Asian e-Marketing December 2011 by MediaBUZZ Pte Ltd

December 2011

Search Engine Marketing ( Part 2 )

IDC: The Only Researchâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Certainty is UncerSpringboard Top 10 tainty in 2012 , Page 4 Predictions in 2011, page 22

ContentScience is Key inis Website OptimizaYahoo: Insight, tion, Page 37 Not Hindsight!, page 41

Hydra's Integrated OneSearch

Out There Mediaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Juggles Natural andState-of-the-art Paid Search at Once, Advertising Page 43 Mobile Marketplace, page 44

EDITORIAL:

O N L I N E

V E R S I O N

Dear Reader, It remains to be seen, but increasingly it looks like we are heading into a turbulent 2012 well, at least there still seems to be greater optimism in Asia than the rest of the world! By reading this issue of Asian e-Marketing, you should gain a better understanding of what most probably will come next. We included, for instance, a number of surveys and reports that identify several SEO trends for 2012 to help you take actionable steps that should attract more high quality traffic from search engines. Keep an eye on Search Engine Marketing and Optimization to be found in your industry, as it helps you to brave the challenges and uncertainties our industry may have to face next year â&#x20AC;&#x201C; so do go for it! Enjoy reading!

Daniela La Marca Editor-in-Chief Asian eMarketing

DECEMBER 2011

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING (Part 2) RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Five Very Obvious Signs in Spotting a Bad SEO Service Provider

IDC: The Only Certainty is Uncertainty in 2012

Keywords are the Foundation of SEO so put the Effort into finding the Right Ones!

MAGNAGLOBAL: Internet Media is Big Winner in 2011

TECHNOLOGIES & PRODUCTS

The Only Constant is Change

Hydra's Integrated OneSearch Juggles Natural and Paid Search at Once

COMPANIES & CAMPAIGNS

Smaato is Pushing Mobile Real-Time Bidding (RTB) Standards

LEGISLATION

MMA's Universal Ad Unit Guidelines Released for Public Comment

BUZZWORD

Apple Mobile Devices, especially iPad, Widely Used Across Southeast Asia

Yahoo! Study Reveals Mobile Internet Habits

Frost & Sullivan: Cloud Computing will become Mainstream in 2012

IDC Recommends Putting Active Citizen Engagement on 2012 Agenda

GroupM: Global Ad Spending Up by 6.4% in 2012

In 2012 Telcos in APEJ Still Struggle to Redefine Themselves

Regus: Stop Hoping for the Best and Start Planning for the Worst

Black Hat Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Asia Pacific Banks will Outperform Gloomy Predictions in 2012

APPOINTMENTS

How Productive is Work during the Festive Season?

IMPRINT

Search Traffic for the latest Smartphone Models increased significantly in Hong Kong

ADVERTISE WITH US! Take a look at our rates!

Fournaise: Due to Marketing and Sales Misalignment 92% of Prospects are not closed in 2011

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Get Found Online

Find instead of Search: Personalized Content on the Web is becoming the Norm

Content is Key in Website Optimization

Cashing in: Mobile Finance and the Shopping Experience

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

IDC: The Only Certainty is Uncertainty in 2012 Based on the prospect of a turbulent and uncertain economic climate in 2012, IDC forecasted recently in their annual Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan: APEJ) Top 10 ICT Predictions. Although market volatility is at an all-time high, companies will still expect growth in this region. Business leaders are likely to face difficult investment decisions to maintain growth, but businesses will be looking to leverage ICT in newer and more robust ways. "As we head into what looks to be a turbulent 2012, the only certainty is uncertainty. While this region is becoming increasingly resilient to the economic woes of other regions, companies are likely to hedge their bets when investing in ICT in 2012. Pairing caution with ambition, companies will still seek to profit from growth in the region. As consumers and workforces are becoming smarter, more affluent and demanding, companies will need to match their efforts with intelligent spending to avoid getting their fingers burnt in case another worldwide crisis hits," says Claus Mortensen, Principal for Emerging Technology Research, IDC Asia/Pacific. Although IDC acknowledges the risk of a global recession in 2012, the research company does not expect a major impact on ICT spending in Asia Pacific. Against the backdrop of a very uncertain economic outlook for 2012, instead expect that companies in the region will have a somewhat cautious approach to ICT spending

in the coming year. IDC expects ICT spending in the APEJ region to reach US$653 billion in 2012, which is 10.4% growth over 2011. Growth will not be as high as in 2011 as it is expected to drop over the next four to five years but the rate still remains above 9% by 2015. Drawing from the latest IDC research and internal brainstorming sessions amongst IDC's regional and country analysts, the following are the top 10 key ICT predictions in 2012. These trends are what IDC believes will have the biggest commercial impact on the APEJ ICT market. IDC is seeing a new type of enterprise shaping the marketplace: The "Emerging Asian Enterprise". These enterprises are looking to aggressively challenge the traditional MNC model, are hungry for growth and geographical expansion, and have a DNA very different to organizations from mature economies. In these organizations, CIOs are looking at new ways to compete more effectively and shorten the time to market for their IT investments. IDC expects Emerging Asian Enterprises to drive a "new wave" of ICT spend in 2012, as they look to invest in disruptive IT, such as mobility, cloud, analytics and social media. The Value of 1: Asian Businesses Appreciate the Value of Singularity in IT Offerings

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

The complexity of the Asia Pacific market has led to a need and appreciation of "singular" offerings and players where a single portfolio can generate a successful and sustainable business model for the vendor/provider. The classic example is Apple with its focus on simplicity: one mobile phone offering, and one media tablet offering. Prior to Apple, many had touted diversity as the critical success factor in the mobile devices sector but IDC expects ICT companies across the board to consider the "singular" model in 2012 and beyond.

end analytics that can be performed on the increasing volumes, velocity and variety of data that organizations are generating - or Big Data analytics. But the variables and models for Big Data analytics are likely to be entirely new, requiring new analyst skill sets, and IDC believes that the Chief Data Scientist will emerge in 2012 as a job title to help organizations define their "Big Data" strategies.

Making 2 + 2 = 1: Cloud Service Orchestration Services Lead the Drive to Outsourcing 3.0

In 2012, IDC expects that as IT looks to adapt to changing business demands in the light of the current economic uncertainty, the ability to quickly provision IT capabilities and resources will become a key differentiator in the market. As the next wave of workloads move into cloud, IDC believes that it will become increasingly important to standardize and automate IT processes and that automation will be a key focus point for CIOs in 2012. Investments in standardization and automation will enable organizations to dynamically design, deliver and operate agile business services that will enable the flexibility to align with key business processes and ensure that IT becomes more ingrained within overall business operations.

In 2011, IDC estimated that 80% of new enterprise application development was for the public cloud, and by 2015, 20% of enterprise application spending will be cloud-sourced. As a result, cloud service buyers will now have to manage a much larger number of services and vendors, adding a level of management difficulty to what should have been an easier adoption of new services. To counter this, cloud service providers will provide integrated management of disparate cloud services - cloud orchestration - in 2012 and beyond. As a result, the market will not be talking so much about cloud services by 2015, but will consider these as a natural evolution of outsourcing, or Outsourcing 3.0. The Chief Data Scientist will make "Big Data" Relevant to the Business IDC expects that 2012 will see the arrival of a "Big Data" era in the region. Social media interactions, real-time sensor data feeds, geospatial information and other new data sources are presenting organizations with a range of challenges in terms of next generation information strategies, but also significant opportunities. The most useful insights will come though the high-

New Cloud Workloads will emerge: Leading with Automation

The Apps Aggregator: Telco's Innovation Scout Team to Deliver Connected Homes and Hotspots The explosion of digital content and applications delivered on multiple devices over both fixed and mobile networks has brought new opportunities for telcos. Now, they have the chance to aggregate applications and contents to deliver connected, personalized, and user-centric solutions to the end-user. But telcos can only deliver these through focused and

dedicated teams that can identify, bundle, integrate, and launch the "right" business or consumer applications. IDC believes that in 2012, the more forward looking telcos will form dedicated innovation scout teams to find and deliver appropriate applications and content to connected homes, businesses and hotspots. Predictable Failure will become a Strategic Platform Choice Unpredictable IT systems have a big impact on business performance and to overcome this, organizations invest heavily in duplicate copies of servers, systems, data and networks - also known as redundancy. But IDC expects forward -looking organizations to think differently in 2012. Instead of relying on redundancy, virtualization will allow them to build a margin of error into their IT platforms that permits failure. IDC expects this concept to gain traction in 2012 and to become the preferred approach when deploying larger virtualized x86 environments within the next few years. Companies will return to Customer-Centric IT Due to the uncertain economic outlook, IDC expects "customercentricity" to be on the top of the agenda for companies in Asia Pacific in 2012, together with a focus on technologies that help companies increase customer focus, customer engagement, and increase their knowledge of those customers who contribute the most to their business. "Customer-centricity" may not have the same mind share in 2013, if the economic outlook gets better, but IDC expects this customer-focus approach to be an integral part of most companies' IT by 2015.

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

The Fusion of Mobile and IT will pave the Way for a New Workspace

Becoming "Middleclass": SubUS$100 Smartphones Will Deliver New Revenue Streams

will soon demonstrate the same addictive nature to mobile applications as seen in mature markets.

IDC expects organizations to start creating new workspace architectures built around mobility, cloud and data services in 2012. Consumerization has created new demands on the work environment and IDC expects organizations to use desktop refreshes, green field deployments and remote/small site operations as opportunities to pilot new mobile services and solutions in 2012.

Smartphones have ushered in a new era of personal computing, with the shipment of smartphones expected to exceed the shipment of PCs in the region in 2012, a milestone that is most likely never, ever going to be reversed. IDC expects the market to see the introduction of sub-US$100 smartphones in 2012, which will in turn create big opportunities for service providers in emerging Asia. IDC also believes that consumers in these markets

The suspense continues as the only certainty is uncertainty in the coming year. (Source: IDC) â&#x2122;Ś By MediaBUZZ

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

MAGNAGLOBAL: Internet Media is Big Winner in 2011 MAGNAGLOBAL, the strategic global media unit of Interpublic Group and division of IPG Mediabrands, recently released an updated Global Advertising Forecasts, showing media owners' revenue growth for 2011 and 2012 to be slower than previously projected, but still resilient. From MAGNAGLOBAL's +5.2% forecast published in June 2011, global growth has been revised slightly down to +4.7%, totaling $427 billion now, due to the softening of some markets in the second half of the year. The company is monitoring media suppliers' revenues in 63 major markets, representing more than 95% of the world's economy. Its media suppliers advertising revenue projection includes: television (pay and free), internet (search, display, video, mobile), newspapers, magazines, radio, cinema and out-ofhome (traditional and digital) and excludes direct marketing categories such as direct mail or traditional "yellow page" directories. The geography of growth More than ever, emerging economies drove global advertising revenue growth in 2011, posting an average +15.0% growth during the year. Among these developing economies, Latin America posted the strongest growth rates, averaging +13.2%, closely followed by Central and Eastern Europe at +13.0%.

Meanwhile, developed markets grew at much slower rates, such as +1.6% in Western Europe and +3.1% in North America, due to a number of factors including: a strong 2010 comparison, where revenues were up +8.2% compared to 2009; macro-economic slow down and persistent financial uncertainties; the absence of major sporting events or US elections; and natural disasters in Asia. Among individual countries, the strongest growth rates came from: Argentina with +37.9% in the context of a strong inflationary economic growth, China (+22.5%), Kazakhstan (+25.6%), Russia (+20.4%), India (+15%) and Brazil (+10.2%). Eleven countries, out of the 63 analyzed by MAGNAGLOBAL, suffered a decline in advertising revenues, including countries in Southern Europe hit by protracted economic turmoil and political instability, such as Greece: -19.3%; Portugal: -6.9%; Spain: 6.3%; Italy: -2.5%; as well as emerging markets temporarily destabilized by the Arab Spring (Egypt -21%); and Asian countries hit natural disasters (Japan -2.0%, Thailand: -2.0%). Many of the large markets of Western Europe and North America wound up in the middle, typically showing low single-digit growth (UK: +1.8%; Germany: +3.0%; US: +2.9%).

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Among media categories, television, an unexpected winner in 2010 (+12.7%), continued to show strength in 2011, despite the absence of cyclical sporting events or elections in the US. Broadcasters' advertising revenues grew 4.8% to $175 billion, in 2011, maintaining TV's leadership with a 41.0% market share globally. Good audience levels and audience measurement improvements such as the integration of time-shifted DVR viewing into ratings for the first time (e.g. France) made the medium attractive. Out-of-home (OOH) media fared even better: including cinema, OOH grew 6.4% globally, driven by the incremental revenues generated through digital billboards (+19.9%), which have rolled out in various parts of continental Europe and Asia. Other traditional media categories, however, had a tougher year. Radio grew only +2.2%; newspapers revenues were down 2.4% and magazines declined 0.9%. Declining circulation, shrinking readership, internet competition and short term media buying patterns (which penalizes monthly magazines), all contributed to print's decline in developed markets. Things are different in emerging markets, however, where literacy is still increasing and broadband access is still relatively low. In those markets, magazines are growing along with the middle class, and there is enough advertising demand for every media to benefit beyond TV. Overall, print advertising revenues are up by a high single digit percent in emerging markets. The big winner of 2011, however, was internet media. Total internet advertising revenues increased +16.9% to $78.5 billion. While Display subcategories increased +15%, Paid Search reaped the benefits of usage growth and algorithm improvements to reclaim its position as the largest digital revenue driver (+19%). Within Display, online video continues to show impressive growth (+58.5%), reaching $4.7 billion in revenues. Pre- and mid-rolls in online videos now gen-

erate 6% of total internet advertising revenues and 1.1% of global advertising revenues. Even more than online video sharing specialists, TV broadcasters offering free, ad-funded online "catch-up" of long -form, full-length episodes are driving category growth. Overall, coming after a strong 2010 and in a poor macro-economic context, media suppliers displayed a resilient performance in 2011. But the global market is barely back to where it was in 2007 ($423 billion in constant USD), and still smaller in the case of Western Europe (2007: $112 billion, 2011: $106 billion). This reflects that media costs that are still low from a historical perspective. 2012: The BRIC Engine For 2012, MAGNAGLOBAL now forecasts media owners' advertising revenues to grow by 5.0% to $449 billion, which is 1.5% below their previous prediction published in June 2011 (6.5%), due to deteriorating macro-economic perspectives. Their forecast model is based on current, official economic forecasts that are generally predicting weaker - but still positive - growth next year. Uncertainty, however, remains high, especially in Europe. In September, the IMF reduced its global output forecast (real GDP growth) from +4.5% to +4.0%. Although that forecast suggests the world economy would still grow, it's an awkward average between emerging economies that are growing at healthy rates and developed economies that are still sputtering (average: +1.9%, US: +1.8%). In late November, the OECD revised its own global output forecast to +3.4% (including +1.6% for OECD countries and only +0.2% for the Euro area) warning that 4Q11 and 1Q12 could tip negative in most European countries, in line with a 3Q11 slowdown. Greece, Italy and Portugal, in particular, are now expected to suffer full-year recessions in 2012. Other economic indicators, such as industrial production, per-

sonal consumption and business confidence, have been similarly downgraded in recent months and some independent forecasters have expressed increasingly gloomier views. Despite the worsening economic outlook, MAGNAGLOBAL is still projecting a positive growth rate based on a few factors: 1. The well-known "quadrennial" cyclical driver is back, and it is believed that it will be stronger than ever. The incremental ad spending, generated by major sporting events like the London Summer Olympics, or the Poland/Ukraine European Soccer Championship, and the US Presidential Elections, will bring an additional 1% to 2% on top of organic revenue growth across markets. In the US, Political and Olympic (P&O) money will account for three billion dollars of incremental ad spend, mostly on television ($2.4 billion related to the Elections, $600 million generated by Olympic Broadcasts). Meanwhile, major sporting events will help in European markets that are otherwise hit by economic stagnation, such as the UK, which is hosting the Olympics, although the games are broadcast on the ad-free BCC, and Italy where the Games and Soccer tournament will mostly be broadcast by RAI, one of the few European public television groups still allowed to carry a full, all-day advertising load. 2. Big emerging countries will increase their share of global economic and advertising influence. At the end of 2012, emerging markets will represent 24% of global advertising revenues (compared to 7% in 1999) and the four BRICs alone will account for 14% (compared to 3% in 1999). Adding scale to dynamism, the BRIC markets have the capacity to offset part or all of the Western weakness. The four BRIC markets equated to

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

only 10% of Western Europe's advertising revenues in 1999. That ratio will grow to 59% by the end of 2012, and by 2016 the BRIC countries will almost match the size of Western Europe (94%). The BRIC countries contributed to 45% of the global market growth in 2011 ($9 billion out of $19 billion). With a growing proportion of the BRIC countries' population accessing mass media, digital media and Western-style consumption patterns; with Western and local brands competing to position themselves in the top of mind of that emerging middle class, media demand is in excess of supply and inflation reigns. BRIC countries lag behind the global average advertising spend per capita ($80) Russia: $70, Brazil: $60; China: $21, and India: $4. With such structural factors, we expect advertising spending and revenues in those markets to keep growing faster than the general economy, supporting global revenues in their wake. 3. Some lessons learned in 2009 may help avoid a replay. A few major advertisers, e.g. in

FMCG, have since admitted that they may have overreacted back then by cutting advertising expenditure too hard too quickly, which harmed their brands. We believe that this time, even if sales forecasts are being revised downwards, marketers will remember that market shares are still up for losses or gains, including - and perhaps even more so - during a recession, as consumers reconsider their choices. Besides the Western advertising market is still smaller than five years ago, which means prices and net costs per thousand - despite some inflation in 2010/2011 are still competitive and attractive by long term standards. Therefore, brands in various sectors have both the incentive and capacity to invest smartly to boost or defend their market shares. In 2012, advertising revenues will grow by 12.4% in emerging economies, with Latin America still leading the charge (+13.0%) followed by Central and Eastern Europe (slowing down at +7.7%). Asia Pacific will re-accelerate to 8.3% due to the recovery of Japan and the

Top 10 advertising in 2012 (constant USD 2010) Rank

Country

USD

152,887

34.0%

United States

China

33,258

7.4%

Japan

32,113

7.2%

Germany

24,769

5.5%

United Kingdom

19,619

4.4%

France

14,582

3.2%

Brazil

13,134

2.9%

Canada

12,384

2.8%

Australia

12,167

2.7%

Italy

11,337

2.5%

Top 10

326,250

72.7%

Grand total (63 countries)

449,019

100.0%

continued growth of China. Western Europe will slow down at +1.1%. The sports driver will not be enough to offset recession in many European countries: Greece, Portugal, Spain, Ireland will decrease again (between -2% and -6%); Italy and France will be flat at best. UK and Germany will grow below 2%. The biggest growth rates of 2012 will come from Argentina (+26.4%), Ukraine (+21.0%), Indonesia (+16.0%), China (+16.1%), Brazil (+12.0%), India (+13.5%) and Russia (+9.6%). In terms of media market share, internet will grow by 11.2% and outrank newspapers to become the second biggest media category globally, accounting for nearly 20% of global advertising dollars (19.5% at $87.4 billion). The category already stands at 23% in both North America and Western Europe where it even takes the #1 spot in a few markets, such as the UK. Television will receive the bulk of the "quadrennial" bonanza and benefits from the typical concentration of advertisers into leading media at the expense of secondary media during harsh times. TV will grow by 6.7% globally to $187 billion. Newspaper and magazine revenues will shrink by an average -1% and -1.3% respectively, with much deeper drops in Western markets, where circulation losses of 2011 will be reflected in 2012 ad pricing. Radio will grow by 2.2% to $30.4 billion. OOH will also benefit from the "quadrennial" events and the roll-out of new digital (+6.3% to $28.3 billion) platforms. In the UK, the innovative upfront auction process conducted last summer to allocate the most premium London inventory during the Games did not quite meet the high expectations, but the industry is still expected to

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

grow healthily next year. China Takes the #2 Spot

Global Media Owners Advertising Revenues (2006-2013)

Global Advertising Growth by Media Category (2011-2012)

China's advertising market is expected to continue outperforming its already impressive economic growth in 2012, with +16.1% growth. At $33 billion, China will become the second biggest advertising market, ahead of Japan, now third at $32.1 billion. Germany remains the fourth biggest market, some distance behind ($25 billion). Other top 10 markets are - in the following order - UK, France, Brazil, Canada, Australia and Italy. Russia will enter the top 10 in 2013, at the expense of Italy. (Source: IPG Mediabrands)â&#x2122;Ś By MediaBUZZ

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

The Only Constant is Change According to the IAB report internet ad revenue for 2011 is expected to cross a record $30 billion this year. Fifteen years ago this number was a mere $267 million. This phenomenal growth can be attributed to only one factor, change. What has changed? Everything has! The audience, the medium, the message and the delivery. Internet advertising as we know it, started with the first web banner sold by HotWired paid for by AT&T, and put online on October 27, 1994. Today digital advertising encompasses multiple channels including email, display, search, mobile, social, video, etc. Each of these channels in itself has evolved; display advertising now operates through ad networks, ad exchanges, demand and supply side platforms. The creative execution has kept up as well and today IAB recognizes more than 20 types of formats. Generic content has given way to socially customized content and advanced tracking has taken marketing intelligence to a whole new level. The underlying factor is, of course, the way people use technology to consume media.

Nielsen's Southeast Asia Digital Consumer Report on the regions' netizens revealed most users access the internet on a regular basis, the vast majority at least several times per week, if not daily. A large proportion of digital consumers are making use of mobile phone applications. Games-related and Facebook apps are largely the most popular across all six Southeast Asian markets. Online media is capturing a significant amount of digital consumers' media time each week. What does this mean for the marketers, media agencies, brand and campaign managers and supply side vendors like us in Asia? I guess it means we need to avoid looking at the digital canvass through the rear view mirror. We need to embrace the new - whether it's re-targeting campaigns and integrated media buys or video seeding and blog sponsorships. Present day technology and digital media in its various shapes and forms is now ready to cover the entire customer journey from acquisition to sales to post-sales. The closer we work together on this, the quicker we'll grow the industry! â&#x2122;Ś By Amarpal Singh, Marketing Manager, Aktiv Digital

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Apple Mobile Devices widely used across Southeast Asia Effective Measure, a provider of digital media planning solutions in emerging markets, released data reporting Apple's significant market share in Southeast Asia (SEA) during the month ending October 2011.

Apart from Singapore, where iPhone emerged as the most used Apple device with 37.51% share, iPad has the highest usage compared to other mobile devices:

Apple SEA Market Share

14.6 million e-mobile users, accounting for 65.7% of the SEA e-mobile population, used mobile devices manufactured by Apple, RIM, Nokia and Samsung.

The data showed that Apple mobile devices including iPad, iPhone and iPod touch are used by 11.8 million internet users, attributing to 53.1% of the e-mobile population in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Apple has the greatest market share in Thailand and Singapore, used by over 70% of the local e-mobile population.

(Source: Effective Measure)

Top Manufacturers of Mobile Devices

Blackberry ranked third with 6.9% share, while Samsung rounded off the list with a collective 2.6% share. â&#x2122;Ś

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Yahoo! Study Reveals Mobile Internet Habits Through in-depth consumer insights on current internet trends, the evolving digital landscape and online behavior, Yahoo! is able to deliver unique and compelling content experiences which in turn create powerful opportunities for advertisers to connect with their target audiences, in context and at scale. As part of its annual Net Index 2011, Yahoo! conducted a study on mobile internet habits, in conjunction with Nielsen in the Philippines, Synovate in Malaysia, Kantar Media in Vietnam and TNS in Indonesia. Their report revealed that mobile internet is on the rise across Southeast Asia with feature phones, costing less than US$200, playing a significant role in driving this growth. Nokia holds the lead position in the region beating its competitors such as Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and other smartphone manufacturers. Uniform across the region, the youth segment, from 1029 years of age, is using inexpensive handsets bundled with bite-size voice and data plans, for emailing, social networking, Instant Messaging and search. The vast majority of users, with the exception of Malaysians, are on pre-paid plans and spend somewhere between US$12.50 to US$20 per month. Interestingly, home is the most common mobile internet access point, compared to other outdoor locations such as a friend's place, restaurant, school, work and whilst on the move shopping, travelling or waiting. Users "snack" content such as facts, trivia, images, news and graphics. According to Yahoo! it is the second most frequently visited website on a mobile device, following closely behind Facebook and in some markets Google. Indonesia, in particular, has seen a remarkable growth in individuals accessing the internet via their mobile, increasing from 22% in 2009 to 58% this year. This phenomenal growth, owing to the availability of and access to low-cost affordable devices with 'smartphone' functionalities and a low monthly mobile Internet spend (US$12.50 on average), makes Indonesia the most mobile internet ready market in the region. Vietnam has also shown tremendous growth in individuals accessing the internet via their mobile, from 19% in 2010 to 30% this year. Interestingly, this growth has been witnessed in the second tier cities of Da Nang

(46%) and Can Tho (61%), where users are leapfrogging from fixed-line internet access to the mobile Web. The Philippines stands apart as the only country where women (57%) make up a higher proportion of mobile internet users than men (43%). It is also the only country where mobile internet is still in its infancy. However, with 90 million mobile phone subscriptions in the country, the country has a high penetration of internet-capable low-cost feature phones and users are increasingly dependent on these as a Web access device. Malaysia distinguishes itself from other regional markets by having a higher proportion of users on postpaid plans and accessing mobile internet out-of-home. Malaysia should be seen as a country where marketers can leverage the latter end of the purchase funnel and target consumers on the move. "The phenomenal growth of mobile internet in Southeast Asia offers a range of opportunities to brand marketers to tap into the entire journey of a consumer's purchase path," said David Jeffs, Head of Insights for Yahoo! Southeast Asia. "Marketers must start adopting mobile as a platform for building their brand's awareness, consideration and ultimately purchase intent. Whilst mobile marketing is currently in its infancy, we see that this will become a popular channel to complement other mass media platforms." (Source: Yahoo!) â&#x2122;Ś By MediaBUZZ

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Frost & Sullivan: Cloud Computing will become Mainstream in 2012 According to Frost & Sullivan’s predictions, the coming year will be a significant year for the ICT industry globally and in Asia Pacific respectively, as many trends in the industry gain momentum. It is expected that in 2012 cloud computing is set to become mainstream in Asia Pacific. Indeed, approximately 30% of Asia Pacific organizations will have adopted some form of cloud computing by 2012 due to the fact these organizations do recognize the benefits of cloud computing, which are manifold. These benefits include the ability to offer greater business agility, cost reduction and a switch in IT spending from capital investment to operational expenditure. Basically, cloud computing is becoming critical as a means of gaining a competitive advantage for today’s organizations. It is completely a strategic issue. Andrew Milroy, Vice President, ICT Practice, Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific says, “Against this background, the market for public cloud computing is set to reach US$5.8 billion by 2015, growing at a CAGR of 39% between 2010 and 2015." “The impact of the shift to cloud computing will become apparent. One of the first obvious effects of this type of technology is the cloud-driven transformation of whole industries.

The IT industry itself is being transformed by cloud computing as consumers and businesses depend, to a greater extent, on smartphones and tablets.” Platform-as-a-service (PaaS) is set to be the new battleground in the cloud computing industry as PaaS vendors seek to attract developers to their platforms. Today, Force.com has a huge advantage over other platforms as a result of its early entry into the market. Over the last 18 months or so, however, new platforms have come online, supported by major vendors such as Microsoft, Amazon, IBM, Google and VMWare. Two or three platforms can be expected to dominate as a critical mass of applications is developed on each. Other areas with high potential growth include Enterprise Communications and the Telecom sector.

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

The Enterprise Communications market for the entire Asia Pacific was valued at US$4.32 billion in 2010 and the industry is growing in general at about 10% year-on -year, which is very positive. There has been increased consolidation as the industry matures, driven by key players like Cisco, Microsoft, or IBM. In general the services side of enterprise communications and UC (utility computing) has seen increased interest from corporations, who are now more open to having a utility based pricing model on the cloud (pay depending on usage or over a period of time) as compared to CAPEX investment which was capital intensive. According to Pranabesh Nath, Industry Manager, ICT Practice, Asia Pacific, Frost & Sullivan, “This allows them to better manage their finance in a predictable fashion when it comes to technology adoption or upgrades. There is still concern about the security and privacy of data in the cloud, and this is largely a question of trust. Service providers are focusing their efforts in this area, as well as offering corporations private and hybrid clouds to alleviate some of their concerns.” IP Telephony is expected to see high growth compared to analog based telephony in 2012 and growth is expected to be 14.5%. While IP penetration has been increasing it is still quite low in emerging countries such as China, India, or Thailand, for example, when compared to Australia, Japan, or South Korea. Major cities in emerging economies are better connected via IP in relative terms versus Tier 2 and 3 cities.

The emergence of new and innovative solutions in the marketplace is another important factor, as is interoperability of solutions between different players in the market. Enterprise Video growth is forecasted, for instance, to be around 18% to 23% in 2012. Service providers will definitely become more important next year and the focus will shift from customers buying hardware/software based solutions from resellers to buying a managed service from service providers listed earlier in a cloud delivery model. Even so, this shift is expected to be gradual and take place over the next three to four years. Conferencing services in 2012 for audio and web is expected to be around 15% to 25% Nitin Bhat, Partner and Senior Vice President of the Frost & Sullivan ICT Practice Asia Pacific observes that increased smartphone and tablet usage also paves the way for mobile cloud and consumer social networking, which would continue to gain momentum and particularly in enterprise social networking. He adds further that “fixed broadband will make a comeback as the promised speeds and availability begin to be more ubiquitous in more countries in Asia Pacific. On the other hand, telco transformation will initiate intense evolution as more telcos come under revenue growth pressure even across emerging markets. Choice of play in the market would be a decision that can no longer be postponed.” (Source: Frost & Sullivan) ♦ By MediaBUZZ

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

IDC Recommends Putting Active Citizen Engagement on 2012 Agenda These days, citizens are actively seeking engagement on social networks with companies, brands, and products and they are also looking to engage with government representatives in a similar way. Many governments across Asia Pacific, however, are delaying online interaction with their citizens until protective policies for security guidelines are defined, according to the IDC Government Insights report. Across IDC Government Insights' key predictions for the government sector across Asia Pacific, three key themes stand out: 1. IT security is expected to be commoditized in 2012 and any discussion with government entities about ICT solutions needs to have an elaborate security component. Ironically, both vendors and government representatives are unlikely to be fully prepared or equipped to have that conversation. 2. Cloud infrastructure and platform decisions will also get well on the way among maturer countries. Developing nations, on the other hand, will look to cloud solutions to scale up their ICT offerings quickly. 3. Finally, Asia Pacific has seen its fair share of natural disasters recently. Consequently, IDC Government Insights expects smart city initiatives to benefit from renewed government focus to limit the impact of disasters and manage their after-effects.

IDC Government Insights intends to assist government policy, program, and IT leaders, as well as the suppliers who serve them, in making more effective technology decisions by providing accurate, timely, and insightful fact-based research and consulting services. They therefore published recently their Asia Pacific Government Insights 2012 Top 10 Predictions: 1. Information security will be a critical component in government purchases; 2. Proactive interaction by governments with citizens through popular social media will change from novelty to necessity; 3. Government spending and investments will not be significantly affected by the economic struggles in the US and Europe; 4. Mature governments will significantly invest in Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) to prepare for the cloud era; 5. Governments will closely monitor the cloud best practices among public sectors worldwide to define their own cloud deployment road map in their respective countries; 6. Software as a Service (SaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) will see strong mixed adoption between the public and private sector; 7. Government apps will morph from one-way information-centric delivery mechanisms to two-way inseparable services and interaction tools for citizens;

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

8. National broadband initiatives will evolve the education sector and tablets will revolutionize how education is conducted; 9. Bring Your Own Device trends will radically change the traditional function of IT and device management in governments; 10.New funds will be allocated by governments to prepare city infrastructures for natural disasters and the influx of people from urban areas.

"While keeping all senses tuned to maintain awareness of security risks until regulations and policies are finalized is good, online citizen interaction will prove critical to meet the increasing demand by citizens to address their needs and concerns 24/7. Ignoring their calls for interaction may not be wise in a long-run", says Frank Levering, Research Manager, IDC Government Insights Asia/Pacific. Following the release of the global top ten predictions, IDC's geographic, technology and industry teams will be releasing their own specific predictions in the coming months. For more information, visit www.idc.asia/ microsites/predictions/2012. â&#x2122;Ś By MediaBUZZ

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

GroupM: Global Ad Spending Up by 6.4% in 2012 A vigorous Japanese advertising recovery following the nation’s devastating natural disasters coupled with anticipated spending on the Olympics,

munications and has been released by GroupM Futures Director Adam Smith at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference in New York.

European football and US elections will contribute to an estimated 6.4 percent growth in measured worldwide advertising spending in 2012, according to a newly revised forecast in GroupM’s biannual worldwide report, This Year, Next Year, which predicted that globally, 2011 advertising spending in measured media would hit $490 billion, a five percent increase over 2010 spending of $467 billion.

“Japan's advertising recovery has proved substantially more vigorous and resilient than we forecast in our midyear report,” said Smith. Additionally, the so-called ‘quadrennial effect’ of American elections, Olympics and European football are worth an estimated one percent of incremental growth in 2012.

The 70-country forecast also predicted that global ad spending in 2012 would reach $522 billion, a 6.4 percent increase over 2011 spending. The figure is down from an earlier worldwide forecast of a 6.8 percent increase made in July. For the US market, the report predicted 2011 ad spending of $147 billion, a 3.3 percent increase over 2010 spending of $142.5 billion. For 2012, US ad spending should reach $153 billion, representing a four percent hike over 2011. Both those figures were also down from the previous report, which predicted a 3.8 percent hike in 2011 and a 4.2 percent increase for 2012. “Spending growth in 2012 will be driven primarily by local media where we expect $2.5 - 3 billion dollars in political campaign advertising and advocacy initiatives”, said Rino Scanzoni, GroupM’s Chief Investment Officer. “National media will see a slowing in growth as the economy continues to face head winds.” The study is part of GroupM's media and marketing forecasting series drawn from data supplied by parent company WPP's worldwide resources in advertising, public relations, market research, and specialist com-

Smith also pointed out that the report’s forecasts across most of the faster-growing world in 2012 were unchanged from the previous report in July and that those nations account for 66 percent of global ad spending. Measured digital media investment is predicted to provide 43 percent of the global dollar growth in 2012, according to the report. Global digital ad spending is expected to reach $84.7 billion in 2011, a 16 percent increase over 2010, and $98.2 billion in 2012, also representing a 16 percent hike. “We expect digital to comprise 22 percent of all measured ad investment in mature Western economies in 2012, and 12 percent in the faster-growing world,” Smith said. “The predicted respective digital growth rates in 2012 are 11 percent and 37 percent, so the faster-growing world is catching up fast.” Global ad spending on paid inventory in social media is likely to be around $5 billion in 2011 or about six percent of measured online ad investment. Smith said this is probably the largest single growth component in paid -for digital today, on a trajectory which could double to $10 billion within two years. ♦ By MediaBUZZ

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

In 2012 Telcos in APEJ Still Struggle to Redefine Themselves Telecom service providers (SPs) in the region are still stumbling in their transformation to redefine themselves in an ever-converging ICT world where separation of networks and IT are almost indiscernible. Many are struggling to remain relevant to end-users or risk being permanently left behind. IDC foresees that the continued economic turmoil on a global scale could potentially add another dimension of uncertainty to many telecom SPs in the region in the next 12 months, according to the company's Telecommunications 2012 Top 10 Predictions. "The convergence of IT and networks has created an enormous amount of new opportunities for telcos in the region, far outstripping the possibilities that were imagined only a few years ago," says Adrian Dominic Ho, Principal, Telecom and Managed Services, Networking Research at IDC Asia Pacific. "Moreover, the massive delivery of content, and endless addiction of consumers to their smartphones, have reinvigorated growth in broadband and consumer mobility. This insatiable demand of the Asian consumer will also help define the decade for many telcos, especially in uncertain economic times." He continues, "The telcos' manifesto for success in 2012 is one really of common sense, stemming from the need to focus on the three core factors driving ICT spending.

"He adds, "Internally, telcos should also focus on operational efficiency, business transformation and their customer as shrinking margins and increased competition will make internal transformation more critical than ever before." Drawing from the latest research and internal brainstorming sessions amongst IDC's regional and country analysts, the following are the top 10 Telecommunications Predictions in 2012 for the Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) region. These top 10 predictions represent major trends with either the most significant financial impact or long-term market impact across the APEJ region and IDC has grouped them under "Business Process Manifesto", "Customer Manifesto" and "Operational Efficiency Manifesto": Business Process Manifesto 1. Getting Ready for Big Data â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Delivering Hyper Speed to Hyper Connect There is strong evidence indicating that big data has produced numerous benefits for manufacturers, government, health care authorities, retailers, and financial institutions all over the world. Many have experienced increased revenue and competitive positioning, productivity gains, and net margins.

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Big data requires "big pipes" and the need for ultra-fast connectivity to deliver that extra competitive advantage, thus making the network more critical than ever before. There are large incremental potential network opportunities for telcos, especially in low latency networks, and network and bandwidth optimization. Other opportunities for telcos include storage and Analytics as a Service (AaaS). 2. The New Mobile Enterprise From Social-Enabled to Business Outcome Led There are four main driving factors behind enterprise mobility: First, the need to drive increased cost savings from contract and device management. Second, new applications will be integrated into smart devices that will drive sales and delivery execution. Third, customer loyalty and revenue generation will be enhanced by stronger mobile analytics that enables organizations to understand their customers better. Lastly, there will be a need for security and compliance for executive smart devices. 3. The Enterprise Orchestrated Cloud - Outsourcing in a New Dimension In 2011, IDC estimated that 80% of new enterprise application development was for the public cloud, and by 2015, 20% of enterprise application spending will be cloud-sourced. As a result, cloud service buyers will now have to manage a much larger number of services and vendors, adding a level of management difficulty to what should have been an easier adoption of new services. To counter this, cloud service providers will provide an integrated management of disparate cloud services - cloud orchestration - in 2012 and beyond. As a result, the market will not be talking so much about cloud services by 2015, but will consider these as a natural evolution of outsourcing, or Out-

sourcing 3.0. Customer Manifesto 4. Sub-US$100 Smartphones The New Middle Class Smartphones have ushered in a new era of personal computing, with the shipment of smartphones expected to exceed the shipment of PCs in the region in 2012, a milestone that is most likely never, ever going to be reversed. IDC expects the market to see the introduction of sub-US$100 smartphones in 2012, which will in turn create big opportunities for service providers in emerging Asia. IDC also believes that consumers in these markets will soon demonstrate the same addictive nature to mobile applications as seen in mature markets. 5. Content-aware Tiered Pricing Different Strokes for Different Folks Mobile operators will soon start offering tariff plans by segmentation (application specific, time of day, speed, etc.) as well as multi-device plans for smartphone- and tabletusers. Accordingly, unlimited data plans will start being phased out wherever possible and replaced with tiered plans especially for 4G LTE services. Analytics throughout the network will enable planners to understand usage patterns by time of day, device type (e.g. Samsung Galaxy S II vs. iPhone 4), and by application signatures (e.g. peer-topeer, email, video- and audio streaming, FTP, etc.) so that personalized tariff plans can be offered to users and groups of users (e.g. employees working for the same company) strengthening customer retention and loyalty. Most carriers in Asia Pacific are using legacy Operational Support Systems (OSS)/ Business Support Systems (BSS) and thus will need to upgrade or modernize their OSS/BSS to support real-time analytics. 6. Personalized Cloud Services Expanding Cloud Opportunities Organizations will be examining the possibilities of exploiting cloud technologies to collaborate with their customers. This may include

extending their cloud customer relationship management (CRM) system in a collaborative fashion with their clients. The challenge for organizations and service providers will be to guarantee the same enterprise grade experience and performance. Licensing models would have to be modified as the current ones are too prohibitive for many organizations. The potential benefits for telecom SPs include increased bandwidth pull through, managed services, Platform as a Service (PaaS) and application lifecycle management. 7. The Apps Aggregator - Innovation Scout Team The explosion of digital content and applications delivered on multiple devices over both fixed and mobile networks has brought about new opportunities for telcos. With this, they have the chance to aggregate applications and content to deliver connected, personalized, and usercentric solutions to the end-user. But telcos can only deliver these through focused and dedicated teams able to identify, bundle, integrate, and launch the "right" business or consumer applications. IDC believes that in 2012, the more forward-looking telcos will form dedicated innovation scout teams to find and deliver appropriate applications and content to connected homes, businesses or hot-spots. Operational Efficiency Manifesto 8. Wholesaling Infrastructure-asa-Service (IaaS) Capacity - Creating PaaS Opportunities Telecom providers who have built up their cloud infrastructure as a service capacity too rapidly will start looking to fully realize their return on investments (ROI). Telcos could potentially wholesale their spare capacity to existing IT vendors and even other telcos who do not have the deep pockets required to build up datacenters. The other option for telcos is to create PaaS opportunities and claim leadership in this area that has largely been untapped by telcos. IDC believes that this will expand the cloud opportunities for many telcos by a

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

factor of two. 9. Delivering "Super Economics" - Sweating the Assets with Cloud Asia Pacific is now developing cloud networking strategies and architectures to support cloud computing services such as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), PaaS and IaaS. At the same time, "cloudifcation" of the SP's IT systems, edge, and core network starts to make a lot of sense because many, if not most, major SPs will be upgrading their OSS/BSS and service delivery platforms (SDP) in the next three to five years. Telcos would also increasingly look to cloud automation and standardization of many processes to drive further efficiencies.

Most 3G networks are designed to maintain approximately 25-60% overcapacity at the radio base station side and typically 30-50% overcapacity in the packet core. Most 3G operators are still generating over 60% of their cash flow from voice services but the investment in mobile data infrastructure is typically greater than five times that of mobile voice infrastructure. The excess capacity in the radio base station means that the baseband processors are sitting idle or are being underutilized. As such, many telcos will be compelled to virtualize their mobile packet core to ensure that their networks can meet the increased demand expected over the next few years. (Source: IDC) â&#x2122;Ś

10. Virtualization of Mobile Packet Core - Coping with Smartphone Proliferation Stress

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Regus: Stop Hoping for the Best and Start Planning for the Worst Two-fifths (40%) of Singapore businesses do not have a disaster recovery (DR) plan in place for their IT and even more (59%) have no business continuity plan for their workplace requirements. The catastrophic spate of disasters that occurred in 2011, including recent flash floods in the Republic caused by heavy rain, created a standstill in many areas including the central shopping district, resulting in heavy losses for business and hindering human traffic. This has driven the issue of DR to the top of boardroom agendas, highlighting the huge cost to businesses that natural disasters and their aftermath can cause. Although these are extreme examples, the consequences of common events such as fires and vandalism can also seriously damage a business. In order to take the pulse of global business 'preparedness', the latest survey by Regus, the world's largest provider of flexible workplaces, canvassed the opinions of over 12,000 business people in 85 countries and found that a significant proportion of firms are taking a huge risk with their shareholder's assets and failing to take proper precautions. Key findings include:

• 40% of Singapore firms compared to 45% globally do not have an IT DR plan in place ensuring systems are up and running within 24 hours;

• Globally 55% of firms have no workplace recovery that could be available within 24 hours, and Singapore follows this trend with 59% of firms lacking workplace DR;

• Singapore businesses (37%) are more likely to perceive the cost of DR as prohibitive than the global average (33%);

• Over two thirds of Singapore respondents (67%) compared to 55% globally declared that they would invest in workplace recovery if the service were suitably priced;

• Globally, although larger firms are better prepared for disaster recovery than smaller companies, 26% of larger corporates still remain without a DR facility for their IT systems, and 40% have no workplace DR facility;

• Globally, financial services (71%) and ICT businesses (66%) were more likely to have a business continuity plan although more than 40% of firms in these sectors have no workplace recovery arrangement. William Willems, Regional Vice-President for Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia, Regus comments: "The research reveals that, in spite of reports indicating that the average incident can cost up to US$500,000, disaster recovery among Singapore businesses is not as wide-spread as imagined, particularly when it comes to the workplace." According to Graham Pullen, Vice President for OpenText Asia Pacific, "Without a disaster recovery plan and a strong content management infrastructure in place, we find that many business operations are affected when critical information is lost after a disaster. Instead of maintaining continuity, businesses need to spend more time in retrieving or recreating lost information, resulting in increased cost and reduced efficiency. In the aftermath of a disaster, it is imperative that IT is aligned closely with the business to ensure the smooth functioning of the organization."

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Willems notes: "Over a third of businesses in Singapore reveal a high perceived cost of DR, but many also report that they would be willing to pay a monthly fee to access a workplace disaster recovery

facility in case of emergency. This is an important indication that although too many businesses are taking a gamble, their mentality is changing. As affordable products and services become available

around the globe, it is likely that more businesses will finally stop hoping for the best and seriously start planning for the worst." (Source: Regus) â&#x2122;Ś By MediaBUZZ

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Asia Pacific Banks will Outperform Gloomy Predictions in 2012 The banking industry in the Asia Pacific region will show good growth, despite a potentially turbulent year for the financial services industry worldwide, according to the IDC Financial Insights report Asia Pacific Banking Top 10 Predictions. Michael Araneta, Research Director for IDC Financial Insights Asia/Pacific says, "There are several mistaken generalizations about what will happen in Asia Pacific banking in 2012. We correct the notion that many institutions will either fold up or exit the industry, leaving fewer players across the sub-regions, including Asia Pacific. Instead, we expect that even more institutions will compete in our region and drive yet more ferocious market competition, even in already mature banking segments." Araneta continues, "We expect around the same growth of 5.8%, as predicted the year before, in the number of banking institutions in 2012." Several trends from the list of IDC Financial Insights' top ten predictions point towards a dynamic market in the region in the year ahead, such as: 1. The number of banks will grow even further; 2. IT spending growth will decelerate as banks drive down cost ratios to unprecedented levels; 3. Spend on risk management will account for 15% of IT budgets; 4. Longer core banking project implementations will become more acceptable; 5. Asia Pacific banks won't be hit hard by Basel IIIrelated provisions, but can still stumble on the indirect burden of compliance; 6. The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) makes banks think "super-regional";

7. Banks will become more willing to allocate considerable IT dollars to innovation programs; 8. Big Data will find its first successful use cases in risk management and fraud management; 9. The benefits of private and hybrid clouds will gradually relax anti-cloud computing positions; 10. Speed and real-time capabilities are the competitive differentiators to watch out for in 2012. In the area of IT spending, IDC Financial Insights expects banks' external IT budgets to expand by an average of 7% in 2012 over 2011. The growth rate is lower than what the industry has been accustomed to in the past, reflecting a wait-andsee mindset taking hold in the industry at large. However, Araneta adds, "There are also some industry segments and functional IT areas that will see robust IT spending growth. In general, we see healthy IT spending from banks in large, geographically dispersed markets, as well as mid-sized banks that are attempting to become Tier 1 players." Other areas of high spending growth include phased investments in new core banking systems, and their follow-on projects in channels, business process management, and product management systems. Araneta highlights plans of banks to further invest in risk management and compliance, representing a second round of spending on critical systems and process standardization activities that allow banks to cope with adverse economic conditions. (Source: IDC) â&#x2122;Ś By MediaBUZZ

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

How Productive is Work during the Festive Season? Three-fifths of Singapore workers will work during the Christmas and New Year break this year, yet over twofifths believe very little will be achieved. Monitoring work trends, Regus, the world's largest provider of flexible workplaces, asked over 12,000 business people in 85 countries about their intentions to work during the end of year holidays. The survey reveals that although a third of business people will go to the office during the festive season, their levels of productivity are expected to be low, providing little value to their employers and wasting employees' precious home and family time commuting. Key findings include:

• 62% of Singapore business people will work during the end of year festive period;

• A third of Singapore respondents working over the break (33%) will travel into the office to do so;

• 45% of Singapore respondents believe that workers will get very little done in this work time;

• Almost half of Singapore business people (48%) think that staff working over the holidays, mostly tend to use this time to catch up on unfinished tasks. William Willems, Regional Vice-President for Regus Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia notes: "The holiday season is a special time for people to devote to their families and friends without neglecting their work duties.

However, our research suggests many people are not taking full advantage of the break and, if they are also travelling into the office to work, are unnecessarily squandering precious time with their loved ones." "As the developed world faces economic difficulties and rapidly developing countries deal with the challenge of sustainable growth, businesses are under enormous pressure to keep a full head of steam, so it is not surprising that workers use this time to catch up on unfinished work. But are workers choosing to power through the break really producing the best value for their efforts?" "With the holiday season approaching, businesses are ever more focused on how to achieve or improve the work/life balance they offer so that workers can spend time with their loved ones. Particularly workers making the effort to travel in to work with limited transport options and in some cases adverse weather conditions could benefit from using a work location closer to home, reducing time wasted in commuting and maximizing the time they can spend with their families during the break," said Willems. (Source: Regus) ♦ By MediaBUZZ

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Search Traffic for the latest Smartphone Models increased significantly in Hong Kong Experian Hitwise, a leading online competitive intelligence service, revealed that search traffic on the latest smartphone models from Hong Kong internet users has significantly increased over the past six months (Figure 1).

Since 1997, the company has pioneered a unique, network-based approach to internet measurement through relationships with internet service providers around the world and its patented methodology to anonymously capture the online usage, search and conversion behaviour of 25 million internet users.

Figure 1: Weekly share of traffic from each portfolio to All Categories, based on Hong Kong usage

Source: Experian Hitwise Hong Kong, October 2011

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Despite the popularity of the recently launched iPhone 4S on November 11, the data also shows growing interest in competitive products, with search traffic for the

HTC Sensation and Samsung Galaxy R increasing by 279% and 433% respectively, from the week ending October 1 to the week ending October 29 (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Weekly share of traffic from each portfolio to All Categories, based on Hong Kong usage (a closer look at brands excluding iPhone 4S and iPhone 5)

Source: Experian Hitwise Hong Kong, October 2011

Search for iPhone 5 at an all-time high, until the launch of iPhone 4S Leading the way among the wide range of smartphone brands, the search term "iPhone 4S" captured the highest share of traffic, accounting for 0.0437% of all Internet traffic week ending October 29. Share of traffic for the "iPhone 4S" gained momentum immediately after the launch announcement was made on October 4, increasing by 6,395% in just one week from 0.0021% to 0.1364% across all internet keyword searches. Prior to this announcement, due to the long anticipation by consumers, the search term, "iPhone 5" had consistently ranked the highest in terms of share of traffic over the last six months (Figure 1). However, by week ending October 15, traffic from "iPhone 5" had decreased drastically by 96%, and was overtaken by higher search traffic for "iPhone 4S".

"While it's evident that the demand for the iPhone 4S is huge, the smartphone industry continues to be a heated battlefield. Not every consumer prefers an iPhone 4S and there are still many brands in the market competing to capture the attention of smartphone users," said Graeme Beardsell, Chief Customer Development and Marketing Officer, Experian Asia Pacific. "In order to increase the visibility of their products and not fall behind the competition, these companies will require competitive insight, as well as capabilities to monitor search patterns and identify trends in order to plan and execute an effective go-to-market strategy." Growing interest in HTC Sensation and Samsung Galaxy iPhone 4S was not the only smartphone brand that attracted the interest of Hong Kong consumers. As a result of recent launches from HTC and Samsung, share of traffic for search terms "HTC Sensation" and "Samsung Galaxy R" increased by 279% and 433%

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Figure 3: Ranking of the weekly share of traffic from each portfolio to All Categories, based on Hong Kong usage in October 2011

Source: Experian Hitwise Hong Kong, Month of October 2011

respectively, from the week ending October 1 to the However, "HTC Sensation" out-competed it with a product launch in the week ending October 15 and susweek ending October 29. tained momentum in the search arena. (Source: ExIn fact "Samsung Galaxy S" has been a strong player in perian Hitwise) â&#x2122;Ś the last two quarters where it peaked in mid-June in By MediaBUZZ terms of search traffic.

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Fournaise: Due to Marketing and Sales Misalignment 92% of Prospects are not closed in 2011 The Fournaise Marketing Group (Fournaise), one of the global leaders in Marketing Performance, tracked that it helped its marketer clients generate +39% more prospects through their cross-channel marketing and advertising campaigns in 2011 compared to 2010, but claims that 92% of the total prospects captured were not closed by sales forces, according to their CustomerGenerator™. Fournaise CustomerGenerator™ is a unique 3-in-1 Prospect Acquisition & Tracking TURBO-BOOSTER™: 1.

It performance-tracked real time the thousands of ads its marketer clients deployed in 17 media types (traditional, PR, online and mobile) in 20 countries worldwide;

It captured and analysed the millions of prospects generated by these ads and fed them real time to its clients’ Sales Forces; and

It monitored real time the Sales Forces’ effectiveness when it came to following up on, nurturing and converting these prospects into customers.

1. 2011 Key Marketing Performance Results Four-

naise tracked: a) Zooming into selected media types, the prospectgeneration effectiveness of traditional ads increased by +30% compared to 2010 - with referrals (+38%), direct marketing (+35%), print (+23%) and public relations (+20%) performing particularly well. Online continued to slow down with a -10% year-on-year decline in prospect generation, with display ads (-38%) and keywords (-12%) delivering worrying performance results. Mobile failed again to live up to its “next big thing” status and only delivered a small +0.3% growth in the amount of prospects it was able to generate. b) The Business/Revenue Potential Generated by Marketing (BizPM™) grew by +40% compared to 2010 representing a solid increase in the value of prospects automatically captured and fed real time to the Sales Forces of its Marketer clients by Fournaise: confirming the notion that Marketing can be a solid, quantifiable revenue generator. c) 90% of the prospects captured by Marketing were Engagement-ready: they fit the profiles Marketing was going after, had a need to be fulfilled, had started looking for solutions, were exposed to the Marketers’ ad campaigns, raised their hands and said “Talk to me, I

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

am interested”. While they may not have a budget in mind yet, they had voluntarily entered the Marketing & Sales Funnels of the advertisers. d) The 10% balance of prospects captured by Marketing were Salesready: they were already at an advanced stage of their decisionmaking process, had a budget and an implementation timing in mind, were considering several solutions/ providers and were not far from signing on the dotted line. 2. 2011 Key Sales Force Performance Results Fournaise tracked: a) Sales forces only converted 8% of the marketing-generated prospects on average. b) 80% of prospects were not followed up on by sales forces within 48 hours of their capture - highlighting the need for sales forces to react faster to gain a bigger competitive edge. c) 10% of the marketing-generated prospects were scored “hot” by sales forces because of their high conversion potential within the short term. These were the very sales-ready prospects sales forces were understandingly interested in, and in which they invested more than 80% of their time and efforts following up on. d) The 90% balance of marketinggenerated prospects were scored by sales forces “warm” (60%) and “dry” (30%) - highlighting the need for these prospects to be nurtured over time before they potentially become sales-ready.

loss rates and increase conversion rates down the line for “warm” and “dry” prospects was to better align marketing and sales expectations/ processes, and to either move the nurturing of these prospects under the responsibility of marketing or under that of a pre-sales team dedicated to grooming engagementready prospects into sales-ready ones. e) 70% of the prospect conversions could be attributed to the top 20% sales representatives, confirming that Prospect Acquisition Performance Boosting solutions like Fournaise Customer Generator™ make the performing sales representatives shine and put the spotlight on the under-performing ones, creating a natural performance-driven ecosystem within organizations, and enabling top management to implement more business-effective sales force reward and motivation programs. “Marketing will always have to generate and catch more prospects, and sales will always have to follow up and convert more: that’s the job of both groups, that’s what they are paid for and that’s what CEOs, boards and share-holders expect of them” said Jerome Fontaine, CEO and Chief Tracker of Fournaise. “Given the tough economic environment, the key to solid business growth is to ensure that marketing and sales work as one single unit to be 100% aligned on the type of prospects they are looking for (engagement-ready and/or salesready), on the type of follow-ups

they should implement, the type of nurturing programs they should deploy, and have clarity over who is responsible for what parts of the nurturing and conversion process. This marketing-sales alignment can only be put in place by the ultimate business drivers: the CEOs”, he added. “We’ve performance-tracked that prospect conversion rates can be up to three times higher in organizations where marketing and sales are aligned compared to those where both groups work in silos and with different agendas” Fontaine concluded. Sales and marketing have been complaining about each other for the longest time: for sales, marketing is not delivering enough qualified prospects; for marketing, sales is wasting too many prospects and is not converting enough and it’s good to know that Fournaise’s solutions can track and boost the performance of any marketing strategy and any ad campaign, in any media (traditional, online and mobile), on any audience, anywhere in the world - automatically, seamlessly and in real-time for 13 vertical industries by FORTUNE 500 companies, Large Corporations, SMEs and Advertising Agencies. (Source: The Fournaise Marketing Group) ♦ By MediaBUZZ

Fournaise measured that with current sales commission plans and sales performance targets being often short-term driven, sales forces focused less than 20% of their time and efforts following up on and nurturing these early-stage “warm” and “dry” prospects. The consequence: the vast majority of these prospects ended up forgotten or lost within a few months of their capture. With the sales pipeline needing to be continuously fed, Fournaise also identified that the key to reduce

The big winner of 2011 was internet media. Total internet advertising revenues increased +16.9% to $78.5 billion.

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Get Found Online Consumers in today's internet-savvy era usually rely on search engines to research and purchase products and services. So, to stay competitive, you should utilize "inbound" marketing techniques, such as search engine marketing, blogging or social media, to "get found" by your potential clients as the majority of them is nowadays searching online for products and services.

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STEP 1: Find Keywords

Build more links from trusted websites. Just as references from well-respected friends and experts offer more value, so do links from trusted and wellrespected websites. Link-building tips:

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Submit your website to directories like the Yahoo! Directory and Business.com;

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Communicate with others in your industry through blogs and other social media;

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Create compelling tools (such as an interesting calculator) and content (via a blog, for example).

How to do it

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Search Volume - Given two different keyword phrases, optimize for the one with the larger number of searches; Relevance - Choose keywords that your target market is using to describe and search for your products and services; Difficulty or Competition - Consider your chances for ranking on the first page of Google for that keyword phrase. Look at the sites ranked in those first 10 slots, their authority and relevance to search terms, and measure if you will be able to overtake them to secure a spot on that first page.

STEP 2: On-Page SEO

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Place keywords in the page title, URL, headings, and page text;

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Optimize your page description for maximum clickthrough-rate when your site ranks in Google searches,

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Place keywords in other "invisible" places on your site, including meta-keyword tags and alt-text on images.

STEP 3: Off-Page SEO

•

Build more inbound links from other sites into yours. Each link serves as a recommendation or a reference to tell search engines that your site is a quality site; Build more links within context, i.e. those with valuable keywords in the link anchor text (the text that is hyperlinked to your site). Link anchor text provides context for the search engines to understand what your site is about;

STEP 4: Measure & Analyze

•

Track the number of inbound links, keyword rank over time and compare these to your competitors' results;

•

Measure real business results: number of visitors, leads, and customers from SEO.

Similar steps are quite useful when using Social Media to attract search engines

STEP 1: Guidelines for Engagement

•

Meet people and start conversations, become a real member of the community - don't join to just advertise your products;

•

Add value to the community - answer questions and help others;

•

Ask questions - trust others' advice.

STEP 2: Publish, Share, and Network

•

Publish: Everyone can publish anything for everyone; ○ Publish everything you have anywhere you can; ○ Monitor what others publish and promote it;

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

•

Empower your customers to publish;

•

Produce product content your audience will love;

STEP 3: Measure & Analyse

•

Share: Anyone can promote anything to everyone;

•

Network: Anyone can connect with everyone from anywhere;

•

Monitor what's being shared about you;

•

Find where hangs out;

Make friends - find your existing connections and build new ones;

•

Be helpful - answer questions, share interesting content.

Key metrics to consider are: number of blog visitors and subscribers, del.icio.us bookmarks, inbound links, Facebook fans and activity, friends on Facebook or LinkedIn, votes for blog articles, posts in forums. (Source: HubSpot)

•

your

Promote valuable yours and others';

audience content,

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Find instead of Search: Personalized Content on the Web is becoming the Norm A Google search gives each user a personalized result and if a customer calls up the Amazon shopping platform, products tailored to the user's interests get recommended. Even while surfing on popular magazine and portal sites individual advertisements and link recommendations are now displayed and it really seems that personalized content on the Web is becoming the norm. Most probably that trend will move to online services and corporate web sites too, as the targeting of users, the personalization of the content according to their interests, and the analysis of this information for downstream (online) marketing efforts will become increasingly important. So how can the personalization of a web page be technically done? What opportunities for addressing users in a personalized way are available? What measures can be used for personalization in online marketing? The following contains some suggested approaches, tools and concepts for the personalization of online activities: Personalization through self-assessment One form of personalization is to allow a selfassessment by the user, which can be done with a scroll bar (beginner, expert, professional) in the appro-

priate website. Through user input the website gets information on the level of complexity or detail of the website contents that should be displayed for them. Product information could then, for instance, be reduced for beginners or the sorting of products could be changed to better meet their specific requirements. Personalization by user profiles User log-ins are probably the most commonly used form of personalization: After a successful user registration, a personalized view of the website can be displayed and content can be adjusted manually or automatically, in accordance to the user's needs. The need to register often occurs at a threshold, in times of continuously growing social networks, where users are, to no surprise, increasingly reluctant to create or maintain additional profiles on several different websites. An alternative may be the possibility of the personalization of Facebook, which allows the connection of the user profile on Facebook with the website. Even here with regard to the issue of privacy - acceptance by users is rather low and these functions should be used very cautiously.

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Automatic personalization tracking interest

The basis for the personalization of web sites is a thematic mapping of content. By allocating website content to various topics of interest or profiles it is possible to define, within a content management system, which content is suitable for which target groups. If content of an online offer is categorized accordingly, all information gained during the delivery of the website can be assigned to the user with the help of cookies. By visiting various thematically dedicated pages the user profile gets created piece by piece or click by click respectively. After four to five page views it's usually pretty clear what kind of user type is currently accessing the website, providing information that can be used for personalization. Personalization with geographic coordinates One of the most widely used forms of Web personalizations is based on geo-location of the user. Information gained from the IP address allows conclusions to be drawn about a user's whereabouts which can be used, for instance, to present appropriate service centers or special offers and promotions. In addition, this information is also very useful to link with other regional data - such information could be whether there is rain or shine at the location, or can be used for a suitable or useful geo-based product recommendation. Enhancement of customer databases The various data, obtained through the personalization concepts, are ideal to optimize or personalize tailored downstream marketing activities. Thus, with a newsletter registration or the use of a contact form, the corresponding profile of inter-

ests, the self-assessment or the linked information from the user profile to a customer database or CRM system can be transferred. Caution: Personal data should be stored appropriately according to local laws and guidelines on data protection. Personalization of newsletters and email marketing campaigns Based on this data highly targeted email marketing campaigns and newsletters can be generated and personalized, according to the interest profiles of registered recipients. Personalized advertising through remarketing Since 2010, Google offers with its remarketing function the option to capture visitors to a website or landing page and to address them later with targeted advertisements. Important here is to achieve a critical mass of 100 users who have accessed the page first, because

after that, the ads can be delivered. Outlook Web

for

the

personalized

On social networks like Facebook and Google+ users give away more and more information about their interests and needs. These data are already used to deliver target group appropriate advertising - at least on Facebook. Google will surely follow and deliver to their Google+ members even more relevant ads through AdWords. In the area of detached online services, such as corporate websites, this trend will certainly have an impact, too. By reducing wastage and providing a better opportunity to address users, the success rates and conversion rates can be optimized, making it easier to gain new customers. Expect the Web to continue to be personalized - from the search results page to the company website to the point of email newsletter. â&#x2122;Ś By MediaBUZZ

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Content is Key in Website Optimization Content is king if you want to attract visitors to your site. Since, search engine spiders mainly focus on text, targeting your audience with the content they are looking for is vital for searchers and search engine spiders to find you. A good rule of thumb, when determining how much content to include, is to insert between 200-250 words of rich search engine friendly content on each of your site pages. If you use more words, do consider that readers typically don't like having to scroll down. Plus make sure that your site loads quickly. If graphics are slowing it down, you'll most probably lose your audience before they get their eyes on your content because they have clicked the "back" button to look for another site instead. Therefore, only use graphics that are relevant to your site's purpose, and aim for a file size that is 12 kB or smaller. If you must include an image that is larger than 12 kB, then use a thumbnail image. In the context of search engine optimization, loadintensive graphics will hinder search engine spiders, since spiders' primary food is content. Use images sparingly, and instead, work on adding relevant content that will attract both users and search engine spiders. Make sure that every single page on your site has clear navigation, so that users know exactly where they are and where they are going, and do also make sure that all of your links actually work. It's frustrating for users to click on something and encounter the dreaded "404 Error Page Not Found". It is also very important that your site has no broken side links, as search engine spiders cannot navigate a poorly designed site, and search engine users in general also do not have the patience to navigate a poorly designed site, which means you are missing out on both. While it might sound like a no-brainer, sites with text that is hard to decipher tend to get less visits by

search engine users, so also make sure that your text is readable, which means:

• • •

Don't use fonts that are difficult to read on the Web; Avoid busy backgrounds that obscure the text; Use bold text, headlines, and bullets so users can scan your content quickly.

Don't forget to double check:

• • • • • •

• • •

Browser compatibility: Test what your site looks like in a multitude of different browsers, like Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Avant, etc.; The overall appeal of your site: What could be improved; Loading time: So if you choose to use multimedia technology, use it sparingly; Errors and mistakes: Spelling errors can drive away many users, so proofread your site and fix any mistakes; Logos or brand names: Make sure to include them on every page for recognition; Flash: Use it carefully, since it deters search engine spiders and increases loading time. Instead, focus on keyword-rich content rather than bandwidth-hogging multimedia; Frames: Try to avoid them as most major search engine spiders are unable to read frames; Sound: Automatically generated sound is usually perceived as extremely distracting and irritating; Pop-ups: Avoid using them for any reason as they are just plain annoying. ♦ By MediaBUZZ

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Cashing in: Mobile Finance and the Shopping Experience The explosion of phrases with the "mobile" prefix is a reflection of how much mobile has become a part of our daily lives. For a while, everything was electronic (ebooks, for example) and of course, a certain company has made the "i" prefix part of their brand identity. But the latest catchphrases are all connected to mobile mobile finance (m-finance), mobile banking (mbanking), mobile payment (m-payment) and mobile commerce (m-commerce). Distinguishing between them can be difficult, and there isn't necessarily any common consensus as to the meaning of the different terms. Perhaps it is easiest to use the regular meaning of each word, and then consider the mobile implications. Mobile finance is easy, a broad-based umbrella term that includes most of the others, and which basically covers any sort of financial transaction that uses mobile devices. M-banking refers specifically to banking functions (withdrawals, deposits, and so on) using mobile devices as either the medium for the transaction or as a

unique identifier or both. M-payment is more specific: it refers to payments using mobile devices, through electronic wallets, near field communication (NFC) or other means. The problematic term is "commerce" and oddly, that is the one that is of most interest to today's marketer. Rather than being about financial transactions, let's suggest that m-commerce is actually about the entire experience of shopping, and how it is being transformed by mobile. Being able to pay for goods and services using mobile (as described above) is certainly part of it, but that is only a small part. In mobile commerce, consumers use their mobile devices not only at the very end of the sales funnel, when the deal is transacted, but at nearly every stage along the way. Mobile can help consumers discover new products, learn more information and influence their purchasing decisions.

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Mobile advertising and marketing already keeps people involved and informed of new products and services, and as location-based services take off, users will be given information about offers and products that are nearby, opportunistically providing them with the chance to experience discovery through their mobile device. Mobile search already enables consumers to get more information about the products that they are interested in. This is not limited feature-specific information, but also information about the origins of materials, whether the product was manufactured in an environmentally -conscious way, and even reviews, professional and otherwise. Another rising trend is for comparison shopping: consumers can identify desirable products from the range available on display at a bricks-and -mortar store, but can then use their mobile devices to check for cheaper online sources.

Retailers have been taking this activity into account by providing more information to in-store customers through QR codes and weblinks that take them to related media and more information. Other schemes to foster loyalty can also be deployed through the mobile channel, by offering electronic coupons and other benefits to shoppers through their mobile devices. Alternatively, businesses can move the bulk of their efforts to the digital or mobile space. Venue ticketing, for example, has already done so, with electronic tickets often taking the place of the physical alternative. This may be more suitable for some industries than others. In Australia, Qantas already lets its passengers buy tickets, select seats and check baggage electronically, and offering some aspect of that already-digital transaction to mobile users is likely to happen sooner rather than later.

Other industries might not seem suited to m-commerce from end to end, but even so, some aspects may lend themselves to mobile use. Food and beverage outlets, for example, rely greatly on offering an in-store experience, but already, some fast food companies have robust couponing campaigns, which let consumers take advantage of special offers simply by showing the coupon (in the form of a JPG) to counter staff. Mobile can also streamline the process of getting reservations. Whether or not we agree on definitions, the fact of the matter is that mobile is more than just a channel for monetary transactions. Having access to information and applications via the mobile channel turns the mobile device in the consumer's hand into a handy tool for retailers and marketers alike. â&#x2122;Ś By Rohit Dadwal, Managing Director, APAC, Mobile Marketing Association

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Five Very Obvious Signs in Spotting a Bad SEO Service Provider Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is regularly mentioned by marketers as one of the most effective tactics for generating leads or sales from your website. While most marketers understand the importance of SEO, many see the process as a highly technical discipline that they prefer to hand over to experts. Thus, to no surprise, SMEs especially want to outsource their SEO to trained professionals. I guess, we have all searched at least once for SEO firms online and were overwhelmed by the thousands of vendors, offering "incredible" or "fast" results for attractively low monthly fees or even a simple one-time purchase only. What sounds too good to be true, probably is - so be careful. Many of these "professionals" and SEO experts are counting on clients' SEO ignorance to get quick cash without delivering long-term, sustainable SEO improvements. Even worse, some of the practices used by SEO firms can actually hurt your business in the long run. How can you make sure that you are not hornswoggled? Here are five very obvious signs to be alert to before hiring a SEO firm. Most probably their offer is not worth its salt when the SEO provider is:

1. Making promises that are too good to be true; 2. Using "Black Hat" SEO techniques (see Buzzword); 3. Targeting the wrong keywords (see Keywords are the Foundation of SEO) 4. Promising to list your site in hundreds of online directories and employing shoddy linking schemes; 5. Offering a one-time fix with no on-going maintenance. The fact is that SEO should be a company's constant focus as it is much more than just a few structural fixes and a one-time content generation push. MarketingSherpa's 2012 Search Marketing Benchmark Report â&#x20AC;&#x201C; SEO Edition already highlighted that marketers who have a formal SEO process that they routinely carry out tend to convert 150% more leads than marketers that don't. It means that even if you outsource SEO, part of the work remains with you. Tactics used should be understood, defining keyword and the content creation and so on have to be handled by you. â&#x2122;Ś By MediaBUZZ

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Keywords are the Foundation of SEO, so put the Effort into finding the Right Ones! Whether you know it or not, your website is already targeting certain keywords. Search engines extract these keywords from your on-page text, headers, page titles, inbound links and other factors. However, you might not have made a conscious decision to target those keywords. Even if you did, you might not be monitoring your rankings or have a sense of how good your chances are of ranking well for those keywords. Choosing the right keywords are often the crux of the matter in getting found through search or not. As a result, keyword research is the foundation of an effective online marketing strategy, so brainstorm

as many keyword ideas as possible by:

• Talking to clients to determine what terms they use in their search;

• Studying competitors' sites; • Brainstorming variations of product and brand related keywords or adding descriptive or geographic variations;

• Last but not least, taking all the variations and entering them into the Google AdWords Keyword Tool, that will suggest numerous other variations. Please keep in mind that keywords

are the words that customers type into search engines, so search terms have many variations. If you are only focused on the most wellknown version, then you are up against the stiffest competition, as the most popular keywords are typically the most competitive. Don't neglect other keywords or dare to forget common points of variation such as singular vs. plural, synonyms and acronyms, keyword modifiers, or just a different word order. Turning to Google, the "Masters of Search", and its tools (to support Webmasters and advertisers in finding the most suitable keywords is of course always a good option. ♦ By MediaBUZZ

28—29 February 2012 in Kuala Lumpur

Make sure that every single page on your site has clear navigation, so that users know exactly where they are and where they are going, and do also make sure that all of your links actually work.

TECHNOLOGIES & PRODUCTS

Hydra's Integrated OneSearch Juggles Natural and Paid Search at Once Hydra, a provider of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) marketing technology, announced the launch of its next -generation capability - the OneSearch â&#x20AC;&#x201C; last week. This new release allows users to manage Search campaigns in an integrated way, taking into account both Natural Search and Paid Search performance within the same view. Since consumers do not think in terms of Paid and Natural Search when they are searching for products online, Hydra's ground-breaking approach means that businesses also do not need to separate these functions. Users of "The One Platform" can manage their online activity in an integrated way by seamlessly combining actionable insight from the different channels of Search into one view, thereby delivering previously untapped opportunities to digital marketers. This enhancement brings together Natural and Paid Search data, analytics data and metrics about page accessibility, credibility and relevancy; making it possible to see how to get more return on investment (ROI) from campaigns and improving organic rankings. Further, understanding Quality Score enables marketers to have a more precise view of what pages will work best with a Paid campaign, and thereby can leverage a lower Cost-per-Click (CPC) to get a better rank. By importing existing campaigns, users can see at a keyword and phrase level, how effective each channel is in driving success. Automatic recommendations are delivered simultaneously, suggesting which keyword will be more effective on each page of a website. These can then be developed further to include phrases and keywords from Social Media that are new and trendy. Hydra's new release offers digital marketers several tangible new benefits -

Natural and Paid Search campaigns come together in a single view: Being able to view both Natural and Paid Search classification or keyword data combined, allows users to choose how much to bid as well as how to prioritize Natural or Paid Search for every keyword. Creativity using keywords that deliver: Users of the platform can now see Natural and Paid Search campaigns as they have designed them, with the added benefit of receiving intelligent recommendations specific to their business for keywords that are both relevant to the business and that deliver. Report according to business requirements: The One Platform's intelligent classification allows users to report in a manner that the business requires - with the organization of keywords within campaigns reflecting how the business operates, regardless of how historical campaigns have been designed. Assess Quality Score: Users can now get automated recom-mendations as to which landing pages to use for which campaign to increase relevancy and improve rankings for any given Cost-per-Click. Earlier this year, Hydra conducted a survey of more than 300 digital marketers to evaluate how teams currently operate based on collaboration, use of technologies, and competitor analysis. 55% of respondents said they did not know which words or expressions being used in the market are worth spending on. 90% said they see an advantage in their digital teams using a common reporting and campaign implementation platform. This research triggered the develop-ment of "The One Platform" and with it "OneSearch" which is filling a gap in the search industry. â&#x2122;Ś By MediaBUZZ

Choosin g ter in g the right keyw or et keyword ting found thr ds are often th ou e marketi research is the gh search or crux of the ma ng strat tn foundat egy, so as poss ion of a ot. As a resul b t, ible rainstor n effect i m as m any key ve online word id eas

COMPANIES & CAMPAIGNS

Smaato is Pushing Mobile Real-Time Bidding (RTB) Standards

In November 2011, Smaato Inc., a mobile advertising and ad optimizing company, significantly upgraded its Smaato Open Mobile Advertising (SOMA) platform with vital improvements in RTB, parallel ad requests, rich media and geo-location targeting. Smaato is the largest mobile Sell Side Platform (SSP) and is energetically pioneering the push for mobile RTB on a global level with its vast reach of serving ads in 230+ countries and territories. StrikeAd, a mobile advertising specialist that provides media agencies with the expertise to better leverage their mobile budgets, and Fiksu, a mobile marketing technology company that helps mobile app brands on iOS and Android platforms achieve their business goals faster and more cost-effectively, joined Smaato's 70+ mobile ad networks and ad revenue sources connected to SOMA. For all mobile RTB becomes available, according to the OpenRTB mobile 2.0 standard. OpenRTB mobile is a sub-committee of OpenRTB, a consortium of digital media companies dedicated to accelerating the growth of the real-time bidding (RTB) marketplace, by providing open industry standards for communication between mobile ad inventory buyers and sellers. "OpenRTB mobile members, like Fiksu and Smaato, will help the mobile advertising ecosystem become more efficient and benefit both mobile advertisers and mobile publishers", said Micah Adler, Fiksu Founder and CEO, adding:

"By combining Smaato's strategic publisher relationships and massive inventory base with Fiksu's industry leading data set and bidding algorithms, our partnership can provide unprecedented levels of performance for the global mobile marketing ecosystem." Alex Rahaman, CEO of StrikeAd, emphasizes: "Brands and agencies now know that mobile is essential to engage with consumers. As a result, we see a surge in demand for more intelligent and targeted access to high quality ad inventory." The pioneering partnerships enable advertisers to have unprecedented access to Smaato's high quality advertising inventory in the US, Europe and Asia. With Smaato's extensive range of RTB enabled inventory, more control and choices where to place ads targeted are given, so that brands can optimize their advertising for better ROI and consumer engagement. Ragnar Kruse, CEO and Co-Founder of Smaato Inc. stated: "RTB is benefiting Smaato's app developers and mobile publishers with enhanced control and maximized pricing. Our SOMA platform is already processing huge volumes of ad requests optimized in real-time. Now with Digital Signal Processors (DSPs) and other new players, RTB will enhance the relevance for mobile users as well as data analysis in our publisher dashboards."

COMPANIES & CAMPAIGNS

The main features of Smaato's SOMA platform are the real time optimization of publishers' ad impressions on a global scale; rich media (including video) and enriched ad requests with audience data (i.e. gender, age, location) plus device and carrier targeting.

bidding allow advertisers to buy based upon actual audience characteristics rather than just ad spaces. This higher transparency for the advertiser leads to reallocation of significant budgets in new channels and to higher eCPMs for the publisher.

RTB with automated media buying processes leads to fair pricing and an efficient market. Mobile publishers and app developers benefit by being able to monetize their inventory with more control over the potential advertiser relevance and pricing. Better data, improved targeting technology, and real-time

Mobile advertising will top $5.3 billion in 2012 globally, according to Nick Lane, Chief Analyst of mobileSQUARED. He asserts: "Creating an open bidding interface between inventory suppliers and bidders will add strong growth and drive greater innovation, co-operation and profitability for the entire eco-system.

We estimate an open RTB standard supported by pioneers like Smaato will accelerate adoption of real-time bidding auctions by a great factor." The more RTB is evolving in the online advertising space, the more media buyers are looking to expand the automated buying processes to mobile inventory. Smaato values better targeting data available in real-time as a great step forward to drive mobile into the advertising mainstream. â&#x2122;Ś By MediaBUZZ

Mobile search already enables consumers to get more information about the products that they are interested in. This is not limited feature-specific information, but also information about the origins of materials, whether the product was manufactured in an environmentally-conscious way, and even reviews, professional and otherwise.

LEGISLATION

MMA's Universal Ad Unit Guidelines Released for Public Comment Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), the leading global trade association for the mobile industry, released mobile ad unit guidelines to make it easier to buy, sell, and create mobile ads for smartphones, feature phones and tablets. The MMA Universal Mobile Ad Package v.2.0 was created with participation from the seller and buyer sides of the industry, mainly the MMA North America "SWAT" Team, that includes AT&T AdWorks, WDIG, ESPN Mobile, Google, InMobi, Joule, Jumptap, Medialets, Microsoft, Millennial Media, Ogilvy, Tribune, Turner and The Weather Channel, as well as the Global Mobile Advertising Committee. "Standardization will make mobile advertising easier to include in the marketing mix," said Rohit Dadwal, Managing Director, Mobile Marketing Association Asia Pacific. "These guidelines will simplify the mobile ad landscape by creating six standard ad unit sizes out of the tangle of the more than sixty unit sizes currently in use in the marketplace." Now the full marketplace will have the chance to review the new standards during a 30-day public comment period. After comments are incorporated, all ad networks and publishers will have until the end of 1Q 2012 to become fully compliant.

At that time, the MMA will promote compliant companies by issuing MMA Universal Mobile Ad Package Compliance stamps for member use on web sites and marketing materials. With support from ImServices Group, MMA analysed hundreds of billions of mobile ad impressions delivered across the global mobile advertising marketplace in 2Q 2011, before starting to create the Universal Mobile Ad Package v.2.0. The data, which has been sorted by smart phone and feature phone, networks and publishers, and including mobile web and app, helped determine the six unit sizes which have been agreed to as the standard Mobile Universal Ad Package v.2.0. The final standards mark a true collaboration between the sales side, including networks, rich media vendors and publishers, and the buy side at global ad agencies. MMA is now seeking public comment and encourages all members as well as those in the industry to read the proposed Universal Mobile Ad Package and submit their comments. Feedback will be reviewed and the Universal Mobile Ad Package will be finalized and released in January 2012. â&#x2122;Ś By MediaBUZZ

IDC is seeing a new type of enterprise shaping the marketplace: The "Emerging Asian Enterprise". These enterprises are looking to aggressively challenge the traditional MNC model, are hungry for growth and geographical expansion, and have a DNA very different to organizations from mature economies.

BUZZWORD

Black Hat Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Black Hat Search Engine Optimization (SEO) usually describes techniques that are used to get higher search rankings in an unethical manner, such as breaking search engine rules/regulations or fraudulently presenting content to search engine spiders and search engine users in a different visual or non-visual way. It’s simply not a good way to attract searchers or search engine crawlers and therefore you should avoid under all circumstances at least the following techniques to not risk any trouble:

•

Keyword stuffing, which means packing long lists of keywords and nothing else onto your Website as it will eventually get you penalized by search engines. Creating doorway pages, which is basically a “fake” page that the user will never see. It is purely for search engine spiders, and attempts to trick them into indexing the site higher. Putting up invisible text by listing e.g. keywords in white text on a white background in hopes of attracting more search engine spiders.

Without a doubt Black Hat SEO is tempting, especially since these easy tricks actually do work, at least temporarily, in getting higher search rankings. But it’s just not worth the long run risk in being banned for using unethical practices. Instead, be advised to focus on efficient search engine optimization techniques to get your site ranked higher and stay away from the dishonest practices! Actually, a lot of what is known as Black Hat SEO used to be legitimate, before these techniques were overstressed and therefore frowned upon by the general SEO community at large. So do keep in mind that Black Hat SEO is a very short-sighted solution for the longterm work of keeping your website relevant by providing a great user experience and playing fair game for all. ♦ By MediaBUZZ

APPOINTMENTS

APPOINTMENTS Ray Pak will join UM and Initiative Singapore as General Manager, being responsible for business development and building upon Mediabrands’ strong digital and specialty services to offer cutting edge marketing solutions. His remit will encompass creative, digital and branded content, adding great value to both current and new clients.

Ray Pak

Ray has more than 13 years of dedicated experience in the advertising industry. He began his career as a copywriter and web producer, and over the years he has developed expertise as a media specialist. Ray’s work has spanned close involvement with both local and regional accounts. He joins Mediabrands from Starcom, where he handled regional and local accounts. Ray received the prestigious accolade of Young Media Professional, awarded by the Singapore Media Advertising board and won several awards for his advertising work in Singapore, with his last win at the Singapore Media Awards for Best Use of Search for Tiger Airways. Ray will report to Pat Lim, Managing Director of UM and Initiative, Singapore.♦

WATATAWA, the stakeholder engagement consultancy, has developed a new offering which helps companies integrate Corporate Responsibility into their business strategy and operations. The Singapore-based firm has hired former journalist Ng Tze Yong to work with the WATATAWA leadership team in delivering these new solutions. The move comes as companies in Asia are realising that effective corporate responsibility is as much about how a company makes its profits as about how it spends them. Tze Yong joined WATATAWA in December 2011 from Singapore Press Holdings, where he was the Social Media Editor at The Straits Times and, before that, Special Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief of the English and Malay Newspapers Division. The Young Journalist of The Year 2006 has reported on crime, heritage, politics, and on assignment from the scenes of major global disasters and conflict zones. His work and extensive volunteerism have seen him work on community causes in Kosovo, Lebanon, Kashmir, West Bank and the Gaza Strip.♦

Ng Tze Yong

IPG Mediabrands appointed Yean Cheong as Head of Digital, Asia. Based in Singapore, Yean is responsible for managing Mediabrands’ online media planning teams as well as leading the strategy and development of all digital media activities. Yean reports directly to David Cohen, Global Digital Head, UM. Yean is a Singaporean and returns to her home country after spending the last few years working in different roles in Australia. Yean joins Mediabrands from Aegis Media Pacific. As General Manager Digital, Yean led the Queensland Australia branch of emitch, Australia’s leading digital advertising and online marketing agency, delivering best practices and results for local and regional clients across online, search, mobile and social media. She oversaw the overall financial performance of the company, as well as key client and partner relationships. Prior to Aegis and emitch, Yean was Head of Digital and Direct at Clemenger BBDO Yean Cheong Brisbane. There, she led strategy and execution for all online and direct marketing creative campaigns, including web concept and development, as well as CRM, mobile and search. Yean was an avid driver of digital within the Australian marketing community, with regular speaking roles and tutored digital marketing courses at the Australian Direct Marketing Association. Earlier in her career, Yean joined the pioneer team at the then start-up online travel agency Zuji, owned by Travelocity. During her time at Zuji, Yean supported the launch and assumed the role of Marketing and PR Lead of three websites in Singapore and Australia. She has also held positions at M&C Saatchi, Jurong Point and Sembawang Leisure, amassing her astute understanding of business and communication across industries, from both client and agency perspectives. Yean takes over from Arun Kumar, who has been promoted to a General Manager role within the G14 cluster of Mediabrands working in the Benefits Bundles group including the Mediabrands Audience Platform (MAP). ♦

APPOINTMENTS

Akamai Technologies Pte. Ltd. appointed Rachael Fitzpatrick as Human Resource (HR) Director for the Asia Pacific Japan (APJ) region. Rachael is responsible for HR strategy and management, playing a key role in driving Akamai’s expansion strategy in the region. Rachael brings with her a broad HR background having worked in the information technology, insurance and shipping industries. Her areas of expertise include merger and acquisition activities, benefits harmonization, market pricing and benchmarking strategies, as well as coaching and neuroscience in the workplace. APJ is the fastest growing region globally for Akamai, therefore the company aims to continue to strengthen its human resources in view of growth in this region - driven especially by trends in cloud adoption, mobility, e-commerce, next generation media and social networking services. Internet connection in cities across the region is also improving at a rapid pace. Rachael Fitzpatrick

Based in Singapore, Rachael reports to Linda Pettingell, Senior Director HR Business Partnering at Akamai.♦

Nando’s has appointed Blugrapes as its social media consultancy following a closed-door pitch held in October involving several agencies for Singapore. Blugrapes will be responsible for the conceptualization and execution of Nando’s year-end campaign focusing on social engagements and the incorporation of new store openings. This includes all related social media consulting and management duties such as strategy development, content creation, brand persona development, conversation management, media buying and application development. The role spans all of Nando’s social media channels including Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr.♦ Blugrapes is setting up local offices in Malaysia and is planning to expand into the rest of Southeast Asia and becoming a major player in the digital marketing space. The company has been active in Malaysia since 2010, via its Malaysian partner, Better Sdn. Bhd. With a local office, Blugrapes is poised to meet an increasing demand for better localized social media marketing expertise and solutions. This includes building branded social media communities focusing on local nuances, happenings, trends and habits. Better Sdn. Bhd. (Facebook’s official advertising sales representative for Malaysia) will now provide Facebook media buying and campaign optimization capabilities for Blugrapes in Malaysia.♦ Mozat Pte. Ltd. announced that it has made this year’s Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific, a ranking of the 500 fastest growing technology companies in the APAC region. Rankings are based on percentage revenue growth over three years. Mozat’s mobile social platform now serves 16 million subscribers worldwide, with a strong presence in the Middle East and is currently widening its footprint in Asia Pacific. Mozat’s CEO, Dr. Michael Yin, credits product innovation, key partnerships with telecom operators and new market penetration with the company’s significant growth over the past three years. At present, Mozat has 15 telco partners and its mobile social platform supports more than 600 types of devices from major mobile platforms (Android, BlackBerry, iOS, J2ME, Symbian and soon, Windows Phone 7). ♦. Network Box was recently honored as one of MIS Asia’s 2011 Strategic 100 index inductees, the top one hundred ICT companies without favor for their place of origin or their organizational size. Each Strategic 100 honoree owes its place on the index entirely to how well it performs along the previously mentioned measures. It does not matter whether the company is based in Asia or not, or whether it is a small start-up or a 30-year old software giant. As one of the world's leading Managed Security Services, Network Box has long said that the best protection against hackers, malware, and undesirable content, is to use a multi-engine approach, augmented by real-time PUSH updates, and real-time in-the-cloud technology. Network Box's multi-award winning Z-Scan zero day anti-malware system for example, uses state-of-the-art in-the-cloud technology, to help ensure new viruses are blocked in as little as three seconds from the time they are launched. No other anti-virus system even comes close.♦

MIS Asia’s 2011

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