HK”, “Hong Kong travel” and “Hong Kong hotel” dominating travel-related search queries.

* Don’t forget to add popular tourist spots in your list. Key words like “Disneyland Hong Kong" or "Ocean Park" and useful information such as “香港天气” and "香港地铁图” can improve your page ranking too.

* Frequently update your keywords. You’ll be surprised at what people are looking for on the Web. For example, Chinese tourists nowadays are searching for “i square Hong Kong”. Do you have that on your keyword list?

* Always tell the truth. Don’t say something is free if it really isn’t and don’t promise offers that are impossible to find on your web site. Drawing potential customers to your web site is only the first (and often easiest) step — you want repeat visits from your customers, too.

On a side note, here are some interesting trends Carrel and I have seen in the travel market:

* Local travel keyword searches in pre-CNY period increased by 47% YOY and even higher compared with pre-Christmas travel period in 2009 (up 12%)

* Holiday destination searches surged from December 2009 to mid-January 2009

* Online transaction is gaining momentum since mid-January 2010

* Hotel show tickets and entertainment options have become the most popular keywords from mid-January 2010 onwards

Kung Hei Fat Choi and here’s wishing you a prosperous Year of the Tiger!

Chui Sui Central: Collaboration is key

2010-02-05T11:45:00.004+08:00

Paula Fisher, account director, EBA Communications

'Collaboration' - the term has interrupted into our consciousness with the rise of social media, particularly since the launch of new 'collaborative' tool Google Wave. But the values of collaboration can extend far beyond just that of the digital domain. In fact, 'collaboration' should also be used more frequently to bring together all the forces of the marketing mix.

Often in the marketing mix, it could be said that the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. Specialist agencies - advertising, PR, digital and a growing number of experiential outfits - appear to work in silos with no mutual or joint objectives, leading to disparate messages and confusion about what the brand or the company actually stands for, or is offering. Often, there are several activities or message streams in action simultaneously, which only serves to confuse the audience, leaving it with a clear lack of understanding.

Any good communicator will tell you that it is pointless bombarding your audience with too many messages - it's been proven that the average mind simply cannot retain much more than three at a time. Keeping them short and simple is the key to gaining traction and ultimately recall at the point of purchase or selection. This becomes more relevant as we are subject to a host of messages through the various media of the marketing mix over a huge range of ever-instant communication channels from blogs, social networks, online publications and even company websites.

A more collaborative approach is needed to agree messages, formats and channels of communication. Ideally this should involve collaboration at the very early planning stages to ensure the creative or execution has components that can work across the various elements of the marketing mix. That is to say by collectively brainstorming, planning and then agreeing the communication concepts, the executions should be able to deliver a unified message across all marketing mediums.

People are attracted to their various marketing specialisms for a reason - usually because they have the right skill set or creative talent to operate in that environment. Different marketing specialists all have different things to say and different ways of saying them. Good marketers need to manage these specialist viewpoints and plan a strategy accordingly that lets the right people do what they're good at. PRs focus on the articulate dissemination of messages over both traditional and online media channels; advertising agencies on devising relevant, attention grabbing creative and digital agencies on executions that encourage interaction and content sharing in the digital domain.

Getting them all around a table at the outset, so that all views and opinions can be heard and that everyone understands where each is coming from is one of the best ways to manage this planning process. This will help define solid mutual objectives across all specialisms and ultimately save on planning time down the line. The extra spend is justified by a campaign that delivers far more impactful results across all channels, with a stronger return on investment than disparate communication strategies.

While you've got everyone together, it might also make sense to get some plans in place and define clear roles and responsibilities in case things go wrong. In our fast-paced news hungry world, even the most innocent of mistakes can be blown out of seemingly all proportion in the online environment, especially if organisations don't act quickly to end rumours or explain actions and intentions. If clear roles and guidelines to deal with these situations aren't set up in the first place, it is all too easy for people to cry off the responsibility for response, a delay which only adds fuel to the fire of online speculation.

Collaboration is easy and effective and is as simple as bringing people together to talk and share objectives and opinions on what they're good at. The result will be a more motivated, engaged expert team that work together to create holistic campaigns that reach your audience through all touch points in a clear and consistent way.

How unfortunate!

2010-02-03T21:04:00.004+08:00

Chui Sui Central: China's Gen Y brand sirens

2010-01-29T11:51:00.006+08:00

When it comes to purchasing power, Chinese youth wield a great chunk of it. Consider this: China’s Gen Y consists of over 200 million individuals between the ages of 15 – 25.

In fact, an astounding 420 million are 25 years old or under (a number that exceeds the entire population of the United States), and studies have repeatedly shown that these youth consume and / or directly influence 50% or more of the family expenditure in many major Chinese cities.

They are the first generation experiencing modern China, a vastly consumerist society in which many of the old lessons around modesty and conformity no longer apply. Unsurprisingly, both multinationals and local companies alike have woken up to this and are now trying to better understand just what makes these guys tick.

Indeed, a small sub-segment of today's Chinese youth are themselves trying to rectify the dissonance they feel between who they are inside vs. what is expected of them from family/society by "breaking free" and embarking on their own path in the arts, music, or extreme sports for example. And whilst they remain the minority, what is not yet clear is how big these tribes will become or how much they will affect the wider youth mass.

What is evident though, is their influence is already felt. "Brand Sirens" (our Starcom term for them) - super-influencers who track new brands / trends and then "siren" out their opinions & brand love to anyone who will listen - are already talking (and loudly) through the multiple digital media at their fingertips (blogs, BBS/ /forums, status updates, microblogs, WOM etc).

And just as they track the next cool thing, we at Starcom track them, making sure we know who they are, who they're talking to and what they're talking about. Even during the economic slowdown, our Recession Study showed that Brand Sirens continued to advocate the products they love.

Whilst they may not always be able to afford their coveted brand, they still continue to read, learn and talk about it. And they can come from anywhere: depending on the brand/product, the mainstream teen blogger is equally influential as the underground urban hipster.

Brand Sirens inform the masses what's new and cool. Most importantly, they’re the first with that news. That information then trickles through the social groups via the many channels used by Chinese youth - and that news spreads like wildfire.

For example, during a recent trend-hunting expedition in Shanghai for our “Youth Surveillance” study, I attended a boardgame convention where I witnessed first-hand the growth of this past-time passion.

Speaking with convention organizers, I learned that in the past boardgames had never caught on due to the single-child family policy and small sizes of homes: the kids had previously had no siblings to play with or any space to play in.

So entrepreneurs took the boardgames out of the home... only two years ago there were just five boardgame cafes in China; today, there are 600+, and the trend doesn’t appear to be slowing down.

The information about how / where to play spread quickly from the keyboards of the few as boardgaming headlined main topics of conversation in message forums and blogs and new café openings, special competitions and friendly meet-and-greets were announced, promoted and attended.

For more information and photos, please see Starcom China's blog.

We're currently still wrapping up our Youth Surveillance report, but what's clear is that the topics that prompt Chinese “youth" interest and behaviours are rarely fad-driven.

Most trends here are motivated by reasons that run deeper than they initially appear (as per the boardgame example), and nearly all have relatively short incubation periods, meaning that the marketer's window of opportunity is narrow.

Catching the Sirens at the right moment requires knowledge and skill, but your results - and your client/brand’s influence - can be explosive.

By Angie Chan, Research Manager for Greater China, Starcom

Opening night of heritage x Art x Design

2010-01-23T17:19:00.000+08:00

Chui Sui Central: The hidden non-persuaders

2010-01-21T19:13:00.005+08:00

By Chris Kyme, managing partner, creative, Eight Partnership

I don’t know if it’s just me but I have a sneaky feeling I’ve uncovered a cunning strategic thread which is running through all Hong Kong G.I.S (Government Information Service) campaigns these days.

It goes like this. If they want people to start doing something, they run a campaign telling them to do it.

If they want people to stop doing something, they run a campaign telling people not to do it.

Brilliant eh? Simple and to the point.

Here are a few examples:

Objective – Get young people to stop taking drugs.

Message – Say no to drugs.

Objective – get people to drive safely at traffic lights.

Message – Be bright. Do it right. Obey traffic lights. (Closely related to ‘don’t drink and drive’.)

Objective – Get people to help keep Hong Kong Clean.

Message – Let’s keep Hong Kong clean.

Objective: Get people to switch off their idling engines.

Message: Be considerate. Switch off your idling engine.

One of the more memorable ones in recent years was ‘Join hands to fight SARS’. As if some sort of miracle cure had been discovered that simply involved human contact among non-carriers.

You’ll also notice how many of these TV spots have the same ending – everyone gets together to shout (or sing) the message in a chorus together. Obviously to make it loud and clear, but also as if that means ‘we’re all in this together’. Inspiring teamwork. Do you really think that this is what it takes to invoke action amongst the Hong Kong public?

Forgive me for coming across all scientific, but I don’t know about the effectiveness of all of this.

Somehow I was trained (yes I was..somewhere in the distant past..) that advertising messages are designed to work on certain psychological levels in order to affect the behaviour of those it is targeting.

So, if you want people to, say, stop smoking. You don’t just tell them ‘stop smoking’. I mean, it’s unlikely to work on someone with a 40 a day habit which is hard to kick. Instead, show them the effects that tobacco has on your lungs, or throw them a few cancer-related statistics, and they might start thinking about reaching for that smoking patch.

The same should go for any campaigns whereby the objective is not just simple awareness, but to actually affect a change in behaviour.

Take Hong Kong’s roads. Can we really believe that the average disgruntled, crazy, selfish, time-pressed minibus driver is going to start taking his foot off the accelerator just because he keeps seeing posters saying ‘Don’t speed’?

Of course not. He doesn’t even see them. What might get through to him however is when he hits and kills an old lady who couldn’t get out of the way of his demon vehicle in time, and then sees the devastating affect his reckless bloody-mindedness has had on her loving relatives.

Maybe then he’ll spare a thought for his driving tactics. In retrospect. After he’s blamed his faulty vehicle for ‘mysteriously going out of control’.

I don’t know who it is that makes the decisions to sign off on all of these campaigns, but it’s about time someone pointed them in the direction of a crash course (excuse the expression) in marketing, so that perhaps they can begin to understand what it takes to get people to do things. Or not do them.

In short, what’s missing in every case, is a strategy. An engaging and convincing message. Perhaps what’s also missing is someone within the ranks of the G.I.S. who has the right kind of background experience to help steer all of this (and dangerous drivers) in the right direction. If only someone could point this out. Apart from me.

If not, the end result will continue to be endlessly ineffective campaigns, a waste of government money, and lots of people who continue smoking, littering, driving dangerously, taking drugs and sitting with idling engines completely oblivious to the advertising campaigns which are supposed to be targeting them.

Necescity at the races

2010-01-21T02:07:00.001+08:00

They're on a subs rampage...

Ninja's unboxing

2010-01-20T23:13:00.006+08:00

It seems Google's latest Android phone - Nexus One - is getting a lot

of attention from local bloggers.

I won't be surprised if they've been invited to yet another blogger

session where Google execs wowed them with the phone's functions

and perhaps how superior it is to iphones?

And in geek fashion, this YouTube video shows you how cool it is

when three ninja's show off their agility and prowess in unboxing

the Android phone.

So, what's your verdict? Excited yet?

Are you rushing to the Google store to get a spanking new Nexus One

or smirking as you continue fiddling with your iphone?

Something a bit different for the SCMP

2010-01-20T08:49:00.003+08:00

Big troubles for Disney Hong Kong. Annual revenue down HK$1.32 billion. Sales in the year to 3 October slid 1% and the park's hotel occupancy rate fell to 70% percent from 78% in 2008. What to do? Can it be salvaged? Nice cover from the SCMP though!

Cool dash

2010-01-16T16:46:00.000+08:00

I guess if you spend that much in your taxi you gotta feel comfortable!

Chui Sui Central: Maximising your photos

2010-01-15T11:40:00.008+08:00

By Keith Cheung, owner of photoTsunic, a studio specialising in corporate, event and documentary photography.

In a visually-driven era, images have become an important communications tool for marketers and communicators. I’m quite sure you must have worked with photographers to capture the essence of your events.

But have you ever leveraged on the knowledge of your “visual partners” and maximized the results of your events?

Here, I can think of at least five things your commissioned photographer may be able to help:

1) Tell your boss to take off her big distracting earrings

We may sometimes come across senior executives who “over” dress themselves when they are preparing for the camera, like a lady boss who wears large dangling earrings.

It may be a bit difficult for an in-house communicator to ask her to take them off. But it’s usually very OK for a photographer to give his/her “professional advice” about what looks best on the camera. So, leave the “difficult” task to him/her.

2) Advice on your event floor plan before you finalize it

You and your event contractor may have an ideal plan of how a stage or exhibition booth may look like.

But you need a third-party opinion, especially when there could be some details that might have been overlooked – such as what looks good through the viewfinder, and where the logo should be placed to create eye-catching effects in any photo.

I’m sure giving your event participants a good experience is your first priority, but I think making your event look great on photos - which you can dispatch through various channels to the press and online media as well as your website and also share pride of place in the headquarters office of your boss’s boss – is equally important.

So, it’s worth spending time to get a professional photographer’s opinion before you finalize the floor plan.

3) Suggest “photo opp” ideas

You may be very experienced in organizing events and media activities. However, there may be times that your brain is dry and run out of ideas for photo opportunities. Don’t forget that your “visual partners”, especially those who happen to be photojournalists, may help.

They might have attended numerous events and came across many different kinds of gimmicky “photo opportunities”. So, do get inspiration and ideas from them, and turn them into your own.

4) Help fine-tune the positioning of loose items during venue set-up.

During an event set-up, there are many things you need to fine-tune on the spot. This is when you can ask for your photographer’s opinion.

For example, ask if the setup of the press photography corner needs to be adjusted. An experienced photographer can easily help you determine if the photo distance is too short or the stage level which you organize for photojournalists from the press is too low.

You would never want to face a bunch of photojournalists whining in front of your guests and executives, complaining they couldn’t take a good shot of them. So, confirming if things are fine and making some necessary adjustments before hand will be crucial.

5) Help make quick decision on best photos for media distribution.

Have you ever been overwhelmed by the several hundreds or more photos from your photographer after an event? If you need to dispatch photos to the press right after the event, the short lead time and limited number of photos to be shortlisted (usually not more than 5 photos) make the task doubly challenging.

Do seek your photographer’s input. For those who have been a photojournalist before, he/she should understand what photos can make it into the photo editor’s selections for a newspaper or magazine.*

In addition, if you are a leader of a communications team and want to enhance your team’s understanding of what makes a good press photo, you can invite a seasoned photographer to give them a short talk or workshop on this topic at your office. There’s never enough to learn.

As images dominate our multi-media age, effective communication through images can give marketers and communicators an extra edge.

Leveraging on your photographer’s expertise and viewing him/ her as an extension of your communications team can help optimize the results of your event management efforts.

*PR professionals tend to select photos with prominent logo(s) to the media, whereas a photo editor always look for a less commercial but self-explanatory image telling a story.

Your photographer should be able to help by finding the middle ground. Do ask for his/her advice when you shortlist event photos for media distribution.

In this photo, the image depicts an auction in progress. In terms of composition, it is compact and dynamic. It shows the corporate color, bluish purple, of Sotheby’s.

Though the logo is not completely shown, the brand “Sotheby’s” actually has been implicitly communicated well enough through visual elements.

Send your comments or questions to photoTsunic@gmail.com or @photoTsunic on Twitter.

2010-01-10T12:46:00.000+08:00

Mid-Levels Classifieds... A new media company?

2010-01-08T22:29:00.001+08:00

Hello ad sales, say hi to Luke Jones.

Chui Sui Central: Fairy's Golden Touch

2010-01-08T13:11:00.002+08:00

By Billboard Kwok, Managing Director, Greater China, Euro RSCG 4D

1:40am, Dec 14: Orders are coming in at a rate of more than one hundred per minute!!!

In the rushed hour and forty minutes since midnight, we have sold over 4,000 individual items across more than 300 styles!

What a crazy night!

23:52, Dec 14: Today 941 kinds of products have sold out, and we have sold over 24,000 individual items.

14:40, Dec 16: 1053 kinds of products have sold out, and we have sold over 60,000 items.

I noticed these impressive statistics while browsing the site of a boutique Chinese e-shop called “Fairy’s Pocket,” which was running a three day promotion from December 14-16.

As a digital marketer, it is impossible not to pay attention to the average 100%+ growth rate of the e-shop market in China over the past two years. In fact, as we speak, market leader Taobao is marching towards a transaction volume of 200 billion RMB by the end of 2009. While some people attribute this to the e-commerce giant’s 82% C2C market share, the fact that it continues to attract new sellers at the rate of hundreds per day, shows that despite its existing millions of sellers it is still expanding – a truly mind boggling prospect.

But while the leaders achieve monthly profits in the millions, it is not all roses in the e-commerce market. Against the backdrop of this intense competition, some shops fail to sell a single item for as long as three months. Success, it seems, cannot be achieved by simply copying the leaders. So what makes shops such as Fairy Pocket so successful?

By combing through Fairy Pocket’s customer spending habits, one statistic really jumps out: the average purchase of each customer exceeds 400 RMB. This is over double its closest competitors, despite a similar cost and range of products. And interestingly, the average cost of a product is about 250 RMB, which means that most of Fairy Pocket’s customers buy more than one product per transaction.

If we study in detail items of clothing available on the site, the difference between Fairy Shop and its competitors becomes clear.

In addition to detailed photos of the product, photos of matching products are also provided. For example, if there is a photo of a wool coat, pictures of matching T-shirts, handbags, jeans, and even boots will be provided. If you like the matching ensemble and want to buy the whole set, the site will offer you a discount.

On the basis that the suggested matching outfits are trendy and keeping in with the fashion of target consumers, this value-added service has driven a significant leap in average single-transaction purchase amounts.

Of course, not everyone wants to spend more just from seeing extra pictures, so the site also offers additional benefits to encourage visitors to make purchases. Another such extra is called “One RMB Surprise.” If a customer spends above a specified amount, he or she can take advantage of an offer to buy a limited range of products for 1 RMB.

Although the “One RMB Surprise” offered products are limited to things such as cartoon watches, scarves, T-shirts and pullovers, the promotional activity drives purchasing through effectively promising visitors they are buying something and getting something for free.

Fairy Pocket even asks their customers what kind of products they should sell with this offer, demonstrating that they listen to their customers and are closely in touch with their needs. And not only do extra services like these drive sales growth, they can help the business clear excess stock as seasons change.

When viewing more expensive female fashion brands, a banner playfully suggests to the potential customer that they should also buy something for their boyfriend or husband – so as not to be blamed for buying too many clothes for themselves. The banner even leads to suggested male fashions and toys – a fun and creative way to engage consumers.

Although we all continuously emphasize the importance of understanding consumer behavior, how many businesses convert these lessons into significant sales growth? Compared to many businesses, Fairy Pocket does not just understand its customer needs, but listens to them and adapts its services proactively. And in the face of fierce competition, it has proved it has a golden touch.

2010-01-06T18:15:00.001+08:00

Marketing's new recruit Erica Ng hard at it already.

Chui Sui Central: Young, impressionable and cool: The new PR

2009-12-18T11:18:00.004+08:00

Jeremy Woolf, Senior vice president, Greater China director and global social media practice lead at Text 100 Public Relations.

If you believe what the PR blogosphere is saying, there’s an exodus away from classic public relations agencies into ‘cooler’ realms. The finger is being pointed firmly at social media, the dastardly force that’s luring younger practitioners in particular into upstart pure digital shops.

Young, impressionable PR folks are being turned off by the ‘old school’ world of PR. Perhaps the thought of spending formative days compiling activity reports and cutting and pasting media coverage into lengthy Word documents doesn’t have the same ‘zing’.

As someone who started his career nursing paper cuts caused by hours spent combing newspapers and magazines, then cutting out articles before gluing them to A4 sheets and mailing to clients, I can see the appeal.

On face value, the shiny object syndrome seems to be pulling inexperienced yet digitally aware PRs like ‘moths’ to the pure-play digital shops’ ‘flame’. Quite frankly, I get the lure. It seems a chance to play with toys in a digital sandbox. Old school PR ‘distractions’ such as building relationships with journalists, creating press lists, understanding the news cycle, and helping change a company’s image over time seem relegated to annals of history.

Sounds like fun. And don’t get me wrong. The last thing I want to do is start a feud with digital shops. I think they are doing a fine job building things that are helping shape influence. Facebook applications and games, web landing pages, interactive websites and so on are all vital parts of the modern web of influence.

I guess the issue I have is that these places are typically the love-children of good coders and advertisers. Their approach to communication is built around the individual’s (typically consumer’s) experience with the application, site or game (for example). Consumers are taken on a frequently emotional journey through mouse clicks and hyperlinks. Again, nothing wrong with this. My argument is that classic PR touches a different part of the brain. Digital content is part of the mix, but not a strategy in isolation.

In the early days of the Web, they used to say, “Content is king”. Web pages were destinations in their own right, and the success measure was “stickiness”. I feel today, conversation is king. The shiny things act like honey traps, but success is surely the ability to drive influence through conversation, pushing people to destinations and then taking action.

I challenge the notion that the digital shops that feel that they can “do” PR or marketing. I don’t want to overplay the science of public relations, but good practitioners are certainly made and not born. The ability to create a communications strategy that ties in business objectives to tactics and measurable outcomes is core to the PR discipline. Ever since Ivy Lee put together his Declaration of Principles in 1906, PR’s mission to act as a "two-way street" that helps clients listen as well as communicate messages to their publics has been set in stone (gotta love Wikipedia).

Much of this makes me sound like an old fogey, but the shiny things and their owners need to take heed. There’s more to communications (warning - gross generalization follows) than putting up a web site, no matter how sticky the content. The ‘if you build it, they will come’ theory of communications is rarely successful. You only have to look at the virtual tumbleweeds rolling through Second Life to get a sense of what I mean. Some of the attempts to drive influence through ‘social media marketing’ have been laughable.

I’ve written before about the seeding practices that seem to be a substitute for driving authentic conversations. This practice of paying so-called gunners to spam forums and blogs with crude product or service messages is raising the ire of bloggers, forum moderators and community members alike. It seems a rather odd interpretation of public relations, if you ask me.

My advice to those young folks tempted by the digital shops is simple. Spend some time assessing the role of social media and the associated tools as part of the wider communications mix. Understand that a grounding in the fundamentals of communication will always be relevant. Understand also that while social media’s influence will continue to grow, the ability to tell a good story and help shape a conversation are critical elements and should not be overlooked.

At the end of the day, some will go. And that’s OK. But this does remind me of a quote from former New Zealand Prime Minister Robert Muldoon. A journalist asked for his thoughts on the so-called brain drain of people migrating from New Zealand to neighbouring Australia. Always the diplomat, Muldoon considered, and then responded: “It raises the IQ of both countries”.

Food for thought? I hope so.

For more Woolf click here.

Chui Sui Central: Reverse Innovation

2009-12-11T10:28:00.005+08:00

By Neil Gains, research director for Synovate based in Shanghai.

The history of innovation is one of companies in the developed world creating new products and innovations for the developed markets, which were then sent to emerging economies as these companies expanded their reach.

As such markets are developed and grown by international companies, there is an increasing need to adapt product offerings to meet local needs. This often involves localization and sometimes “defeaturing” of products (ie simplifying and focusing on the core needs of lower income consumers) in order to make products more affordable and more focused on the key needs of such customers (often referred to as “glocalisation”).

As emerging markets become more important in driving the business of international companies, this trend is being reversed, as innovations are driven by emerging markets,which are then taken back to more developed markets.

Increasingly the needs of emerging market consumers are the start point of the innovation process, developing new products created specifically for such consumers (rather than adapting existing products).

Reverse innovation is when such products are then adapted and scaled up for worldwide use. China, India, Brazil and Russia are the new world mass markets, with fundamentally different consumer needs to those in developed markets (for instance, the average per capita income in the US is US$44,000 versus India at US$1,000).

While glocalisation means that companies can only address the needs of the middle class consumers at the very top of the emerging markets pyramid, reverse innovation enables companies to create products which truly address the needs of the mass of emerging market consumers.

But why are such products relevant for developed markets? Emerging market businesses are increasingly beating their multinational rivals in developing winning products. For example, Tata Motors in India have reinvented the automotive business, both in terms of the minimum design and features for a car, and more fundamentally in terms of the business model used to create value (their distribution model is completely different to that of the global car manufacturers such as GM and Ford). They now plan to sell an upgraded version of the Tata Nano in developed markets (apparently to be called the TataEutopa).

For example, P&G took a honey based cold remedy from Mexico and launched it very profitably in the US and Europe; Microsoft created new applications for “dumb”phones which allowed users of non-smart phones to access websites such as twitter and Facebook in South Africa and India which are now finding use as a low cost “cloud computing” platform; Nokia’s approach to developing phones with stripped down features and applications for African consumers have been used to create new features for phones in the US market.

In addition, many of the challenges which are increasingly faced by developed markets,especially in the wake of the global financial crisis, mirror those of emerging markets. The clearest example of the need for reverse innovation is the US healthcare industry,where future changes and legislation will focus on affordability (significantly lowering costs) and accessibility (giving access to tens of millions of consumers who are currently disenfranchised).

These are exactly the challenges of providing healthcare access in emerging markets. For example, GE developed portable electrocardiograph machines for the China and India markets, which are now selling in the US at 20% of the price of other products, and are finding many new applications because of their portability and cost.

Indeed, it is GE who first coined the term “reverse innovation”. Reverse innovations are often, but not always, disruptive of existing markets. This is especially true when such innovations are created by the income gap between rich and emerging markets, where providing reasonable quality at a very low price (for example,50% of the quality at 5% of the price) creates a huge new market.

This is typically done by focusing on one key aspect of performance which can drive adoption by non-consumers who may be less interested in those features and benefits which are most important to existing users. Whilst such low quality may initially be less attractive in rich developed markets, as the performance of these products improves, they become increasingly attractive in more developed markets.

This is true disruptive innovation in the same spirit as examples of disruptive innovation in developed technology categories. Examples of developed market disruption are the impact of Wii on the games console market, which focuses on interaction and simplicity over the depth and detail of other game consoles, and the impact of mobile phones on the digital camera market, where image quality and camera features have been sacrificed for convenience, ease of sharing and product convergence to disrupt the market for sophisticated digital cameras.

Looking to the future, voice over internet protocols (VoIP) are likely to disrupt traditional telephone and mobile phone services. Increasingly, such disruptions will come from meeting the needs of mass market consumers in China and other emerging markets.Many future product and service innovations will be driven by China and other markets by reversing the traditional innovation process.

The Forbes Fabulous 50 hyper optimism event

2009-12-04T10:02:00.003+08:00

We were the guests of Forbes mag last night at their Fabulous 50 awards at the Four Seasons. There was plenty of optimism in the room as we walked around chatting to some of the smartest survivors in the region.

It was an event fortified with optimism (with apologies to Soyjoy) as everyone had the same reply when asked how their year was: "Great".

30 Awards handed out in about an hour nice work Forbes fast, furious and a good feed.

We also have a quick vid from Matt to go up sometime this morning.

The room at the Four Seasons

2009-12-04T09:57:00.002+08:00

Speed networking before the awards start

2009-12-04T09:55:00.003+08:00

Matt Eaton HK editor

2009-12-04T09:54:00.002+08:00

2009-12-03T17:41:00.001+08:00

The time warped press release

2009-12-01T00:06:00.009+08:00

It seems the PR folk over at Harris Interactive have gotten a little lazy. Either that or Gregory Novak and George Terhanian have been reincarnated!

Possibly in the hope that no one would notice, or just simply stuck for words, Harris Interactive Asia has lifted a two year old press release for the launch of its Advanced Strategy Lab Asia.

In 2007 Gregory Novak, president and CEO of Harris Interactive stated the following.

"Our opening of this ASL lab in Europe adds another powerful analytical tool to help our clients make better business decisions. It is another example of our strategy to share best practices across our entire enterprise."

Last night Harris in Asia lifted the embargo on its Asia release, revealing the same quotes, but simply changed from Europe to Asia and Gregory Novak to Jamie Lord.

Taking it one step further, Harris didn't even bother to update the wording on what Advanced Strategy Lab actually is.

"A rich, efficient resource for strategic guidance, ASL qualitative sessions are designed in accordance with project objectives and moderated by two research professionals with extensive experience in both the software technology and high-level qualitative moderation skills," both statements said.

Not to be left out, George Terhanian's 2007 comments were given the same treatment, but like the Lord was adapted for the Asia market.

"ASL combines the best benefits of in-person and online qualitative research," stated George Terhanian (and Robert Salvoni), President of Harris Interactive in Europe (Managing Director of Harris Interactive Europe and Asia). "It is a tremendous tool for generating new ideas, insights and understandings and we’re very much looking forward to introducing it to our clients throughout Europe." (they both said).

Advanced Strategy Lab first launched in the US more than 10 years ago making it tough to track down the release, so its hard to say for sure how old these quotes are.

Let's just hope its research projects are not given the same treatment.

Chui Shui Central: Chinese Pills seek bloggers

2009-11-27T12:44:00.012+08:00

By Rudi Leung, Director, Communication Planning for Agenda Hong Kong

As blogger engagement has become a "must go" tactic for most advertisers, not so long ago, I predicted someday in the near future, not only the mainstream consumer electronics/skin cares, but also the least likely products such as shampoo or refrigerator would start recruiting bloggers for product trial.

My prediction came true earlier than I expected.

This morning, I received an awkward "invitation" for a blogger trial of this product.

The advertiser is Wai Yuen Tong, a local pharmaceutical company and also Chinese medicine chain. The product recruiting bloggers for trial is da da la da..Wai Yuen Tong's Young Yum Pill!! (sing out loud please).

This is perhaps the most memorable commercial break amongst many local Hong Kongers. Once the jingle of its TV commercial started, it's a challenge for anyone to stop following to singalong.

For your information, this jingle has been growing up with at least three generations of Hong Kongers and was sung by two iconic singers, Adam Cheng and then Hacken Lee. As classic as it is, this TV Commercial was even parodied in a movie of Stephen Chow Sing Chi (the Jim Carrey of the east).

Back to this Young Yum Pill "blogger recruitment" activity, as I was bombarded by this TV Commercial for years, my perception of this Chinese supplement is that it is tailored for women. The product name with the Chinese character Yum (same as "Yang" of Yin & Yang in Cantonese) might have confused most of us for generations too.

So just like any straight and egocentric man, when I received this invitation, my initial responses were 1)Huh, do you think I am THAT frail and sissy? 2)OMG, you think Rudi is woman's name? 3)WTH, since when have I signed up to receive SPAM from this theZtyle.com?

Mr. Wai Yuen Tong, please forgive my ignorance. I did some research afterwards. Young Yum Pill is actually a supplement for curing various symptoms of chronic fatigue. It works for both genders. For this invitation I received, I was just a bit over-sensitive. This is perhaps neither a blogger recruitment nor an eDM. It is just a generic mass mailing eFlier. It was randomly sent to me without any consideration for relevancy.

Is this "ad" or eFlier or whatsoever effective? Well, I don't think so. At least it doesn't work on me. And I don't think recruiting bloggers through a mass mailing e-Flier is effective as well. I bet there is any blogger would feel honorable to have received such invitation to try out this product which is worth $158 per bottle(as stated clearly in the eFlier). Even if I am intrigued by the idea of a free trial, I still couldn't find any registration link or instruction showing me how I can be eligible.

This is a good example for how email marketing can go wrong (Or is it actually an e-Print Ad disguised as an eDM?) The attempt in recruiting bloggers through an eFlier (not even a proper eDM) is one thing, mass spamming to an irrelevant audience would just make it counter-effective.

Oh Please Mr. Wai Yuen Tong, email marketing is not equivalent to mass spamming. To do so would not only waste your effort but also damage the reputation of your brand.

If Wai Yuen Tong is really keen on consumer generated content, for future blogger engagement, I suggest Wai Yuen Tong should just recruit people to submit spoof video competition of its classic TV commercial. It is the advertising equity of the company and there is so much that the brand can leverage on.

Chui Shui Central: Sweatshop creativity

2009-11-20T13:47:00.011+08:00

By Eric Phu, Managing Director, Tribal DDB Hong Kong

Having recently moved here from Australia, I’ve noticed that I’m always asked the same two questions upon meeting fellow ad industry folk.

The first is why I would want to come to Hong Kong, when the air quality and lifestyle is so much better in Sydney.

The second is what I think of the standard of digital creative work from Hong Kong. Invariably, this leads to discussions – and dare I say, apologetic excuses – of why this region’s output lags behind the rest of Asia, let alone the global stage.

I’m repeatedly told of how conservative local clients are, how unwilling they are to experiment or try new things.

I’m warned of how focused they are on time and money, rather than creativity. That they’re about immediate sales rather than the long-term investment of building great brands.

And despite the fact advanced technology permeates every day life in Hong Kong (the Octopus card is practically magical compared to what the rest of the world is using), there is an unwillingness to embrace digital marketing - beyond quick and dirty websites.

For the most part, I don’t dispute these points yet, based on my limited observations so far. But the truth is every agency in every country more or less shares these problems, as well as their own cultural quirks to boot.

As a newcomer to Hong Kong, I sense a particularly strong victim mentality in the industry – “It’s the way it is, and I can’t change anything.” Words that hint at creative fires being stamped out before even sparking, let alone igniting into a spectacular display of fireworks.

It’s as if the creative field of dreams that once seduced us into this (often thankless) career, has morphed into a sweatshop, where we’re churning out low cost cookie-cutter creative and media-pollution with equal abandon.

We’re in region that boasts shopping as its national sport, so how have we ended up feeling so defeated? If there was ever an economy to prove that good creativity differentiates and amplifies sales results, shouldn’t it be the intense free market of Hong Kong?

There are three things I would love to hear more often, and if you’re already doing them – brilliant, you are a worthy adversary for Digital Agency of the Year.

The first is to stop settling for mediocre work. This may seem obvious, but if there’s a general consensus that creativity in Hong Kong is not up to scratch, then it’s blatantly clear that there is a disconnect. For all the average – or even terrible – advertising that makes it into the market, there was a creative director who considered it good enough to approve, release, and put their name to it.

Which leads to the second point – when work is not up to scratch, we need to stop blaming clients and using them as scapegoats. Whilst it’s true that great work is often produced with great clients, great work can also be created for the poorest of clients.

Every project has limitations of time, budget, product and brand placed upon it. That will never change; in Hong Kong or in any other market. Time to accept it and move on.

A great example is the recent “Best Job in the World” campaign. Its brilliance lies in the fact that it ignored the supposedly limiting parameters: a AU$500k budget for a global campaign about a tiny island with no international recognition. Arguably, that simple campaign idea was born from the very constraints placed upon it.

And my third and final point is that we shouldn’t forget why we are in this industry. As I tell my staff and all interviewees, if you want to make money, go work in banking. If you want work-life balance, work in government. To work in advertising means to be passionate about creativity, and to put your heart and soul into crafting brilliant little parcels of influence.

And then to subject those little pieces of yourself to a thousand heartless cuts, as they’re further dissected and sewn back together, through countless internal and external reviews. To do that every day, you have to believe in what you do, you have to believe in the end result, and that it will be worthy of putting your name to.

You are here to produce work to be proud of, not just to get paid. After all, if we settle for mediocrity, is it really worth the spending your life in the stressful environment and processes of advertising?

I think we owe it to ourselves to raise our standards just that bit higher, and in doing so, spur each other on to create better work. I encourage you all to sell and create work that inspires such envy, it leaves little choice but for us all to lift our game.

Having ranted and raved, you can bet that I’ll be holding Tribal DDB to these standards and ideals every day. No doubt, there’ll be times when I’ll fall short of these lofty goals, but I will stick my neck out, stand up and be counted.

Now is anyone else with me?

Chui Shui Central: Attacking Tracking

2009-11-14T13:30:00.007+08:00

By Sean de Cuirteis, regional business director for Media Contacts, Hong Kong

In Hong Kong, where I’m based, digital spend is increasing and a growing number of advertisers are putting at least some of their budget into digital advertising.

But, according to Admango spend analysis, the level of display investment is still under 5% in 2009. This is a startlingly low level of investment considering that 63% of Hong Kong’s population spend on average 2.5 hours online each day.

There are numerous reasons and excuses given by advertisers as to why they are not investing only a token amount in digital advertising.

Apart from making ‘The Boss’ a scapegoat, my favourite excuse is that ‘Digital it is too hard to measure’.

You’ve got to be kidding me?

If I were to vent about what frustrates me most in Asia about digital advertising, I would have to say it is the lack of effort when it comes to tracking.

When agencies push advertisers to track, questioning looks are given, purse strings are tightened and it seems as if agencies are trying to add an unnecessary technology costs on-top of agency fees. However, I can’t lay blame solely on advertisers and I’m sure not all agencies are pushing tracking as a necessary part of all digital activity. In a market where digital spend highlights a second tier importance in terms of media selection it is easier to dismiss tracking over putting the effort in to implement it.

Digital media is one of the most accountable of all media tracking individual users from ad exposure through to on-site action. Other regions like North America and Europe have built the digital advertising industry on the basis accountability. Give an agency a budget, an objective and they will work to deliver on a target ROI. Advertisers spend, agencies track, optimize and meet objectives. It’s as simple as that.

Thankfully the majority of the clients we work with in Media Contacts understand why we want to track. We put the effort in at the start and talk with them about measurement, accountability and explain exactly why we want to track. We work with them to figure out what we can track and how we can optimize their digital spend, based on actual results – results that contribute to their bottom line. It works. We optimise media schedules, clients save money and reinvest to better performance. Everybody benefits.

But often when we pitch to new clients or discuss tracking for the first time there is a level of reticence to invest in anything beyond media. Partly it’s down to a lack of overall market experience and with limited exposure to digital, advertisers have inadequate practical experience with tracking.

Usually the main stumbling block in pushing clients to use tracking is the associated cost. Tracking isn’t free (or if it appears to be, it’s a hidden cost) and agencies need to work harder to explain the cost saving benefits of tracking.

Tracking is a cost that advertisers pay in addition to media. The reason advertisers pay for tracking is not to line the pockets of an agency or tracking provider, but to optimise their media spend. We invest, we measure and we optimize knowing what sites on our media plans are working – without this advertiser may well be throwing good money after bad and spending money on sites that aren’t generating the response needed. We simply can’t measure response effectively without tracking.

However, digital agencies are nothing if not flexible. Where there is limited budget and an advertiser that isn’t ready to invest in tracking, we can recommend that they leverage their existing site analytics tool or use a free solution like Google Analytics. While in no way as comprehensive as 3rd party tracking solutions, these tools can provide the basics performance metrics of the sites on a schedule.

Tracking is a fundamental best practice for advertisers spending dollars on digital. If digital spend is to increase, there needs to be a bigger push by agencies to incorporate tracking as standard and for advertisers to listen to their agency about the cost savings tracking can bring. Without this I think we are looking at continued under-investment of a medium with massive reach and even more potential.

From QR Codes to Augmented Reality

2009-11-06T15:12:00.002+08:00

By Alex Hau, Senior Regional Interactive Manager, APAC for Universal McCann

Look, most marketers probably will agree with me on this - QR codes campaigns are just a fad pretty much anywhere outside of Japan. Manufacturer support is not there, and in most cases the experience doesn’t offer much value to the consumers. I don’t mind typing a SMS with my chunky fingers on the tiny phone to enter a contest (I am used to the pain of finger arthritis), but very unlikely that I’ll jump through all the hoops of downloading your app, switching it on, and snapping a photo of your QR code just to visit your contest site. (Yes you know who you are… and I know I will have “better luck next time” thank you very much)

Unless you give consumers some genuinely appealing incentives, no one but the most curious will download a potentially buggy app on their handset and point it at your QR code.

Under the concept of “value exchange” between consumers and marketers in this age of social media; to earn brand engagement time with consumers’ a brand needs to give back something of value whether it be entertainment, information, experience, etc. Right now plain old QR code just doesn’t cut it after the initial novelty factor wears out. So what’s next?

You might have heard of the term Augmented Reality (AR)? Wikipedia sums it up as “a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are merged with (or augmented by) virtual computer-generated imagery - creating a mixed reality.” It seems to be “popping up” everywhere right now (pardon the pun) and mostly on mobile devices. While some make use of QR code technology, some are doing away with the code altogether.

I remember seeing a demo about two years back, one of our partners shown me his AR demo on the mobile phone and it was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. You point your phone’s camera at a QR code printed on a piece of paper and on your phone’s screen up pops a 3D object extruding from the print ad! (watch this video if you still have no clue to what I am describing) It was like discovering pop-up books all over again!

Sure it’s gimmicky but you can’t deny it’s an interesting trick! Our sister agency McCann Erickson created a campaign using such technology for Nike in Hong Kong last year to great reception. This year we saw McDonald’s and Adidas making us of the same technology as well.

Is it just a fad or viable marketing tool? Time will tell, but already we are seeing AR technology being implemented in various creative ways. Here are some commercial examples.

Ray Ban created an application on the PC that allow consumers to try on sunglasses virtually using a web cam and dedicated software. Consumers can see in real-time how a pair of sun glasses will look on their head from various different angles. Watch a user created video clip here. One of the main criticisms of e-commerce had always been the lack of a tactile experience. That might still be true today but AR is bringing us one step closer to true “try before you buy” when shopping online.

Brands are also making use of AR technology at retail to further engage with consumers. Last month in Tokyo, the luxury brand Loewe launched an in-store AR experience for their customers. They made available a bunch of iPhones with custom developed AR app for consumers to browse the shop virtually. By clicking on floating icons on screen, customers can discover information about Loewe’s history and products not seen by the naked eye. Watch the video here.

Similarly, Lego created in-store AR kiosks in the U.S. so kids can visualize in 3D what their Lego blocks will look like after (their parents) spend hundreds of hours piecing the little blocks together.

Could real-time-virtual-world-augmented-reality-marketing be the next big thing? We’ve finally reached a point where it’s economically feasible to create virtual worlds in the context of the real one that everyone can interact with and understand. Sure it will take time for adoption and for price to go down even more before it hits mainstream. But considering the momentum this technology has right now, mass adoption doesn’t seem too far away.

Augmented reality, you have more than 15 seconds of our attention! In this time and age that’s quite an accomplishment.

Don’t ‘blow water’ with advertorials

2009-10-30T11:44:00.005+08:00

Glenn Schloss is Regional Director, Asia Pacific, of Corporate Communications at Hill & Knowlton, based in Hong Kong.

Is it time to “blow water” all over advertorials as the literal English translation of this column title would suggest, to pour water and leave a mess of soggy newsprint? Or shall we, as the Chinese meaning suggests, explore their potential role in strategic communications to inform the public?

There’s already a bit of talk around Hong Kong about an advertorial which has popped up on p4 of the South China Morning Post. Promoting the proposed cross-border express rail link between Guangzhou and Shenzhen, its headline promised “Express Rail Link to Put Hong Kong on Fast Track to Greater Prosperity”. With a small “Sponsored Feature” in the top right hand corner, it’s not immediately clear who has paid for or written the article, but there are a couple of references to “a government paper” and “the government”.

It’s not in the Chui Shui Central column’s brief to discuss the advertorial’s political points. The Big Lychee (formerly known as Hemlock) has commented in prose which lives up to the promise of the blog’s tagline “Watching the sun set, little by little, on Asia’s greatest city”.

What is clear is that there’s a growing trend among corporations and government to turn to advertorials as they seek to gain ‘cut through’ in cluttered communications, advertising and editorial environments. Whether it’s a government trying to bolster support for policies and projects or companies raising awareness of programmes or promotions, this is a tactic which is gaining increasing traction with advertisers.

And media outlets, faced with declining spends on traditional advertising and dwindling audiences, are encouraging the trend. However there’s some news to report here - in some cases media proprietors are encouraging the blurring of advertising and editorial spaces by putting increased pressure and requirements on journalists to write positively about advertisers or devote column space when they usually wouldn’t have covered them. This is a trend occurring from London to New York and right here in Hong Kong.

The key question is whether advertorials are effective in winning support or persuading stakeholders?

Research indicates that advertorials sit somewhere in the middle of readers’ trust levels when consuming print media. People reading magazines most appreciated theme features, those editorial features where brands are presented in small segments of text, according to Peter Neijens, Eva Van Reijmersdal and Erik Do Vos in a paper presented to the International Communication Association. Readers then more appreciated and accepted advertorials than advertisements.

In this new age of conversations digitally and offline consumers are also becoming more demanding in their expectations and interactions from advertising. As a result, greater value and impact is being delivered via other channels - editorial, social media and word of mouth. The key to success with these channels is the credibility, confidence and connections to convince third party influencers who are willing to speak convincingly about a brand, company or government project they support.

There is no doubt though advertorials have a role to play in communications programmes; they are one of many channels to be deployed in the right circumstances. What really matters though is execution – targeted, informative and authentic writing are crucial, together with excellent production.

Put another way, advertisers (shall we say) ‘blowing water’ or spouting on about how wonderful they are in a manner which lacks objectivity in advertorials are wasting their precious marketing budgets and credibility. It’s when advertorials are poorly conceived and produced, providing little value to readers that they grate the most with media consumers – and other, more critical, stakeholders.

Some considerations for communication with audiences via advertorials include:

• Engage –Deliver information that is helpful, practical or will stimulate the audience to want to know more.

• Connect – Build connections with the audience by tapping into their motivations. What are their desires, concerns, expectations or fears? Address those. If there are concerns in media counteract those with your most compelling arguments.

• Integrate – An advertorial that is one-off or part of a limited number is not a good investment, audiences need repeated exposure to messages and concepts. The piece should be integrated with and cross-reference other communications materials, and ideally stimulate the reader so that they want to know more eg online.

• Transparency – Be up front about who you are and what you are trying to communicate. Obfuscation merely raises suspicion. Readers these days are very adept at ‘reading between the lines’.

• Innovate – Don’t fall into the same trap of advertisers who try to imitate the style and layout of the publication, which is merely your vehicle. Provide readers with a better and more interesting experience – they will remember you for that and be open to obtaining more information in future.

Have a drink and bash your client!

2009-10-27T14:19:00.010+08:00

No that's not physical violence we're endorsing, rather an opportunity for overworked and unappreciated (or is that ego hungry) designers, copywriters and creative directors to have a good old whinge!

This is the second Off Brief for the year, with this week's session to be sponsored by DDB. So bundle up your frustrations and get along to the Philia Lounge this Friday from 9.30pm.

Party on the plane - Kiwi style

2009-10-27T00:04:00.009+08:00

Although there's been a lot of buzz about brands dipping into social media campaigns, some have only started to explore this communication channel relatively recently.

Air New Zealand, for example, has started a Facebook campaign in August this year as well as a Facebook Fan Page to promote its London route targeting young professionals.

To extend its online presence offline, the airline organised a "Party on the plane" yesterday and invited its fans and a few bloggers to the event.

A mini-contest went out earlier on Facebook showing fans pictures of the kiwi animal and asking them its weight. Those whose answers came close were then selected to be at the air party.

I saw a few familiar faces from the blogosphere - Jansen Lu and Meling Lam, but that was it.

We got our 'boarding pass' and were allocated seats on business class and yes we were given star treatment for the next few hours.

Air New Zealand's marketing manager Prudence Lau broke the ice by getting everyone to introduce themselves and expose a little secret about themselves in the process.

A few lucky ones were later picked to become unofficial flight attendants for five minutes as they wore life jackets and face masks for the safety demo.

Right after, lunch was served on board. The caterer, Joel Crompton from Gate Gourmet gave us a peek to how airline catering works as well as details on how the food has been cooked. And yes you get the full course on the plane too - from appetizer, the main course to dessert.

After the meal, one of the air stewards, Kenneth walked around to set the 'bed' for some of the passengers.

Unfortunately, we were not allocated time for siesta and after a few snap shots we had to proceed quickly to a wine tasting session of the carrier's wine selection by a connoisseur.

And then it was photo taking with the chef and a bit of wondering around to different parts of the plane for more photo taking.

I had the opportunity to have a quick chat with the air stewardess - Eileen and Hilary and they gladly posed for a shot.

Then, it was time to leave and we were goofing around while waiting for the bus to bring us back to the airport.

(Above) Simon, a Yoga teacher doing his pose by the wing of the plane.

It was a very civilised 'party' and everyone was extremely well behaved - all happy faces as they leave.

Some reflections:

Unlike typical blogger outreach events where you would see the usual suspects, this is a refreshing change.

Sure this is not exactly a blogger event and while there's a school of thought that says influencers (bloggers) are important and they have sort of become mini-celebrities where they get invited to an event because they're in the 'list', they may not necessarily embrace your brand.

Having an ' influencer list' that we can stick to makes the job easier but not necessarily give you the results you want and it might even make you lazy.

It takes effort to engage with your consumers but social media channels such as Facebook or Twitter now allow you to identify who they are and depending on how you interact with them -give you the opportunity to make them your brand ambassadors.

It's definitely not as convenient as inviting a list of influencers that perhaps your competitors are already wooing, but putting in that extra effort does give you a better chance of connecting to your consumers and eventually a higher probability of converting them to become your loyal customers.

Chui Shui Central: Online advertising stalemate

2009-10-23T16:22:00.008+08:00

By Kevin Huang, CEO of Pixel Media Asia

It is new or is it not?

The first ever banner ad was launched in 1996 so theoretically, online advertising is now 13 years old. I guess the answer is it’s not new but not that old either. A teenager to be precise, entering its puberty stage.

Sure, when it was younger, it had its fair share of problems. Back then, it over promised and delivered little. It said it’d change the advertising landscape forever and it didn’t.

Then there was the audience. The only people playing with it were literally playing games and what not and not serious about using it for serious business, work, communications.

And there was the elusive CTR (click thru rate) which was suppose to tell you the half that didn’t work or did work that TV or print couldn’t tell you and of course there were the hundreds of companies trying to be the “standard” creating their own standards, leading to no standards.

Fast forward 13 years and the year is 2009.

It’s grown up and more grounded today and have set expectations the right way. It now has standardization, effective ways to measure credibly and most importantly, the audience.

The right kinds of audience that is addicted to the internet ranging from 13 year olds to 60 year olds who can’t seem to get enough of the endless streams of information that is freely available online and the endless new tools that enable us to connect with one another that much easier.

The impact it has made on our lives have become real to the extent that politicians have won elections using it.

Yes, the promise of the internet has come true. It has started to impact our lives, our world and our future.

With advertising, we can target by almost any audience segment you want and measure almost everything from how people are engaging with your ads, which product appeals most to them and we still measure CTRs.

So with all that being said and done, I recently met with a major advertiser and he indeed was very interested in online advertising.

He asked about new things online, what he can do to engage with more potential customers, how he could impact his bottom line with it. He even mentioned that his 15 year old spends endless amounts of hours online.

I was pleased to hear that but my joy was short-lived.

He ended by saying, TV and Print rates have really come down during in the last six months due to the economic crisis and that he’s going to launch their next major campaign on TV as his boss enjoys watching his ads on TV and now that prices have come down, he can afford to do it.

Thirteen years later with the immense progress we have made as an industry by banding together to standardize ad formats, introduce measurements as well as maturity of audience and their levels of engagement online, we’re back to square one…13 years later, same old issues.

The social media career path

2009-10-21T16:21:00.003+08:00

They’re starting to fall, like a house of cards, and only time can tell who folds next. They’re talented, entrepreneurial, digitally minded professionals who sold the farm for a life of digital evangelism, but it seems digital was not the land of milk and honey it was supposed to be. Now, some of Hong Kong’s most prolific digital agents are falling prey to the darker side of the marketing world, PR.

First it was Thomas Crampton, the former globe-trotting newspaper correspondent for the International Herald Tribune and The New York Times, who turned his name into a powerful blogging brand and digital consultant for media companies. Over a period of six years Crampton built his name as a top tech blogger and through his unique video interviews led an innovative style of unearthing technology and social media trends. Earlier this year Crampton was snapped up by Ogilvy PR Worldwide as Asia-Pacific director of its 360 Digital Influence team, a role which sees him consult, conceive, develop and execute social media strategies for some of Asia’s biggest brands.

Next in line was Napoleon Biggs, founder of Palava Digital and the popular networking event Web Wednesday. Biggs, who spent 12 years building digital companies and consulting to brands like CNN, was lured by Fleishman-Hillard as vice president of digital integration in Asia Pacific, with his experience as leader of Hong Kong’s so-called digerati a major factor. Staying true to form, Biggs broke the news on his blog, saying that after 12 years of a “roller coaster life of internet start-ups”, he decided to suit up and take on a new challenge.

That’s how the game was played for a growing band of ex-magazine and newspaper editors who waved goodbye to their old media ways for a life of blogging. But some like hkcosme.com (aka Meling Lam) admits that making a living is a challenge.
So who’s next? The most likely candidate seems to be Jay Oatway, Hong Kong’s answer to Twitter royalty, a media trend hunter and more recently organiser of the successful Twestival charity events in Hong Kong. Oatway’s Twitter status is now reaching over into other areas like speaking engagements.

What’s interesting here is how social media is allowing those with the technical smarts to build their own personal brand as a stepping stone to bigger things.

Crampton admits this was one of his motives. “It was not about revenue, it was about bringing broader things to me like business opportunities, speaking opportunities and raising my profile in a way that was not possible in a previous era. My blog has always been about my obsession of social media and not something that I could retire to the South of France with.”

As a PR professional he says social media applications like LinkedIn, Twitter and GoogleRankings are employment tools for what he calls a “blogger employment strategy”.

“They have to have a social media profile. We want to get these bloggers out of their pyjamas and into a suit.”

Personal branding on social media is interesting but the wider ramifications it holds for the marketing industry remains to be seen. Some on Twitter argued that Fleishman-Hillard would be in for a rude shock once Biggs joined the team, but whether this is real criticism or just a bit of competitive jostling is anyone’s guess.

The PR sector’s initiative of poaching top digital talent should be applauded, but let’s remember that social media is not a ticket to a cushy job.

This article was first published in the September issue of Marketing

Chui Shui Central: The Problem with Property

2009-10-16T15:40:00.005+08:00

Elmer Cagape, SEO consultant for Beansbox

A reliable barometer of Hong Kong economy has been the state of its property market. A booming property market indicates a healthy economy while sagging property prices is an ominous sign of an impending economic pinch in the territory.

Needless to say, Hong Kong property market is a busy piece of landscape characterized by cut-throat competition. The importance of exploring all marketing channels simply cannot be overstated. However, a sense of urgency in the realm of online presence doesn’t seem to be the order of the day for many property players in Hong Kong.

Mere presence online isn’t even enough. Competing websites try to outdo each other not only to attract steady flow of visitors but also to build brand equity. While virtually all property transactions happen offline, online presence often initiates connection between potential buyers, investors and sellers or landlords and tenants.

Search engine marketing plays well in promoting property websites to their target audience. Consider a company manager of an independent foreign law firm establishing its presence to Hong Kong. Clueless and only armed with hints from Google search results, he hopes to net ideas not only on properties and prices, but also on general living conditions like taxation, bringing pets or dealing with moving services. With one potential client waiting to reward an agent to answer simple questions, a forward thinking firm whose website sits prominently on search results gets one genuine business lead on hand.

As target audience flocks to social networking websites, so are property agents. A random check in Facebook shows Centaline, Hong Kong City Property and a few others have established Facebook pages and Twitter accounts. While this sounds promising, some of these early birds can’t seem to figure out how to make full use of these social networking applications as evidenced by a few test messages and lack of consistent updates.

Even as local property agencies have been relatively lackluster in maintaining online reputation, their counterparts in more matured online markets in America and Europe capitalized on this advantage.

Zillow.com is a media site and marketing platform that real estate professionals can use to connect with buyers and sellers. With its Zestimate proprietary function, home owners and buyers have an idea of a property’s market value. The site also allows homeowners, agents, buyers and sellers to throw in their questions directly to executives via Twitter, something that remains to be seen among Hong Kong agencies as a way to engage with customers.

Other services providers such as Trulia, Cyberhomes and Yahoo! Real Estate in the United States, Savills in the UK and Funda in the Netherlands have flourished in their online presence.

In the past it used to be shiny websites with superior wow factor that literally shone into prominence on numerous obscure award giving agencies. Now, that wow factor has been reinvented before the eyes of web award judges: user-centric layouts over flashy eye candies. No wonder, Landscope, a specialist in luxury properties grabbed Real Estate Standard of Excellence from Web Awards as it focused on integrating map services and property alerts over high resolution photos.

In general, players in the Hong Kong property market still have some catching up to do online compared to their American and European counterparts. The stage for a dominant online local agency is still up for grabs.

Madonna and me

2009-10-14T10:32:00.004+08:00

I jumped into a taxi last night and Madonna was in between my legs... literally!

Not a bad idea though. It's all part of a Warner Music campaign to promote Madonna's last contract album with the group before she heads off to Live Nation. Inside these plastic pouches are collectable badges - six in total - but you need to find different taxi's to get all six.

East Asian Games in Hong Kong... really!

2009-10-12T17:41:00.011+08:00

I'm only just beginning to figure out what those strange statues are that have recently appeared around the corner from our Sheung Wan office.

Yes, believe it or not Hong Kong is hosting the East Asian Games. Where, I have no idea and how... well, I guess only time will tell. After picking up the SCMP this morning and seeing its page two lead about how Dony and Ami (the East Asian Games mascots) had failed to spark any interest, I thought it appropriate to post this photographs of the mascots in Sheug Wan as an example of how these Games are being promoted.

These poor creatures have been sitting in the square for about a week and a half now, with some strategically placed steel rails giving the mascots a lovely touch of city aesthetic. There's nothing sporty about this installation and the description of what they are has been broken and is now resting along side those aforementioned steel rails (see below pic).

The SCMP today (Monday 12 Oct) reported that sales of the mascots - described variously as octopuses, hairy teeth and ugly vegetables - are well below expectations. In some cases shops have been with a sale for days.

With the games just two months away it's interesting to recall a survey (the source of which I'm still tracking) which showed two-thirds of 530 people (aged 18 to 45) interviewed were unaware of the event.

Hong Kong doesn't have the greatest track record for self-promotion and it seems the East Asian Games is no exception.