BRANDTHINK Malaysia » Insights

Trend Watch: Marketing in the era of the iPad

BRANDTHINK Malaysia — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 03:05:10 +0000

In April, we published a post about how the iPad will change marketing. Now that it’s June and the iPad had the time to sell through 2 million units worldwide (an amazing figure), we are now seeing signs of iPad ACTUALLY changing marketing.

Who’s doing it at the moment?

1. Wired Magazine iPad Edition

Wired recently launched their Wired Magazine June edition and literally set the bar for digital magazines. Designed specifically for the iPad and taking advantage of the benefits of it being digital as well as offering iPad exclusive content, the Wired app quickly became the best-selling app on the iTunes store.

As Chris Anderson, Editor of Wired said in its Editor’s Note, “The tablet is our opportunity to make the Wired we always dreamed of. It has all the visual impact of paper, enhanced by interactive elements like video and animated infographics. We can offer you a history of Mars landings that lets you explore the red planet yourself. We can take you inside Trent Reznor’s recording studio and let you listen to snippets of his work in progress. And we can show you exactly how Pixar crafted each frame of its new movie, Toy Story 3.”

2. Mercedes-Benz to use iPad as sales tool

The program, called Mercedes-Benz Advantage, puts the iPad into the hands of the automaker’s sales force. With the iPad and Mercedes’ new sales tool app, associates will have lightning-fast access to the latest deals, while also providing a quicker turnaround time for customer credit application processes. Benz also says the iPad will help speed up the time it takes to turn-in a leased vehicle. Andreas Hinrichs, Vice President of Marketing for Mercedes-Benz Financial, contends the Apple tablet will “provide a competitive advantage to our dealers by increasing their service levels through a more flexible financing process.”

3. Jetstar to use iPad as inflight entertainment

Jetstar has gone a step further and using the iPad as a point of differentiation to its computer. Australian media has reported that the Qantas-owned budget airline will begin trials of the product in June. Jetstar chief executive Bruce Buchanan said he expected the iPads to prove very popular onboard.

“Given the demand for the iPad so far, I anticipate it will have strong appeal amongst our passengers,” Mr Buchanan said in the statement. ”Based on demand for the iPads as part of the trial, we’ll be looking to roll out the devices across our entire domestic and international network later in the year.”

More to come – for sure

The examples given above are just a handful. As the iPad is launched internationally, businesses and brands around the world are scrambling to create iPad versions of its apps. In Australia, banks and even Domino’s Pizza has launched iPad apps to capitalise on its popularity.

As the platform matures, we’ll see more and more creative use of the iPad to push the boundaries of marketing further and to create new ways to engage with consumers.

If you come across any local or regional examples of brands using the iPad as a marketing/sales tool, do let us know!

Facebook to Advertisers: No low-quality ads

BRANDTHINK Malaysia — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 20:17:51 +0000

Early this month, Facebook unveiled new guidelines on advertising on its performance network. The new guidelines aim to weed out questionable ads on its performance network. Personally, we think it’s a good development as improving the quality of advertising on its performance network will ultimately improve credibility and trust.

Facebook’s advertising guidelines can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/ad_guidelines.php and its promotion guidelines found here: http://www.facebook.com/promotions_guidelines.php

The above information is obtained from affiliate marketer Jonathan Volk, from a more detailed document by Facebook.

Trend Watch: Apple launches iAd – Mobile Advertising with Emotion

BRANDTHINK Malaysia — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 08:36:07 +0000

Steve Jobs previewing the iAd. Image from Engadget.com

At its Developer Preview of the iPhone 4.0 software, Apple launched the iAd. iAd, Apple’s new mobile advertising platform, combines the emotion of TV ads with the interactivity of web ads. Today, when users click on mobile ads they are almost always taken out of their app to a web browser, which loads the advertiser’s webpage. Users must then navigate back to their app, and it is often difficult or impossible to return to exactly where they left.

iAd solves this problem by displaying full-screen video and interactive ad content without ever leaving the app, and letting users return to their app anytime they choose. iPhone OS 4 lets developers easily embed iAd opportunities within their apps, and the ads are dynamically and wirelessly delivered to the device. With the iAd, Apple intends to milk opportunities from impressions on their devices.

Is it game-changing and revolutionary? Time will tell but we believe that it is definitely a market mover for many of us who works in a marketing function.

How will that affect mobile advertising?

It’s no secret that consumers largely have embraced the mobile life. The smartphone market is exploding thanks to the likes of Apple’s iPhone, RIM’s Blackberry and Google’s Android. Steve Jobs have rightly observed that on the phone, the Web plays a less important role compared to the desktop where it is the primary interface. Interaction with the phone happens primarily on the app, and that is where opportunities lie. Having a standard platform that enables us to create interactivity and advertising is always welcomed because it helps us focus on the engagement aspects with the consumer.

Another note to observe is that the implementation of this platform will be on HTML5. With many technology companies championing HTML5 instead of Flash, is it time to milk the opportunities and ramp up the development of HTML5?

Questions to come

There are still questions left unanswered and the details would surface in the next few weeks.

How will Malaysian advertisers buy ad space?

Will the ads be Cost per click? Or by impressions?

Our take

The dust have not settled yet from the launch of the iPad and Apple’s has thrown a curve ball at us. In Malaysia, the iPhone market is still relatively small, but we expect Apple’s approach to mobile advertising will be copied by other platforms and the entire market will move in that direction. In a not too distant future, almost all major smartphone platforms will have its own implementation of the iAd.

As marketers, we will need to consider the implications of reaching consumers on the mobile platform and there are now a variety of ways to do that – via an Branded App (such as Gap’s) or through iAd-like platforms.

In preparation, we should begin exploring and sharpening our methods in creating an experience for our consumers. We will need to understand how consumers will interact with our Apps, or our Ads. We will require data, insights and information to analyze and optimize.

If you believe that the market is still birthing and it’s too soon, consider this: what value will you place on experience, insight and knowledge gathered from real-world results? That power comes only from seeing how your brand engages the consumer in this platform.

Trend Watch: How will the Apple iPad change marketing?

BRANDTHINK Malaysia — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 15:00:53 +0000

The moment has come, Apple today shipped the iPad — billed as a game changer in the tech world. Few product launches have received as much attention as the iPad since the iPhone or the iPod, and those two examples radically changed the music and phone industry permanently.

There are of course those who rubbish the launch of the iPad as nothing more than just an oversized iPhone. They have gone as far as claiming its demise. It’s easy to understand why: the iPad looks like a bigger version of the iPhone and runs the same operating system. However, dig deep into the product and you’ll uncover that many negativity surrounding the iPad stems from comparison with other netbooks and standard notebooks. The real power of the iPad comes not from hardware, but from software. The iPad’s allure will come from its power to change traditional media and consumer behavior along with it.

How will these developments affect you as a marketer? Here are some key areas to consider:

1. The iPad will change printed media

The biggest hopes for the iPad is its potential as a game-changer for publishers. The possibilities range from creation of magazines and books that have the ability to marry the traditional ease of use of a book or magazine and add in the interactivity of digital.

Suddenly, each press, magazine or book comes alive with the ability to add in video, animation and connectivity. The iPad’s relative ease makes the “pick-me-up” factor a whole lot easier.

If the iPad succeeds in changing publishing, it will also change advertising. Advertising in an iPad world will mean integrating into such an environment. The winner will not come from simply making a banner ad within an ad space, but product placement potential, interactivity and targeting to make the ad relevant and alive.

Take a look at Wired magazine’s iPad edition to see the potential.

2. The iPad will change television

It’s no secret that many consumers have become dual-users of media. One eye would be fixed on the television while the other their computers. The iPad will make interactivity a big possibility. It’s easier for consumers to carry in their hand and the intuitive nature of touch screens makes it more natural.

What are the possibilities? Interactivity can be added into all TV programs. Consumers can access sports scores, live statistics and timing during live sporting events. Additional information and images can be viewed following a news story. Voting can conducted during a reality TV show. While there are already applications created for the iPhone and the Blackberry, the iPad provides a bigger canvas to make content easier to consume. It will change the entire experience of watching TV.

3. The iPad will change marketing literature

What’s the current arsenal of sales tool do you have at your disposal? Brochures? Leaflets? Price lists?

The iPad will change the way salespeople do sales calls. You can replace bulky computers with sleek iPads for presentations. The battery life and the size wins any computer hands down and the form factor makes it infinitely more agile than a computer.

You can replace heavy brochures, catalogues and leaflets with the iPad. Plus you can add interactivity into the iPad that makes your brochures come alive. You can help customers customize their products on the spot or fill up an order form. Finally, It is infinitely more updatable than a printed brochure or leaflet.

Gap's iPad application - Digital catalogue and e-commerce site

4. The iPad will change your Agency

Here at BRANDTHINK Malaysia, we’re beginning our own exploration on how the iPad can be utilized for greater marketing purposes. Smart phones have already shown us the great potential of marketing beyond the traditional media and even past the standard computers into the realm of mobile and smart devices. The iPad will add an interesting new dimension.

That means new challenges for us. Our team will will be undergoing new training to adapt. We’ll have to partner with our clients to explore potential applications. How our client’s customers respond to this new era will have to be taken into account and our strategies adjusted accordingly.

5. The iPad will change you.

How are you responding as a marketer?

Are you taking steps to prepare for changes in print and electronic media?

Are you studying the potential of interactivity in your ads, your brochures and your sales tools?

Have you started imagining the possibilities?

– END

To see how the iPad will change business, you can also visit a story by the Huffington Post. Time Magazine also ran a cover story on the iPad in time for the iPad’s launch. Its review is also published here.

To learn more about the iPad, visit Apple’s website at: http://www.apple.com/ipad

BRANDTHINK Tapes, Live on BFM 89.9

BRANDTHINK Malaysia — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 09:32:53 +0000

Recently, we sat down with the kind folks over at BFM89.9 and shared our thoughts on marketing, advertising, agency life and our business. Listen in to our interviews on Malaysia’s business station, BFM 89.9. These interviews were aired on Wednesdays at 1pm on BFM’s Resource Centre.

Episode 1: Marketing 101

Is marketing simply an advertising campaign? This episode explores the basics of marketing for SMEs and how different real-world marketing is from the textbooks.

Episode 2: Exploring Non-traditional Forms of Marketing

Are traditional forms of marketing dead? Join the discussion on how new marketing techniques like social media are changing the way businesses communicate with consumers and whether traditional forms of marketing are still relevant today.

Episode 3: Measuring Returns on Investment

How do you measure the success of your marketing campaign? Explore the different ways businesses should measure their entire marketing function – from ad campaign management, PR campaigns to branding activities – and how measurement can aid in business success.

Episode 4: What Makes a Great Agency, What Makes a Great Client

How do you create a successful partnership between an agency (ad agency, pr agency or events company) and a client? By being pairing a great agency and a great client. In this episode, we discuss about our ideas on what makes a great agency and a great client.

For more about BFM89.9, visit their website at www.bfm.my.

Values of A Really Great Agency

BRANDTHINK Malaysia — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:47:14 +0000

In about 10 weeks from today, BRANDTHINK Malaysia will celebrate 10 years in the marketing communications industry. What started as a boutique ad agency in the year 2000 has grown into an integrated communications group that includes PR, interactive and activation. BT2010 is a passion project to highlight our thoughts and aspirations as we draw closer to our big year. Over the next 10 weeks, we’ll share our List of 10 on what we believe in, our hopes and our dreams for the future.

10 Values of A Really Great Agency

10 years is a really long time in this industry and in that time, I am often asked what differentiate us from other agencies. What makes us unique? Rather than the tired notion of how creative we are, or how good we are at providing great solutions or best thought-out ideas – things that every agency should already be good at – we thought we’d share with you what we believe are values that define a great agency.

1. Integrity
With the recent backlash in financial markets that resulted in the worst economic crisis of our time, the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles is more important now than any other time. Integrity must become a central part of any agency’s DNA in a world that is increasingly dishonest. It used to be tough in our earlier years when we refuse to offer kickbacks, or create illegal transactions as a precondition to win businesses, but in the long run, the trust that is gained from our reputation is the ultimate reward. Great agencies have integrity.

2. Only do something when you know you can do it well
It took us 7 years before we officially marketed our PR unit just because we couldn’t do it well enough until we established a winning team who can. I remember the pain of having to turn down projects because we don’t have the resources to run it or simply referred prospects to other agencies that specialize in their exact need. When we do have the ability to deliver, we made sure our capability is top notch. Only then would clients trust in our ability to deliver. That’s how a great agency gains a great reputation.

3. Love All Thy Clients
The most obvious of values: when you love the client – whether it is the brand, or the person working behind it – you’ll do what you can to help them. You’ll do work that’s better because the clients matter. And you’ll seek out the rush you feel when your clients are delighted by your work. That makes the agency a great agency to work with.

4. Remember the small things
We always look for the big in things. Big projects. Big ideas. Big budgets. But it’s the small things that make all the difference. Sometimes that means doing that extra little things that others will dismiss as insignificant distraction. It means taking small steps and consistently achieving mini-goals. It means never ever letting small mistakes put a mark on your otherwise flawless execution. Only when an agency excels in doing the small things can they become entrusted with the great things.

5. Zero Bullshit
A client once told me that if they have a penny for all the bullshit that walks through their door, they’d retire rich by now. A grave reminder to us that great agencies know that if there isn’t anything good to say – say nothing at all.

6. Be willing to roll up your sleeves and dig in
It’s 8am in the morning and it’s about 3 hours before the looming deadline. The press release has yet to be finalized, and the setup is in a complete mess. Agencies face obstacles like these all the time. It’s the nature of our business. But what separate great agencies from good agencies are how we respond. Great agencies will do whatever it takes to overcome challenges because they know all to0 well that when they are responsible for something, they will never be too high up there to roll-up their sleeves and dig.

7. Everyday is a learning curve
In our years growing up, we remember the countless amount of battles we faced with bigger, more established agencies in new business pitches. We’ve had our fair share of wins and losses but the pertinent thing I remember with all our wins was that we let our expertise, experience and skills trump the day. In the face of established agencies many times our size, what gave us the winning edge was simply that we knew the subject matter better than our competition. Those experiences taught us that great agencies never overestimate themselves no matter how big they grow and continually challenge themselves to learn new skills and acquire new knowledge.

8. Never give up. Never surrender.
If we had given up, we wouldn’t be working with some of our clients now whom we courted repeatedly for years before they hired us. If we have surrendered to stress of projects, we would have accepted sub-standard work simply to escape. If we had taken “no” at face value, we wouldn’t have convinced our clients to embark on unconventional ways to deliver exponential sales. If we were complacent, learning new skills or acquiring new knowledge will never be a habit and we wouldn’t have seen the need to be better versions of ourselves. If we just bow out, we will never become a great agency.

9. If you must give something up, quit gracefully.
Let’s face it. You can’t be good at everything you do. The brick wall is a familiar sight for us and that wall could represent anything. It could be a mismatch of client/agency personalities or conflicting views on the direction to take for a particular project. Sometimes, it may even be caused by an internal dilemma over integrity and legality. We sometimes have to decide whether the cost of scaling that wall is worth the reward beyond it. In that dire of circumstance, great agencies know when to quit gracefully and part ways with dignity and respect.

10. I will confess all my sins and repent.
No agency is 100% perfect. Great agencies however never shifts blame or find excuses. When mistakes are made, great agencies come clean quickly. They take responsibility for mistakes without justifying them; learn from them so that they’ll never repeat; and understand that failing to do this will quickly become another mistake.

What do you think? Do you have your own list of values of great agencies, or feeling we’ve left out any important values? Look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Jui Hong Teoh
Managing Director
BRANDTHINK Malaysia

Our (Work), Presented in Cases

BRANDTHINK Malaysia — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:38:42 +0000

Case studies are a great way to learn new things. Over nearly 10 years, our agency has slowly built a collection of cases that we draw on every year for inspiration, for insight and for principles of success.

Highlighted below is a sample collection of the experiences we have shared with our clients. From our work in advertising, or PR to our recent exploration of social marketing, we hope you’ll find a case here that spark an insight on your own marketing campaigns. (If not, we’re simply a call away. *wink*)

Advertising & Interactive

Apple – The Mac Minute Show – Making radio fun again
We have been working with Apple -- one of our largest clients -- since 2002 in helping them build the brand in Malaysia. The Mac Minute Show represent perhaps the most fun we had in creating a radio campaign – and we really had plenty of fun with it. To date, it’s still the radio ad the sound engineers over at the radio station remember us by.

HotelClub – Who Says You Can’t Enjoy Business Trips? Campaign & Birthday Sale – Promotions help you sell
One of our new regional clients, HotelClub is giving us the opportunity to work on the creative over many countries, and Singapore is just the start. From digital marketing to print advertising, we hope to see the brand continue its rise as the premier destination for hotel reservations online.

JetstarAsia – Plus! Plus! Plus! Campaign
JetstarAsia – KL-SIN Launch Campaign
JetstarAsia represent our second budget airline client in our stable, and the first we have officially launched. The timing could not have been better as Malaysia’s travel industry saw the most aggressive marketing war between the national carrier and the national budget airline. Against the odds, we created a campaign that helped the airline jumpstart its awareness level amidst a highly competitive market and more importantly fill their seats.

Public Relations

Although less than 2 years old, our public relations agency has been a true star in the industry. We have been blessed with incredibly wonderful and challenging opportunities with great clients. Here are some highlights:

Cortina Watch – Launch of Penang Boutique by the Penang Chief Minister
Max Mara – Official Press and Customer Launch, the party was indeed fun!
Caran d’Ache’s Beautiful Writing Instruments
Breitling’s Instruments for Professionals
MAX&Co – Private Preview
Cortina Watch Jewellery Time 2008 – all the way to Singapore
Facet Fire Media Explosion
Davidoff – Official Media Launch

On top of that, we have created a special NewsFeed site that serves as a wire service for our clients to reach the media. Visit BRANDTHINK NewsFeed and preview all our client press releases!

Activation

What is work if you can’t party a little, eh? Well, we are in the best positions to enjoy some of the most dazzling parties of the year. After all, we helped made it successful!

Breitling’s Party of the Year in Malaysia – How did the guest react to the appearance of the VIP in a custom made WWII-era Mustang?

Mac+iPod DiscoveryWeek – iPod Dancers – Imagine those iconic iPod ads coming to life right in the streets of Kuala Lumpur! We had the traffic grooving to our mojo.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEc8j-HUFB0

Apple iPod U2 Launch Party in 2005: One of our earliest and biggest events. To date, we still believe it single-handedly marked the start of the meteoric rise of the iPod in Malaysia. Since then, we have done another iPod Party, and an iMac Party.

How do you reach the highly affluent individuals? With a touch of class and plenty of exquisite wines, that’s how. Moet Hennessy Estates & Wines’s Flavors of the World & Riche Monde’s Cape Mentelle Winemaker’s Dinner.

Social Media

Mac+iPod DiscoveryWeek – Blog, Facebook, and Twitter Campaign – It started out as a quick & dirty way of promoting the DiscoveryWeek event. Today, the DiscoveryWeek blog, Facebook fan page and Twitter are fast becoming a sweet spot for marketing innovation. Next steps? Seeing how to integrate the social media aspects into the on-ground event!

Gap Malaysia & Guess Watches Social Media Campaign – When we first published the Facebook page for Gap & Guess Watches, an industry magazine ran a story on us. At the time, we had 200 odd fans each, and the target was 2000 by the end of 2009. Lo and behold, we hit our target in less than 2 months!

For both our featured campaigns, it marked some of the new initiatives that our client is beginning to explore, including custom Facebook pages and applications. The future landscape of social media is yet to be defined but these initial steps would prove to be a great enabler in the future!

Self-plug: Now is a good time as any to encourage you to join the BRANDTHINK Facebook fan page! Simply click on the Facebook Be A Fan button below and get instant updates on all our agency’s activities!

Interested in hiring our Agency for your marketing, advertising or public relations needs?

Let’s face it: every business is different. Even if your business is in the same industry, you’ll no doubt face unique challenges. Are you looking for a specific case study that is more related to your business? If what you are looking for is not listed here, call us! We might have a case study tucked somewhere we can share.

Call us at 603-22872255 or email us from here.

Insight: Five principles of a great fan base

BRANDTHINK Malaysia — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 12:13:29 +0000

We all know the scenario:

Contest objective that targets a gazillion unknown people.
Competing for media coverage that appears in unknown corners in as many unknown magazines as possible.
Two teenage girls competing with one another to see how many friends they both have.
Database vendor bragging that they have more data than the nearest competitor.

The same with marketing. Every client marketer we know face the looming titanic metric: Numbers. Traffic. Readership. #.

If you start a social media campaign, you’ll probably be tempted to do the same as well: get as many fans, followers, retweets, blog post, etc, as possible.

That’s where you’ll stumble upon the trap of herding quantity with no regard to quality. Sure, a large fan base looks impressive on the outside, but at what cost? It’s a complete effort waster that will ultimately eat into your resources.

How do you stay on the path and avoid a herding mentality? The truth is, doing it right isn’t easy and there isn’t a magic formula or thing that can automate this for you. Over the years, our agency has built upon 5 principles that guide us in our quest to build quality fans.

Principle #1: Make a decision from the start: Quality or Quantity?

Giving quality the lip service is always easy. But when faced with calls for your head at board meetings or post-mortem evaluations, will you still stand firm to your value of quality or quantity? Everyone faces the pressure from higher-ups for quantity. More visitors, more eyeballs, more fans, more followers – generally in the belief that “more” will translate to more sales, more returns, more ROI.

But having “more” isn’t good enough for more ROI. Quality is what generates real ROI. The real focus should be on those who matter: real fans who are real buyers, a great story in a quality publication, and a group of highly potential clients following you on Twitter.

After all, it’s pointless to have thousands of people following you on Twitter or your Facebook page simply to hawk their “insert the latest affiliate/money-making scheme here” idea. In fact, sites like Facebook and Twitter are filled with such individuals that avoiding them will be a huge challenge.

Don’t scramble at the last minute to justify even the best decisions made. Make a decision early on. Write it down. Pin it up on your wall. Have torturously long meetings with your stakeholders and repeat throughout. When crunch time comes, you’ll be able to defend your position that quality matters.

Principle #2: Know when to BUY, SELL or HOLD

Great sales people will tell you that timing is everything. When do you give customers room to move (HOLD)? When do you provide relevant information that assist customers in making the right decision (BUY)? Or when do you aggressively close the sale (SELL)?

Timing is crucial to your success. For example, don’t make every blog post about the latest discount offer, or a sale. There’s definitely room to educate about product features, or even to solicit feedback and conversation.

These same principles apply whether you’re pitching for a sale, or pitching for a story to an Editor, or updating your status on Facebook or Twitter. Don’t simply stalk an editor simply to get your story across, but be a great source of material, even if it doesn’t benefit you one bit.

The right timing will result in building the one most important commodity in business: TRUST.

Principle #3: Invest in Quality

It is in our nature to go with the largest. The largest audience, the largest readership, the largest circulation. Do remember that hidden inside the mass are nuggets of gold. Invest in them. Invest in quality publications that reach quality audiences. Cultivate great bloggers who have great, but not necessarily the most fans. Seek out customers who may not be the year’s most famous socialite but hold their own nevertheless. When you do that right, you earn quality relationships.

Principle #4: Be patient

If you take the time to cultivate solid relationships with your best customers, and repeat the process over and over with your next best customer, sooner or later, you’ll have a lot of good customers.

We learn a huge lesson with several social media campaigns we ran on Facebook, that if you’re not prudent, you’ll end up with a list of fans who’re there simply to hawk their own websites, products or latest schemes. Taking the time to build quality fans and resisting the urge to mass invite and canvas for clicks resulted in a growing fanbase that loves the brand.

Principle #5: Know when to move on

Finally, even the best list requires pruning. Our agency for example, from time to time take stock of our relationships, from our Twitter followers, media lists, suppliers to even our customers and decide if they are worth keeping in the list. Pruning overgrown leaves is essential in keeping a beautiful tree healthy. It gives you amble opportunity to place proper focus on the right people.

Building quality customers requires time. Don’t succumb to the quick-fix of harvesting as many people as you can just to meet some magical number but rather take the time and effort to prune your own tree into something extraordinary. The result is worthwhile.

Do you have a principle that you use to build quality fans? Share it with us, we love to hear from you.

(Work) Kicking of Social Media Campaigns

Advertising — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:49:47 +0000

Online advertising isn’t new. Neither is social media. From the days of BBS, online discussion forums, instant messaging and more recently blogs – social interactions between people online, now referred to as social media – is constantly evolving.

While Internet users used to congregate within portal sites and services the like of ICQ, today there’s a shifting usage trend towards services such as Facebook and Twitter. When the number of Malaysian Internet users joining these popular services grows daily, it is time to take note.

Brands must begin to understand these new platforms to engage and enable deeper communication with their customers. While technologies that enable new interactions are still new and unfamiliar in many ways, we’re beginning to get requests from more of our clients to begin experimenting with it.

New technologies it may be, but the precept of communication still applies. The challenge is how do you use these new tools to enable deeper engagement, particularly if your target market is embracing these tools rapidly.

This week, we have the opportunity to launch two new social media marketing via Facebook pages for Guess Watches and GAP Malaysia. It’s a whole big socializing experiment – and the key objective is to gather feedback on how customers would like to engage with the brands.

Be a fan of these pages, and take part in shaping these new forms of engagement. If you have specific opinions on how these new social campaigns should take shape, we would like to hear from you. Drop a comment in this post!

GUESS Watches on Facebook

GAP Malaysia on Facebook

Gap Malaysia Facebook Page

We love to hear from you, drop us a comment below!

Highlight: Twitter for Business, 101.

BRANDTHINK Malaysia — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 16:51:19 +0000

If your business is looking for ways to leverage on new social media technologies to reach out to customers, then this guide is for you.

Twitter 101: http://business.twitter.com/twitter101

Made by the creators of Twitter itself, Twitter 101 is a friendly instructional guide for any business to create a strategic and effective presence on Twitter. It helps users to foster a collaborative community among customers that are increasingly turning to Twitter as a form of communication. With this guide, you’ll learn the lingo of Twitter, the basics of using Twitter, and some examples and case studies on how Twitter is currently being used for marketing purposes. It starts by answering the first question on any business executive’s mind:

While the technology is fairly nascent, and it will be awhile before it reaches the tipping point in Malaysia, it doesn’t hurt for you to learn more about Twitter now, so you are well prepared to use it when your business is ready for it.

This guide covers quite a variety of topics, which includes:

This guide provides a comprehensive overview on what can be applied in business and gives you a starting point for your own Twitter project. Closer to home, our local clients have began to experiment with ways of reaching their customers via Twitter. Follow a local example at: http://www.twitter.com/discoveryweek. You can also find out more about DiscoveryWeek as a whole here.

Insight: Measuring PR Campaign Performance

BRANDTHINK Malaysia — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 08:32:01 +0000

Measuring PR Campaign Performance

Not too long ago, the yardstick for measuring the success of a PR campaign seemed so simple. Calculate the number of clippings you can generate, or number of times you can get your product or spokesperson on that one program everyone’s watching seems to do the trick. But, PR in today’s market is more complex. We have an explosion of media titles, from satellite TV with multiple channels, countless newspapers, euphoria of new magazine titles and not to mention the Internet. The fragmentation of target audience has reached a tipping point that you can’t simply focus on just one media, or one media channel to reach your audience. Your audience is now everywhere.

Therefore, a different set of KPIs is needed to measure a campaign success. Each KPI act as a second sight, an alternate view of the performance of the media relations effort. It may reveal strengths previously unknown, or loss factors that may have been masked.

1) DOLLAR VALUE RESULT (DVR)

By far the standard measurement test across the PR industry today is the dollar value result. It is simply the value of the media coverage based on the advertising rates of each media. It gives you a base level measurement on how each coverage is worth – if you were to advertise instead. Obviously, the higher the value, the more successful a campaign. But is dollar value result as a metric enough?

2) MEDIA COVERAGE INDEX (MCI)

Dollar Value Result may indicate the value of press coverage you receive, but it masks the breadth of such exposure. Today’s audience is no longer glued to the same channel, or to the same newspaper. In fact, they may not be glued at all considering the countless media options on display today. Suppose your entire dollar value is concentrated on a single source, or on publications that has little or no relevance to your target market, what good is that dollar value to your business?

Media Coverage Index gives you a metric that tracks how well you’re reaching a fragmented audience. With a media list agreed upon at the start, you can track how well your campaign is reaching that media list. A high index means that you’re successful in reaching a higher proportion of the media, while a low index means the breadth of your coverage is too narrow.

To take this further, the media list can be broken down into different tiers, with the top tier representing the media that is consumed by your key target market group. You can give that a higher weightage compared to media that may be less relevant, but still opens up access to your target market.

The end result is that you have a tool to measure how wide the reach of your PR campaign is. The wider the reach, the more exposure you’ll gain. And as we say, the more famous you are, the more successful you’ll be.

3) SHARE OF VOICE RANKING (SOV)

The last metric, perhaps the most important is Share of Voice. It’s important because it’s the only measurement that acts as a benchmark – against your competitors, your industry. It represents a tool that gives you a rather accurate picture on whether you’re a leader in your segment, or a laggard.

Share of Voice ranking is simply a rank measured against your closest competitor, and using the earlier metrics of DVR and MCI to see where you stand among your peers.

A low ranking may mean that you have issues with your product, or that you have little news angle to share. It shows that despite your best efforts, your competitors are doing better. Perhaps a change in strategy is required.

A high ranking on the other hand gives you confirmation on your strategy. It allows you to own the opinion space, to act as key thought leaders in your segment. It gives the impression of leadership among stakeholders, customers, even employees.

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Beyond this three quantitative metrics, don’t forget there are qualitative ones as well. The quality of the content of your coverage is equally important, albeit more subjective in terms of defining what constitutes “quality”. The value of these three quantitative measurements is that it gives you a common ground to benchmark against best practices and results of other campaigns, essentially a standard way to determine success or failure.

Do you have an insight into what metrics you are using to measure success? Share with us, and keep the search for excellence open and alive. Contact us at +60-3-22872255 or visit www.brandthinkasia.com

About BRANDTHINK

BRANDTHINK is Malaysia’s most imaginative agency that helps brands engage with customers through every imaginable touch-points, including Advertising, PR, Events and Interactive Marketing. We’re famous for our work with major clients in luxury, fashion, lifestyle and technology – having launched iconic brands and products in Malaysia and being the go-to agency for reaching the affluent consumer.

Spotlight: Why you’ll enjoy life more with BRANDTHINK PR

PR & Publicity — Tue, 26 May 2009 15:44:05 +0000

PR 101: If you’ve never used a PR agency before this, you’ll be certain to ask “What value can you gain from our PR agency services?” Here are some very quick facts on the benefits of working with BRANDTHINK for your PR needs:

1. A talented team of people to create and manage media databases, craft pitches, compile and disseminate press releases, and spend many many hours reaching out to more than 80 media outlets in the country. That is in addition to countless other stakeholders such as stylists, bloggers and celebrities. And the work never stops.

2. You will inadvertently be preoccupied with many other duties and responsibilities. Our goal here is to be a consistent resource that will pursue PR opportunities on a structured consistent manner, helping your team achieve what needs to be achieved.

3. Because we are focused on PR on a daily basis, we will enjoy more regular contact with the media. The advantage is that we’ll be able to sniff out opportunities more quickly. Perhaps a photoshoot for a jewellery client will require outfits from another. While the media may not have considered your brand initially, our hope is that with our regular interaction with them, we will be in a position to influence a more favourable decision.

4. We can also be a source of new ideas for garnering media coverage, based on our collective insights from all our client base as a whole. Our experience draws not only from PR, but also from our entire group that spans Advertising, Interactive Marketing and Events. New Media? Social Media? There are opportunities out there beyond a simple press release – and we’ll be well positioned to take advantage of that.

Have a PR campaign that needs its day in the spotlight?

Call us at +60-3-22872255 and talk to us.

Spotlight: How famous do you want to be?

BRANDTHINK Malaysia — Sat, 23 May 2009 15:48:41 +0000

Stage 1: Brand recognition – also known as “ya, I’ve heard of it somewhere” is low level consciousness of your product, service or brand in the minds of your consumers. At this stage, your advertising has made perhaps a small inroad. Some people may have come across it and remember your name. However, at this stage brand recognition may not be enough to be effective, as it does not guarantee a sale. (Fame Level: 1/4)

Stage 2: Brand awareness – also known as “Yes, I know that brand” happens when your brand name becomes familiar to large numbers of people within your target market. At this stage, they know who you are, they are aware of what you do and what you’re selling. They may not have bought your product, but they are aware of it. (Fame Level: 2/4)

Stage 3: Brand recall – also known as Brands with Fans. Brand awareness on its own is not enough to generate a sale. For one, a particular brand needs to be part of the selection list of the consumer at the time of purchase. Brand recall occurs when, at the moment of a buying decision, a consumer is able to produce a menu of options from the top of his or her mind without having to be reminded what those options may be. (Fame Level: 3/4)

Stage 4: Brand preference – also known as Fanatic Cult Status Fame. A coveted place to be, brand preference happens when a consumer purposely chooses one brand over the other. (Fame Level: 4/4)

Being famous, in our minds is that your products, services and brands reach a pinnacle of brand preference unmatched by any other. So, how famous do you want to be?

Be Famous > There is a four-stage process:

Stage 1: Brand recognition – also known as “ya, I’ve heard of it somewhere” is low level consciousness of your product, service or brand in the minds of your consumers. At this stage, your advertising has made perhaps a small inroad. Some people may have come across it and remember your name. However, at this stage brand recognition may not be enough to be effective, as it does not guarantee a sale. (Fame Level: 1/4)

Stage 2: Brand awareness – also known as “Yes, I know that brand” happens when your brand name becomes familiar to large numbers of people within your target market. At this stage, they know who you are, they are aware of what you do and what you’re selling. They may not have bought your product, but they are aware of it. (Fame Level: 2/4)

Stage 3: Brand recall – also known as Brands with Fans. Brand awareness on its own is not enough to generate a sale. For one, a particular brand needs to be part of the selection list of the consumer at the time of purchase. Brand recall occurs when, at the moment of a buying decision, a consumer is able to produce a menu of options from the top of his or her mind without having to be reminded what those options may be. (Fame Level: 3/4)

Stage 4: Brand preference – also known as Fanatic Cult Status Fame. A coveted place to be, brand preference happens when a consumer purposely chooses one brand over the other. (Fame Level: 4/4)

Being famous, in our minds is that your products, services and brands reach a pinnacle of brand preference unmatched by any other. So, how famous do you want to be?

How should you measure success?

Advertising — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 01:00:00 +0000

Someone forwarded me this post, and I can’t verify the source. But I think it’s important enough to share (so if you guys know where the source is, do let me know so I can properly credit the author.

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If measurement is so important, what should you and your client measure?

Satisfaction with how well you’re servicing their business, for one. Creativity for another. Strategic thinking. Being proactive vs. saying you’re going to be proactive. Accurate and timely billing. Managing the budget and not going over it. Eliminating surprises, by communicating early and often on all topics. Execution of ideas. Integration of disciplines. Number of media placements, if it’s a PR relationship. Innovative use of media. Number of hits to a web site. And ease of use of the site. Or possibly even number of names captured in an online database that you’ve created for the client. You get the idea.

BRANDTHINK Insight: How to make an offer your customer cannot refuse

BRANDTHINK Malaysia — Mon, 15 Oct 2001 09:38:24 +0000

First published as a two-part series in IT@Work, The Sun, Mon, 8 Oct 2001 and 15 Oct 2001

So, you have already decided on the strategic action to take for your marketing efforts: who to target, where to advertise, what database to use and the promotional mechanism to use. So what next?

At some point, you will have to make an offer that your customer cannot refuse. I’m not talking about your positioning or the value you will bring to your customer once they purchase your product, service or brand. I’m talking about the offer that will make that transaction happen. I’m talking about the elements at which a buyer and seller can shake hands on. Examples of this include the price, product configurations and delivery schedules.

Examining the offer is a crucial part of marketing development. Too many times we expect advertising agencies to weave a magic band and solve all problems. But in reality, that cannot be further from the truth. If you have a great offer, you can get away with bad advertising (not too often though), but if you have a bad offer, no amount of advertising money can make it succeed.

In direct marketing, the offer you make determines the course of action for many of your customers. In fact, the “offer” will contribute about 40% to whether your direct marketing will be considered a success or failure. So, what kind of offers can you construct if a sale is what you’re after?

Pricing

The most common offer is made on the basis of pricing. Typically, during a promotion, you will find that many companies offer discounts off their list prices in order to drive volume. You see this often among retailers of departmental stores. In many cases, you will see retailers run a “loss-leader strategy”, offering a selection of products at a significant discount in order to drive traffic to their store or online catalogue.

Discounts are not the only way to tinker with the pricing. Sometimes, you can offer an introductory price in order to allow new customers to sample your product or service. Usually limited only to new customers, you can focus this offer towards new customer acquisition.

Another way to look at pricing is also to look at ways where you can segment your audience and develop pricing packages specific for each audience. If you look at the telecommunications market, you can see this segment-pricing structure at work with the pre-paid and the post-paid market. Using different tier pricing will allow your business to serve different markets with seemingly different needs (therefore pricing) without cannibalizing the sale of each segment.

Unit of X?

You can change the pricing of your offer by developing a special pricing that is based on volume. For example, instead of offering a 20% discount on a t-shirt, you may offer 2 t-shirts for a lower price. You may also bundle several related products together into one special price. This can also be in a form of special product bundles (think Microsoft Office) or collection sets (think First-day Covers). A client of mine often does this during the festive seasons.

The advantage of pricing it this way is that you will be able to maximize your profits (the margins for selling two items is more than selling one) while at the same time still offer your customers an offer they perceive as valuable. However, you will have to consider this in lieu of your marketing objectives. A larger order requirement will mean less volume of customers and vice versa. You will have to balance between building a large customer base or driving large amount of sales.

Shipping and handling

Perhaps a more appropriate factor to consider if you’re running a direct sales or an e-commerce sales program, is to offer to waive shipping and handling charges. This can be done to encourage sales during a slower period, or can be an incentive for a large order. For example, you can offer free shipping for orders over a certain amount. That way, you can drive action towards a result that would bring in better returns.

Limited time offers

Remember those “buy now and save”, or “for a limited time only” offers? Well, placing a time limit on the offer can help drive action within a specific time frame. What it does is create a sense of urgency surrounding the offer, psychologically influencing your customers to react to the offer as soon as possible. After all, people hate to have missed out on a good offer, right?

Guarantees

E-commerce sites, or direct sales channels for that matter depend on guarantees to drive sales. The guarantee serve as a way to build trust and assurance among their customers that the product or service they buy would be able to meet their needs. Guarantees lower the risk of try-outs for customers, especially if you’re a fairly new company or have a product or service that is not well known yet. Even large branded companies are also offering money-back guarantees for their products.

Incentives

A relevant incentive will most likely pull added response. Incentives can be in the form of gifts that accompany the purchase of the product or contests. Be sure to make that incentive appeal to your target audience. Make it relevant to the needs, wants and desires of your customers.

Incentives don’t have to be completely tied to simply a product purchase. You may offer incentives for an action that you would prefer your customers to take. For example, you may offer an incentive for buying more products, buying it now or in desired quantities. Although incentives can be a great way to drive action, there is still an issue you have to be wary of. Sometimes, customers may be too attracted to the incentive rather than the product. This is a problem if your business depends on repeat business (it should). You will have to ask yourself this question: Are they buying your product or the incentive? You will most likely not see the customers who are more attracted to the incentive than your product again unless of course, you offer them similar incentives.

Valuable Information

Popular among business marketers, an offer for information that is useful to the customer can be a great incentive for a prospect to respond. Although it may not generate immediate sales, an offer for information sources such as white papers, articles or events such as training or seminars may place the prospect into the buying mode. They may not buy now, but at least you’ve put them into the process to do so in the next few steps. Most importantly, you’re beginning to identify the need and the solutions you can offer.

Such offers become even more effective with complex, highly configurable products or services such as consulting, large enterprise systems and even advertising. The prospect may need to go thorough numerous buying decisions such as vendor evaluation and selections before they commit to a purchase. If the information offered directly benefits the daily work of the prospect, you may have positioned yourself to benefit from that relationship.

Deferred payout

Remember those offers from music CD clubs? To be honest, I’ve never seen one in Malaysia, only while I was overseas. The offer I’ve seen is simple: Buy 6 CDs (or books) for $1 and agree to buy six more in 12 months. Frankly I think the idea is brilliant. Another example is a magazine offering 4 trial issues for consumption.

As the marketer, what you’re really putting your foot in is the classic acquisition versus retention approach to marketing. Deferred payout means you’re willing to invest in obtaining the prospect as your customer and patiently reap the rewards over a period of time. You may not see the immediate profits right away. After all, how much can you make selling 6 CDs for $1? On the other hand, what you’ve gained instead is a long-term customer.

Usually, you will be able to break-even on offers such as these after the minimum agreed period is over. The crunch comes when you continue to receive orders from those customers long after the required 12 months. If you remember my article some weeks back about the benefits of customer retention, this is a good example on how to increase the customer lifetime value. Convincing these customers to stay will be a much easier job since they already know who you are, the level of service you provide and your reliability.

Payment terms

Finally, a great way to drive action is to offer flexibility in payment arrangements. Flexible payment arrangements may include offers such as credit terms and payment deferments such as “Pay nothing for 6 months” type of offers. Aptly suited to larger ticket items, the objective here is to make it easier for the customer to purchase from you where he or she may otherwise not be able to do. Auto vehicles, homes, entertainment systems, even furniture businesses usually offer such programs. Offering flexible payment terms could also mean offering your customers a variety of ways to pay for the purchase. This could be accepting major credit cards or other payment methods such as Direct Debits, Cash on Delivery or via Telegraphic Transfers.

Conclusion

That completes an overview of elements you can customize for an offer that you can present to your customers. One of the most exciting things about marketing is that anything is possible. This is where it gets interesting; you can improve the offers on the table (and more complex no doubt) by combining several options into one dynamic offer.

Your offer doesn’t even have to be groundbreaking or terribly original. You just have to be in a position to offer a very good deal to your customers. The best way to determine that is to test them out. Testing factors within a direct marketing campaign has always been the crux of a successful campaign. By testing the elements, you will be able to see which element works best for you and you will end up with happy customers and a healthy bottom line.

[Written by Jui Hong Teoh, Managing Director, BRANDTHINK Malaysia. First published as a two-part series in IT@Work, The Sun, Mon, 8 Oct 2001 and 15 Oct 2001]