Comments on: BRANDS, MARKETS AND THE BORDERLESS CONVERSATION http://sub.adoimagazine.com/blog/index.php/2008/05/30/brands-markets-and-the-borderless-conversation/ The return of the 'blow by blow' Sledgehammer, since the heydays when he wrote weekly for The Star and later, the New Straits Times under the same infamous pen name. Tue, 20 Apr 2010 16:58:23 +0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8 hourly 1 By: Jeff Zweig http://sub.adoimagazine.com/blog/index.php/2008/05/30/brands-markets-and-the-borderless-conversation/comment-page-1/#comment-1093 Jeff Zweig Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:19:12 +0000 http://sub.adoimagazine.com/blog/index.php/2008/05/30/brands-markets-and-the-borderless-conversation/#comment-1093 MA, thanks for the mention in your post! Actually, if you know what you’re doing online, the ideas I mentioned in my post are not really a “tall order”—as long as you have the necessary skillset, experience and understanding of how best to exploit interactive media and as long as you continuously test and monitor what works in terms of social media and other digital marketing strategies. Sure, in order to be able to do this you have to eat, sleep and breathe this stuff but this is what we interactive people do—it’s our job and we like it! I think the key for brands in Malaysia is to make sure they are getting the right advice from interactive agencies with the right knowledge and skillset. At my company, we are so confident in the power of social media, that for select clients we will even work on a 100% value-added billing model whereby we will work for no fee up front in exchange for a share of the revenue generated as a direct result of our efforts. This means if we fail and generate no revenue (or don’t deliver other pre-determined KPIs in certain cases), then the client pays us nothing (or very little) but if the programmes succeed, then the client succeeds and we are rewarded for the effectiveness of our efforts accordingly. In response to a previous post of Ham’s entitled Death of Malaysian Media as Advertisers see it? (http://sub.adoimagazine.com/blog/index.php/2008/03/16/death-of-malaysian-media-as-advertisers-see-it-a-reality-check-on-spin-outspun/) Pete Teo raised an example of when he was invited to be on the advisory panel of a community arts initiative funded by a major telco. I then offered up a few specific ideas about how to extend this excellent idea even further by utilising a range of online strategies and tactics, mostly designed to leverage the power of social media. I wouldn’t characterise the implementation of these ideas as a “tall order”, but simply as one possible approach for exploiting the potential of today’s interactive media for a brand in Malaysia. In regard to MA’s comment about how doing this properly requires “an almost intuitive understanding of what makes people excited, and what would put them off”, in my view this is only partly true. Of course consumer insight is an essential starting point but in the interactive world there are so many ways to arrive at such insights. Yes, we must first understand how the mindset of our target audience when consuming social and other types of interactive media is different when compared to consuming offline media. And we must feel comfortable with the concept of how to leverage social proof (a capable interactive agency with social media skills should know how to do this) and the whole transparency/honesty/openness/admitting-there-are-warts-on-our-brand-and-our-customers-and-other-stakeholders-will-even-respect-us-for-admitting-it-as-long-as-we-do-something-about-it thing. I think this is the more intuitive stuff that MA was referring to. But once we “get” this mindset then why not ask our customers directly what makes them excited or puts them off? There are plenty of low cost (and even free) surveying solutions that can be deployed online in a relatively short period of time. Why not track, monitor and engage with what is being said online about our brand to gain further insights in these areas? There are also plenty of low cost or free solutions available to do this. Jeff Zweig Chief Guru, Web Guru Asia http://www.webguruasia.com MA, thanks for the mention in your post!

Actually, if you know what you’re doing online, the ideas I mentioned in my post are not really a “tall order”—as long as you have the necessary skillset, experience and understanding of how best to exploit interactive media and as long as you continuously test and monitor what works in terms of social media and other digital marketing strategies.

Sure, in order to be able to do this you have to eat, sleep and breathe this stuff but this is what we interactive people do—it’s our job and we like it! I think the key for brands in Malaysia is to make sure they are getting the right advice from interactive agencies with the right knowledge and skillset.

At my company, we are so confident in the power of social media, that for select clients we will even work on a 100% value-added billing model whereby we will work for no fee up front in exchange for a share of the revenue generated as a direct result of our efforts. This means if we fail and generate no revenue (or don’t deliver other pre-determined KPIs in certain cases), then the client pays us nothing (or very little) but if the programmes succeed, then the client succeeds and we are rewarded for the effectiveness of our efforts accordingly.

In response to a previous post of Ham’s entitled Death of Malaysian Media as Advertisers see it? (http://sub.adoimagazine.com/blog/index.php/2008/03/16/death-of-malaysian-media-as-advertisers-see-it-a-reality-check-on-spin-outspun/) Pete Teo raised an example of when he was invited to be on the advisory panel of a community arts initiative funded by a major telco.

I then offered up a few specific ideas about how to extend this excellent idea even further by utilising a range of online strategies and tactics, mostly designed to leverage the power of social media. I wouldn’t characterise the implementation of these ideas as a “tall order”, but simply as one possible approach for exploiting the potential of today’s interactive media for a brand in Malaysia.

In regard to MA’s comment about how doing this properly requires “an almost intuitive understanding of what makes people excited, and what would put them off”, in my view this is only partly true.

Of course consumer insight is an essential starting point but in the interactive world there are so many ways to arrive at such insights. Yes, we must first understand how the mindset of our target audience when consuming social and other types of interactive media is different when compared to consuming offline media. And we must feel comfortable with the concept of how to leverage social proof (a capable interactive agency with social media skills should know how to do this) and the whole transparency/honesty/openness/admitting-there-are-warts-on-our-brand-and-our-customers-and-other-stakeholders-will-even-respect-us-for-admitting-it-as-long-as-we-do-something-about-it thing. I think this is the more intuitive stuff that MA was referring to.

But once we “get” this mindset then why not ask our customers directly what makes them excited or puts them off? There are plenty of low cost (and even free) surveying solutions that can be deployed online in a relatively short period of time. Why not track, monitor and engage with what is being said online about our brand to gain further insights in these areas? There are also plenty of low cost or free solutions available to do this.

Jeff Zweig
Chief Guru, Web Guru Asia
http://www.webguruasia.com

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