Showing posts with label MediaAsia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MediaAsia. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
MediaAsia - CampaignAsia: MasterCard Japan asks youths to create their own definition of 'priceless'...
MasterCard Worldwide in Japan is banking on digital to launch an online and mobile campaign titled ‘PricelessMaker’ for young potential card holders in the country...please continue here:MediaAsia: Campaign Asia
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
MediaAsia: How to talk to bloggers
Fleishman-Hillard's Samantha Chan is a familiar face in Singapore's blogging circles. Here is what she had to say about getting bloggers to talk about your product.
Talking to bloggers is only more hassle than it's worth if you don’t know how to. If you think all it takes is giving away a free gift, you’re never going to make any progress with your blogger relations.
The first and most important tip is listen to what your target blogger is saying and listen very closely. This golden rule of communication is underestimated by too many. Most bloggers see their blogs as an intimate avenue of self-expression and thus their online musings offer good insights and clues to their likes and dislikes.
If your target blogger has explicitly stated that he or she finds headphones intrusive, then regardless of how sophisticated your latest range is, they will just not like it. So why waste time convincing them otherwise?
Too many brands make the mistake of targeting bloggers simply because they have a large readership base, but that alone is not good enough.
More importantly, you should consider whether they are relevant to your brand. For example, would your health-conscious, fitness-loving blogger make a convincing spokesperson for your new range of potato chips? If not, move on.
If yes, find ways to make the product relevant to them and their lifestyle. If your target blogger is a freelance model who shows up for events on a regular basis, why not invite her to try out your brand’s most talked about hair-curlers? If she looks good, so does your product.
But be careful as simply giving a blogger a free product does not always work. In reality, this is not genuine advocacy as you cannot ensure a gift will turn the blogger to become truly passionate about your product.
There’s no point running a blogger outreach programme if you don’t spend time engaging with the individuals themselves.
Provide them with an overview of your product, show them how to use it, give them an opportunity to ask questions and find out what’s so great about it. Make yourself useful by sharing some good tips and tricks.
But if you don’t know how to, don’t fret and don’t overpromise the blogger.
So, how do you get started? Take small steps to build a bond. Show bloggers that you want to get to know them, read their blog posts and leave pertinent comments. Saying “great blog post!” is not enough. Sincere and thought-provoking comments count and, trust me, bloggers can tell. Always, always be honest and authentic.
And if they are on Twitter, which most influential bloggers are, follow them and engage in conversation on this microblogging platform too.
Don’t just rely on the virtual world, get physical too.
Attend blogger events, meet-ups and tweet-ups. Identify and attend regular events in your local market. For example, in Singapore, there’s a Social Media Breakfast (SMB) event where bloggers, PR practitioners and anyone else gather to network and talk about all things social media. It’s a great event to start building contacts and identify potential brand advocates as well as naysayers.
Don’t just collect a few namecards and call it a day. You’ll need to build and grow the relationships over time. Continue to engage with them both online and offline, don’t just leave it to the next time you have a product launch.
Got a view?
Email marie.green@media.asia: MediaAsia
Talking to bloggers is only more hassle than it's worth if you don’t know how to. If you think all it takes is giving away a free gift, you’re never going to make any progress with your blogger relations.
The first and most important tip is listen to what your target blogger is saying and listen very closely. This golden rule of communication is underestimated by too many. Most bloggers see their blogs as an intimate avenue of self-expression and thus their online musings offer good insights and clues to their likes and dislikes.
If your target blogger has explicitly stated that he or she finds headphones intrusive, then regardless of how sophisticated your latest range is, they will just not like it. So why waste time convincing them otherwise?
Too many brands make the mistake of targeting bloggers simply because they have a large readership base, but that alone is not good enough.
More importantly, you should consider whether they are relevant to your brand. For example, would your health-conscious, fitness-loving blogger make a convincing spokesperson for your new range of potato chips? If not, move on.
If yes, find ways to make the product relevant to them and their lifestyle. If your target blogger is a freelance model who shows up for events on a regular basis, why not invite her to try out your brand’s most talked about hair-curlers? If she looks good, so does your product.
But be careful as simply giving a blogger a free product does not always work. In reality, this is not genuine advocacy as you cannot ensure a gift will turn the blogger to become truly passionate about your product.
There’s no point running a blogger outreach programme if you don’t spend time engaging with the individuals themselves.
Provide them with an overview of your product, show them how to use it, give them an opportunity to ask questions and find out what’s so great about it. Make yourself useful by sharing some good tips and tricks.
But if you don’t know how to, don’t fret and don’t overpromise the blogger.
So, how do you get started? Take small steps to build a bond. Show bloggers that you want to get to know them, read their blog posts and leave pertinent comments. Saying “great blog post!” is not enough. Sincere and thought-provoking comments count and, trust me, bloggers can tell. Always, always be honest and authentic.
And if they are on Twitter, which most influential bloggers are, follow them and engage in conversation on this microblogging platform too.
Don’t just rely on the virtual world, get physical too.
Attend blogger events, meet-ups and tweet-ups. Identify and attend regular events in your local market. For example, in Singapore, there’s a Social Media Breakfast (SMB) event where bloggers, PR practitioners and anyone else gather to network and talk about all things social media. It’s a great event to start building contacts and identify potential brand advocates as well as naysayers.
Don’t just collect a few namecards and call it a day. You’ll need to build and grow the relationships over time. Continue to engage with them both online and offline, don’t just leave it to the next time you have a product launch.
Got a view?
Email marie.green@media.asia: MediaAsia
MediaAsia: Sir Martin Sorrell's roadmap for Asian domination is key to WPP's future
A conversation with Sir Martin Sorrell is always insightful, even if it tends to verge on the professorial. The WPP boss usually has a prepared message - whether it’s data, digital, China, content or the economy - he wants to get across to the media with something of a missionary zeal.
He treats journalists (and perhaps some of his staff and clients too) much as a teacher might treat a promising student. He listens to your questions politely, engages in some debate, then explains at length why he is right and everyone else is wrong. Each of his points is referenced with the necessary theory, anecdotes, and facts and figures that would make it hopeless to question his argument. Indeed, if ever proof were required that brains will go further in business than any other single quality, then Sorrell would be it.
So, on meeting him in Hong Kong on the eve of his company’s 25th anniversary, it seemed fitting to ask what point in its evolution WPP has now reached in Asia. And where has he got to in his own career?
The full interview with Sorrell will be in Media’s 20 May issue. In it, he looks back at the Asatsu-DK deal (among Sorrell’s most memorable for giving WPP an advantage in that market), the purchase of digital hotshop Agenda (courted by all his rivals) and his reflection on the sad demise of Asia’s iconic agency, Batey.
It was refreshing to discover that Sorrell isn’t averse to the occasional moment of sentimentality about the length of his journey. True, he struggled to recall anything he would have done differently in his career (it would be churlish of him to do so). But there were early recollections of Asia; including a train journey to Guangzhou in 1989 when on seeing Chinese labourers building on a Sunday (while most Brits were in the pub enjoying a long lunch) he had his first personal realisation that China would be a global powerhouse.
Ironically, for all his talk of the region’s significance in the global marketplace and praise for local successes, WPP continues to fill the top jobs in Asia with talent from overseas. When will Sorrell’s line-up of agency heads in the region be replaced by locals?
It’s not a question that sits comfortably with the WPP chief. The holding company’s policy is to try to avoid using expatriates. But in many Asian markets, including China, where the business has grown so fast, the policy is difficult to follow. Understandably, there’s a need to have specialised expat talent in emerging markets. Moreover, expats are seen as culturally neutral across a region as complex as this.
Increasingly though, Asian markets are becoming a source of talent for the rest of the world. Just look at Unilever, which has 400 or so Indian leaders dotted around the world. The trend globally is turning. And as he looks to WPP’s future, Sorrell knows that better than anyone else.
Got a view?
Email atifa.silk@media.asia: MediaAsia
He treats journalists (and perhaps some of his staff and clients too) much as a teacher might treat a promising student. He listens to your questions politely, engages in some debate, then explains at length why he is right and everyone else is wrong. Each of his points is referenced with the necessary theory, anecdotes, and facts and figures that would make it hopeless to question his argument. Indeed, if ever proof were required that brains will go further in business than any other single quality, then Sorrell would be it.
So, on meeting him in Hong Kong on the eve of his company’s 25th anniversary, it seemed fitting to ask what point in its evolution WPP has now reached in Asia. And where has he got to in his own career?
The full interview with Sorrell will be in Media’s 20 May issue. In it, he looks back at the Asatsu-DK deal (among Sorrell’s most memorable for giving WPP an advantage in that market), the purchase of digital hotshop Agenda (courted by all his rivals) and his reflection on the sad demise of Asia’s iconic agency, Batey.
It was refreshing to discover that Sorrell isn’t averse to the occasional moment of sentimentality about the length of his journey. True, he struggled to recall anything he would have done differently in his career (it would be churlish of him to do so). But there were early recollections of Asia; including a train journey to Guangzhou in 1989 when on seeing Chinese labourers building on a Sunday (while most Brits were in the pub enjoying a long lunch) he had his first personal realisation that China would be a global powerhouse.
Ironically, for all his talk of the region’s significance in the global marketplace and praise for local successes, WPP continues to fill the top jobs in Asia with talent from overseas. When will Sorrell’s line-up of agency heads in the region be replaced by locals?
It’s not a question that sits comfortably with the WPP chief. The holding company’s policy is to try to avoid using expatriates. But in many Asian markets, including China, where the business has grown so fast, the policy is difficult to follow. Understandably, there’s a need to have specialised expat talent in emerging markets. Moreover, expats are seen as culturally neutral across a region as complex as this.
Increasingly though, Asian markets are becoming a source of talent for the rest of the world. Just look at Unilever, which has 400 or so Indian leaders dotted around the world. The trend globally is turning. And as he looks to WPP’s future, Sorrell knows that better than anyone else.
Got a view?
Email atifa.silk@media.asia: MediaAsia
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