[Read it here]

There are many discussions around which media to use for which campaign, how to mix them, integrate them, what should be the weight of digital media…. The trend is definitively around the integration of Social Media and as a matter of fact, it seems most C-suites are calling for social media element in their marketing campaigns.

I think it is wrong.

Do not get me wrong. There is nothing wrong to have a social media campaign.It is only wrong when social media campaign is not integrated with the rest of your media mix. Therefore my story of the day:  Engage consumers using the different media and integrate them into a proper Strategic approach, i.e. write a POEM to your audience.

POEM: Paid – Owned – Earned – Media.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know what you are going to say, this is an old story and all of us know how to use perfectly all channels…(do we really?)

Forrester published a report last December on the definition of paid, earned and owned media.  I believe this is extremely relevant in a time of multiplication of media, technologies, solutions where Marketers have a tendency of jumping to the next technology (I called it the ‘mushroom effect’) which results in an over utilization of the latest technology while loosing progressively the focus on the Consumer.

Now, back to the POEM story. Poets in the olden days need to: have inspiration, write his story on a paper and share it with their readers. In the modern time, it would translate for the Marketers into: have a proper strategy in place, create one single story with multiple channels and share it with your consumers.

1) Have Inspiration / Build a proper strategy.

The most important thing for a writer is to be inspired. You cannot write a story if you have no inspiration. Same thing goes for the marketer who needs to come up with the strategy before tactic, define a proper backbone to his campaign before deciding which technology or tactical action he will use.For example, before deciding to have a micro-site or a blog, decide what is its main purpose and how does it answers the main objective.

2) Write a Story / ONE story only.

When you buy a book, you expect to read a proper story with a proper progression that is revealed through multiple chapters. You might have multiple side stories or a spinoff, but the main story remains as your main direction. Same for your marketing campaign as you need to have one objective, one strategy in place to answer this objective and potentially, multiple chapters (side tactics) to address your overall story.

For example, I might decide to have multiple tactics (from micro-site, to Social media, SEM, Print and radio ad) but they all share the same core strategy, address the same objective even though each dedicated tactic would have its proper own life (here I am not saying to do a copy past of one element to each channel, do not get me wrong)

3) A captivating story / A captivating message.

The success of a book is based on multiple elements and is a difficult recipe to reproduce. Passion, inspiration, style are part of those elements. Readers will like your book because they like your style and the story you tell them. Same for the marketers who need to create a unique story for their consumer to ensure they feel engaged through a genuine messaging. In that case, just having a Facebook ‘Like Me’ button will not work. Having a Facebook page to capture a young audience while your core product line does not address that segment will not work either. Your story should be in line with your brand assets and should inspire your consumers, and it should be real, captivating. This will ensure they might not only like it, but also share it.

4) Using pen and papers / Adapted to the media and devices

Writing a book in the old days only requires a pen and a paper. However, writing your POEM today requires more skills and different media and you need to adapt your message / content based on the device / channel you would use. This means we cannot use the same extract from your TV ad to create a banner or replicate the same website from a desktop to a mobile and a tablet device. Content needs to be adapted to the consumer needs, the device they are using and the location in which they will use it. 
 Suddenly, our role as a Marketer becomes much more complex. For example, websites, the way we know them are dead. Content is dynamic, interactive, the way to measure its success and how to reach consumer is becoming a long journey we need to lean along the way.

5) Please our Readers / Focus on Consumer needs

At the end of the day, we can believe we have the best product, the best campaign but if our consumers think otherwise, then so be it. In an era of Consumer Engagement, where we need to learn on how to give control of our products / campaigns to our consumers, it is critical to put our focus on the right thing.

In this case: the Reader, the Consumer.

Regardless of the quality of our pen and paper, i.e. our creative, technical assets, we should always go back and start with the Consumer Needs. We need to listen to him, take his needs into consideration, and think one step ahead to prepare his journey through our marketing campaign. We might have the most beautiful creative or campaign, if no one is visiting it or buying our product, there is no point.

6) Mix your channels

Finally, the only way to be really successful in 2010 is to use properly each channels. It means we need to understand how to use those channels to deliver our message and mix them intelligently in a proper marketing plan. The ideal situation will be to have the combination Paid, Owned and Earned Media, while the budget allocation is specific to each campaign. In order to do that, we need to understand the new role of those channels. (Which will be another discussion)

To Conclude

The introduction of the new channels, linked to technologies is drastically changing the way marketers, need to think their execution. What used to be an easy job i.e. claiming out and loud “buy my product, I am the best” is becoming way more subtle and precise.

There is not a single solution to this problem but we need to go back to our Basics.

The POEM is one way to do it.

[Read it here too]

Even the best makes mistakes: sonymoviecash and Amazon offer

Talking about marketing and digital integration best practices is a dangerous exercise because it is always easier to criticize or judge a work done by others.

But we understand that even the best of us makes mistakes.  Sometimes we are unable to implement what we preach due to various issues like budget, timing, technical constraints, etc. Simply put, bad things happens…

I guess this what happened today when received an offer from Amazon US and sony through the sonymovie cash summer promotion.

Amazon is one of my all time favorite study case as they have a great customer service; personalized offer and they are regularly leading with new marketing initiatives. They were the first to offer a proper rating, comments, wish list and recommendations for example.

However, a slight accident happened this time round.

I was on my regular blu-ray discs purchase from Amazon USA when I received a cross sales offer with a discount to watch a movie in a theater. Great offer, great idea, great concept! The only tiny problem is that I am unable to benefit from as I lived in Singapore. I am not debating here that the offer should be available across countries but the fact I should not be targeted with that dedicated offer.

So what went wrong? Obviously Amazon has my name, my delivery address and my shipping address. With these data, despite the fact that I might be eligible to the promotion because of my purchase basket, I am not because of my location. Therefore, should not even receive the offer.

My speculation is that Amazon team outsourced the work to an external team. As I did not receive a proper html eDM with my name but a simple generic static email. Most probably one trigger (country location) was not integrated in the selected criteria to send the eDM,

This is not a big deal, of course and as a customer/marketer in that case will not hold grudges against Amazon….

BUT…..

This incident does reflect a couple of things that matters.

First, this shows that marketing and data are becoming even more dynamic and challenging to handle. The usual approach “you buy this so you receive this offer” is not sufficient anymore. Complexities of data, along with globalization of consumer force us to do things at multiple levels and prepare offers that take multiple variables at the same time.

Why should we even bother? Well, just because this is the best way to increase your ROI (this is actually my second point). Amazon and Sony will most probably analyze the campaign ROMI at the end of the promotion and I suspect the result will be lower than the reality because the targeted audience is not the appropriate or relevant in a sense.

In this case, the simple fact you send the eDM to people who are not eligible (because of their country) will artificially lower the number of redeemed coupons.

The numbers determining the success of this campaign will be skewed, hence leading to wrong conclusion.

Everyone make mistakes, but even the slightest mistake can result in larger consequences.

Inception, Christopher Nolan’s most recent movie, is not only a commercial success (generating US$21 million during its opening day, according to Wikipedia) but also well acclaimed among critics with an 87 per cent score from Rotten Tomatoes.

Dear Telco with the red logo,

My company is a subscriber of static IP 10mpbs broadband, which means we paid about S$800 a month for that speed. Not by choice, of course.  It was the only available option supported for our location. Definitely, it is not monopoly in your case. Otherwise CCS (Competition Commission of Singapore) will fine you $989000 like SISTIC.

Anyway, with World Cup just around the corner, my generous CEO gave the approval to install cable TV for the staff as a bonus treat.
Swamped with excitement, the first I did was to call your customer service.
Understand there might be constraints of our ‘shophouse’ local where normal cable network (dynamic Internet or Mio) is not available in the vicinity due to the limitation of your network infrastructure; I attempted to contact you in search for an alternative.

After much waiting and repeating, I was finally routed to 6xxx xx11 after dialing xx88 & xx08.
Your customer service has patiently explained to me on the corporate packages for Mio which sums up as below:
World Cup only: $500 set up + $3090.16 (for all 64 matches)
With Barclays Premier League: $400 set up + $98 (June-July) + $598 (subsequent months)
While I attempted to clarify to her my business unit is not entertainment or F&B outdoor and if I can get a customized proposal to host Mio TV in a closed-door environment, I was given this reply: (exact same words)

“If you want cheap, go home and watch.”

From the selection of words by your customer service officer, I take it that you are not interested in S$4000 business. Please confirm with me if I am wrong.

I tried to tell you this directly but your website makes feedback kind of intricately tedious. (What’s my ID?)

Because it is so difficult to give you business and we have no alternative, this World Cup – we will just hang around the coffee shop downstairs. With beer at $6 per bottle & coffee at $1 per cup, I think we can last through the 64 matches with less than $4000.

Penny for your thoughts?!

Cheers,

The nasty secretary

PS: Telco with the green logo, you are not an alternative because your customer service officer asked me to dial back the same number I dial to. Very worrying… what if you connect the wrong channel?!!

One of the main characteristic or issue of this new world is the regular increase of intrusion in our private life. As a consumer, some of us (like me) hate it, some of us, like the new generation do not seem to care much.

This is a key changes in the way we handle relationships and media. As a marketer, we need to be extremely cautious as creating a relationship with consumer comes with responsibilities. We can not abuse it, nor lack respect.

I am amazed by the new tools and the impact of technology in privacy. Recent examples of Chatroulette that managed to reach the top 1000 rank websites in less than 3 months totally blows me away (information from alexa.com) .

A new website called likebutton.me is now reaching a new level by showing you what your friend like. By using your own Facebook access for example, it will crawl your friend list and display what they might do or like on youtube, pictures, cnn….:=) Fortuantely, this does not include details and profiles of your friends but nevertheless , this is a complete new intrusion in our life.

Most of consumers do not realize the impact of such tools. In the old time…(yeah I know….) we would do statistics and survey to identify segment audiences but we would not have opened up our own address book for this.

As a brand, be careful, please do not abuse it . As an agency, embrace it and again , try not to abuse it.

I am waiting now to see a proper regulation authority to add more boundaries and protect our privacy.

What do you think ?

After several articles written on my first impression of the iPad, I started to use it more frequently on daily activities. I was lucky to be invited to talk to the latest iMedia Brand Summit in Phuket and I confess I brought the new toy.

It was a bit of a strange situation where you want to use it but you do not want to show off (too much…:=) ) . Definitively, this thing is a magnet ! and even though you try to use it on your lap, table, it is so much anticipated in the region that you draw attention and this becomes the key discussion point.

My conclusion after one week : If I have to attend a conference, go on holidays or client meeting, no reason to carry a laptop anymore. Of course, I am still missing multitasking and a real application to mix note (keyboard) + drawing but nevertheless, this is so much easier and faster than having your laptop with you.

iPad is great to tweet, check quickly emails, update quickly a presentation, take note, switch to an App to check BBC news , play 10minutes games, watch 30mn a TV show for lunch break…and battery life is good. I would not bet on the 2 weeks claimed by Apple but should you charge it every alternate day on business trip, you are safe. I did not face any specific issue to connect to Wifi network and the official Apple cover is a must to protect, carry and type properly.

Back in the plane, it is perfect to watch a movie or even play some games or update (again) some presentation.

At home, I do not use my computer in the living room or kitchen anymore. We surf on the iPad for web information or use some dedicated Apps to watch online video news like BFTV for iPhone for example.

Finally, As Gunny said “last time I tried to teach my mother on how to use a computer, I told her to put the mouse on the icon and she physically placed the mouse on the screen…:=) ” Well finally, she will be able to do it now by pressing on the screen the right icon and access content.

Yes, as described in that recent article on media magazine , the iPad is going to revolutionize the way you see computers.

I know…:=) some of you will complain I push Apple products too much..well nobody is perfect…:=)

One of the few things a company should always do is to properly educate its employees on the tools we have to sell to the client – it may seem obvious enough but if you do not know the product itself, how will you be able to sell it?

Hence F5 had a very educational morning today over a heartening breakfast on YouTwitFace (a.k.a. YouTube, Twitter and Facebook or just Social Media) by our GM, Martin Henwood.

Some of the topics covered emphasized mainly on the Twitter phenomenon and the ‘do’s’ and ‘don’t’s. It is interesting to note certain facts that was shared:

· If you follow the correct person/channel correctly, you can build your tweet board into a daily newsletter!

· The average person tweets about 3 times per day. ( I think I tweet about 3 times a week though)

· The average person follows about 200 people (I think I have about 20)

· You can tweet about anything and everything under the sun (yes, including the fact that you are in the bathroom now).

· There is a trend of quitters who ‘unfollow’ you if you do not follow them back, and there is an application that automatically follows the person back if they follow you. Now you know why there are people who has so many followers when they are just tweeting about how blue the sky is.

Of course, the most important thing from this session is to tell us how and what we can tweet, because everything we say represent the image of F5, especially if we tweet in its name. Of course there is no strict rule to follow, but if you are a marketing person, things that you should or should not say becomes common sense to you. Here, I would like to bring up 2 interesting follows I have which we could possibly learn from.

Aside from the friends I have who updates me on whether it’s a rainy day or not, what food they are currently having and if they bought new shoes again… I’m following the CEO of Square-Enix and Square-Enix DLG. (For those who have no clue on what or who is Square-Enix, they are actually one of major producers of Role Playing Games in Japan – think Final Fantasy)

There is a great distinction between following a person and an organization. And Twitter makes it possible to let everyone be just a step away from a famous person – you hear the person’s thoughts, feelings, and you get updated almost every second, if they are active enough. Most of all, you get to understand that while these people don on expensive suits and emits an almighty aura, deep down, they are just like any of us – they laugh, they cry, they talk about the weather and when they write things they do include silly text expressions like T_T and (*`д´).

On the other hand Square-Enix DLG adopts a different type of content in their feeds. As a organization, people expect to have information on their latest games and events. Before when we used to visit website for updates, we know that information is not always updated on the go – you have to go to the coder with the proper text and announcement to put, program it in and bring it live. After that, you need to send a newsletter and let your subscribers know that you have updated your site. With twitter, you can access your account and hit the ‘Tweet’ button to bring an update across to all your followers all in just 5seconds. And you asked how I knew Chaos Rings is the top grossing application in 9 countries, with reviews in over 48 languages? Ask Twitter.

As a company specializing in digital solutions, you will find that our feeds update you on all the latest tips and tricks available online, our recent product and website launches and events that marketers should definitely keep a look out for. Check out our tweet here!

Want to know more about social media? Perhaps these books might help (“,):

Here it comes in Singapore!

4days after shipping from USA, the new all so wanted gadget arrives in my hand. Proudly opening it at 2250 after landing from a trip, I start to open the box as eagerly as kids open their x’mas present…

No surprise, expectations are fulfilled. it is gorgeous….

How does it feel after 24hs ?

A bit heavy to be handled like a book that you carried on the beach but this is undeniable a great high tech piece of computer.

Is the iPad the future of a new kind of computer? Yes. True that it misses a couple of features but it brings more. It brings what laptop brought 20 years ago desktop, a new level of mobility and freedom.

Some USA-only apps

Totally immersed in the iTunes store, I confess I have been buying apps just to try. Some frustrations for the USA-enabled apps like netflix or ABC. Imagine the ABC app where you can watch all episodes of your favorite shows …no more TV needed…

Games

Games…those are more for casual gamers. Some are really great, some fun, some purely nonsensical, the usual mix of games for all. My favorite is dungeon hinter from Gameloft. A real well done Diablo like experience. Yes, Crazy Bird is fun but boring after a while. Yes, Real racing HD is really well done but does not bring the joy of GTA on PSP (however I confess the quality is very impressive)

Marvel apps is a must for all +30 years old who wants to remind the, the old school comic…

Previous apps for iphone are more a random choices of blurry, not working or not acceptable.

Video and pictures

The only moment of tiny pain is to wait impatiently in front of your new toy. It resizes the pictures to your desired format and transfers the video previously purchased. Quality of the videos purchased on iTunes for iPhone is surprisingly acceptable. Pictures quality are excellent with the great slideshow /music features. Navigating iPod has never been so easy

Internet

We know the drill: 75% of websites supports flash and ipad does not.

So this is maybe the only grinding moment of teeth you will have. Yes you can surf instantly and easily but you miss lots of actions. Fortunately for us, vendors will start to release some dedicated iPad apps that will allow consumers to watch their online video or surf differently (New York Times for example)

Despite this, I had a generally very good impression with the function though.

Always online

The main change is online connection. We are reaching here a new level of connectivity where almost all apps I tried requires an online connection to the server. In order to maximize the usage of the iPad, the 3g version seems a must. I will try to hook it up to a 3g-wifi key and let you know.

The best of it : incredibly practical to be carried anywhere, real pleasure to open it and play with it and a more than decent, (was about to say excellent) keyboard that allow you to type, finally, almost like on a regular keyboard.

iPad sets, again, a new bar in consumer electronics. We will review why and how in our next episode.

Gregory Birge

Last week, Steven P. jobs unveiled the new Apple product called iPad. It is a tablet computer which resemblance a giant iPod Touch or iPhone.  It’s 0.5 in thick, weighs 1.5 lb and has in 9.7 in multi-touch screen. You are able to get one at the end of March, sale price starting at US$499.

However, is iPad the iThing that you have dream of? Some reviewers said that it was a bit of letdown as they are hoping for the something that will surprise them and compel them to stampede to the Apple Store yet again, to recreate the phenomenon that iPhone and Touch has produced.

If you are a typical consumer, this iPad maybe nothing fantastic to you. Since you may have already got your Touch or iPhone, it seems that there is no need to get a giant version of them!  Well, I felt that this time round Apple is not targeting the Touch/iPhone mass of users but people that like to read and in love with their App Store.

Currently, in the eBook market, Amazon Kindle is the king. However, with iPad coming out, this is going to change. When Kindle displays books in grayscale, the iPad makes them look like real. This is a great feature and important in creating a new user browsing experience. Also, with its surprising battery that lasts for 10 hours. Schools may load the textbooks into the iPad and create a brand new learning experience! This is the potential of iPad!

With the success we saw in App Store, iBookstore is just going to be another hit. In addition, Apple is opening a store that allow publishers to set their own prices.

For me, I am not a book lover, but I may buy one for my mum. She likes to play games in the App Store but the screen of iPhone is too small for her. So maybe I can buy it for her birthday?

It has been said that “imitation is the highest form of flattery”, and nothing can be more true then looking at various web services that the Chinese who have a flair for imitation have come up with for their own nation below.

Search Engines

Amidst talks of Google pulling out of China on controversy over it wanting to lift filters on it’s Chinese search engine, an imitation website called “Goojje” which sounds like big sister in Chinese.  Another popular search engine based on Google in China is “Baidu”, more than just a search engine it offers many other services such as Maps, News, Video, MP3 and image searches, social networking and even an encyclopedia.

Instant Messaging

There’s only one way to instant message friends in China, and that’s using QQ!
QQ has over 300 million users with more than half of China’s population using it and is especially popular with the younger generation. Aside from instant messaging, it provides many other functions allowing users to create their own avatars, blog, play games, listen to online radio and even keep desktop pets.
It also has their own form of currency known as Q coin where users can purchase QQ related items to personalize their blogs and avatars.

Video Sharing

Aside from Youku, YouTubecn was just recently set up in mid-January this year to mimic Youtube which was banned in China from onwards of 2008 after videos of Tibetan unrest emerged. Youtubecn is also rather clean by Chinese censorship standards  and has been welcomed by the Chinese online community.

The Chinese market has huge potential in terms of providing internet services being the world’s third largest economy with the highest count of Internet users.  This can also be seen from the rapid growth of companies such as QQ as well as the success of Baidu.

It will be interesting to see what the Chinese will imitate or come up with next. However the key to success for the above services are having an understanding of the Chinese language, the psyche, culture and lifestyle of the Internet users as well as providing an integrated and engaging experience where users can have everything they want at their fingertips as demonstrated by the services provided above.