"The news of my demise is greatly exaggerated"

Hi Everyone,

I know... it's been a long long time.

My only excuse is that I have been quite busy trying to build a business from scratch, keeping up with the change digital landscape, and of course - playing with my iPad.

I promise that from now on, I will get back in the rhythm and post regularly... and now I can do it on-the-go where ever, when ever.

Chat soon.

Another week in paradise

Hi,

Another fun week in the world of digital marketing. All in all, it's been a good week. When I was having a chat with another fellow digiteer, it's good to see how busy all of us are because at least it shows a tangible sign that interest in digital is picking up. Knock on wood and hope it continues...

On a completely unrelated topic. Got a call from Media Magazine the other day asking a pretty relevant question: Did Google hurt the online publishing industry?

My answer is simple: absolutely NOT because Google has finally forced publishers to wake up and smell the coffee! Digital is about accountability and Google's CPC model helped push this agenda... now even the Digital 101 marketers are asking the right questions about accountability and through this, pushing the industry as a whole to own up and start quantifying investments. Best part is that we can now prove success in real, tangible ways...

The best part about all this is that for agencies like us, if we don't wake up and own up, we won't be in business for long...

What do you guys think?

Talk soon.

Yes... I do do work and the result: www.dellswarm.com on Apr 27

Hi All,

Long time no chat. Been pretty busy at work... as most of my friends would know (apologies to all whom I have ignored). Just wanted to post about something that kinda ties back to my first post.

Crowdsourcing is not a new concept (as ID by my friend Lisa W in a recent article). Group Buying is also not a new concept (where a group of people get together to decide on a product they all want and then going to a manufacturer to negotiate group pricing). Lots of sites/blogs dedicated to is... especially for women.

Now imagine this coming from someone like Dell (together with Intel)! Yup... it's true. Starting on May 5, you can get the latest laptop from Dell via www.dellswarm.com OR #dellswarmsg as well as on Facebook (of course).

Check it out.

In short, Dell (together with Intel) has again reinvented the online PC buying model... instead of them telling you ONE PRICE and that's it... you now have a chance to influence the final price by getting your friends together and collectively get the best price.

Going back to my rant: I personally have been waiting 15 years slogging away as a digiteer to finally find a great idea + innovative (and awesome) client which is Intel and by extension Dell via the Intel Inside Program + an incredible creative team which is TUS (shout out you know who you are).

As my first post said: To Twit or not to Twit.... now you Twit because we have one heck of a story.

Thanks team for a collective awesome effort!

Talk soon.

My friend Ranji asked: Can you build a brand across online channels?

My short answer is YES and it can be quantified too...

My long answer:
Ever since I got started in digital/online marketing back in the 'what's the Internet?' days in 1994... the primary argument 'brand agency dudes' used against using online advertising to build brand was hinged on two arguments: a) mass reach and b) TVC/moving images has the impact to be able to dramatize and bring to life key product benefits in 30" A 'banner' just won't cut it. Even when, over the past few years, we see the advent of 'rich' creatives.

NOW ITS DIFFERENT (shouted with glee). comScore tells us that in Singapore, the average monthly time spent online watching video is now just over 200 min. Hmmmm... and pretty much anyone who we want to reach uses the Internet for something or the other in the past week... AND in-banner video... is it time that we digiteers can finally hold our head high and say that online is now also viable brand building channel?

I would think so. The best part is that we no longer need 'estimations' on reach and viewership (ahem) but can quantify down to the last second who, what, when, why, and where....

Not sure about you all out there... but I think we now have a pretty compelling proposition and argument...

So there you brand dudes out there... we digiteers are 'brand dudes' too. OK... now if the creative directors can get it around their heads that a 10" spot on FTA is not the same as a 10" in-banner video... but that's another discussion

Thanks Ranji for asking the question!

Talk soon.

Quantifying social media marketing/advocacy

Had a couple of really good questions from clients last week. Surprisingly they did not come from some of the more digitally savvy clients we manage but rather from two very 'old school' ones. In short, it revolves around how we quantify online advocacy... and more importantly, how does an agency get compensated for this.

Trust me, these questions was not part of 'negotiations' but truly asked to find an answer. At that moment when asked, I really had nothing to say... it really was a good question(s).

However, now I think about it, there may be a couple of ways I would look at putting quantifiable metrics and then put a revenue model around it.

In the mid-nineties, I remember working with a colleague of mine at Ogilvy PR in HK on a project for a Japanese tobacco manufacturer. As you can expect with the Japanese, measurement of success is a very strong component of their business and almost everything we do must have some form of metrics attached. I am pretty sure it's not new to all you PR practitioners out there but for a 'direct marketing' dude, it was an eye opener.

End of the day, the success of any PR campaign is measured by the amount of coverage (free or paid) any specific event/activity. On the most basic level, it's tracking the number of press articles about the event/activity. Obviously the more generated (positive of course) means the campaign was successful.

The question that was asked to her was roughly similar which is how to you quantify success since a) not all write-ups are positive, b) not all publications are of equal stature or reachs the right audience, and c) a one liner mention with no photo is not as good as a small para with photo.

Her solution: a point system which gave a specific point value to each 'type' of write-ups. The points vary dependent on the factors above. Of course these points are weighted and agreed to with the client before implementing. Now we start looking at a simple to understand point driven system to quantify PR and subsequent business value.

So, as you know, my belief that digital marketing is nothing 'new'... all it is a variation on the theme... meaning 'social media marketing/online advocacy programs' is just a variation on what PR practioners, DM specialists, we as people... have been doing for y0nks.... in other words, it's influencer marketing via social media platforms VERSUS a targeted DM with a MGM component, a focus group, a Fam trip for influential journalists, etc.

With this said and in this context, can we not use the point system to quantify online advocacy? Does this make sense? Due to the speed of information transfer in the blogosphere... is it even possible? Now that we put a point system together, can we put a monetary value next to them too so we can start looking at business value versus just success metrics?

Again my answer is still 'not sure' but it is something worth exploring and see if it works or not. End of the day, in order to drive digital marketing growth, digiteers must always strive to ID and establish clear accountability metrics to prove the value to clients.

Well... for those of you who reads this post... come to this week's WW since Ken will be there to share his thoughts and lessons learned whilst running Habbo Hotel. We can chat about this further (if you really want to :-)

Talk soon.

For all of those geeks like me out there

Just saw this surfing around on YouTube.

As I had mentioned in my first post... that I am a geek... I LOVE this video... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkzAJs7NutM

Quick follow up to my last post: found someone who is doing something pretty cool with Twitter... and it is definitely not someone we would think of doing so... http://twitter.com/BofA_help

It's not marketing... but something that can bring tangible business value.

I stand corrected.