Asian eMarketing February 2011 by MediaBUZZ Pte Ltd

February 2011

Social Media Marketing

JamiQ Monitors Social Me-

Make Your Customer Springboard Top 10 dia acrossResearchâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Asian Languages Loyalty Programs Predictions in 2011, page and Markets, Page 32 22 Work with Mobile

Aureliant: Influence Mar-

Expect to Come Yahoo: Insight, ketingScience isMore theisWay to Go Not from Hindsight!, SaaS page CRM, 41 says Page 36 Springboard Research

Social Media Rules for

is Going MainOuteCRM There Mediaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s State-of-the-art Employees, Page 24 stream, says Oracle Mobile Advertising Marketplace, page 44

EDITORIAL:

O N L I N E

V E R S I O N

Dear Reader, Get a realistic valuation and more know-how on your companyâ&#x20AC;&#x;s social media needs and find out if and when social media components make sense in your marketing mix by browsing this issue of Asian eMarketing. If you prefer to read the online version, here it is. Happy reading,

Daniela La Marca Editor-in-Chief Asian eMarketing

PS: If you couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x;t catch the previous issue of Asian e-Marketing here is another chance

Exclusive sponsor of the latest issue

FEBRUARY 2011

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING: RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS How Asia is Breaking New Ground in Social Media

Social Media Poses Opportunities and Threats for Media Industry 6 Social Networks’ Future Growth Prospects Retail Banks Continue to Resist Social Media APEJ CIOs will be Rising Corporate Starts as they Drive ROI-Led Transformation Initiatives in 2011, says IDC Yahoo!’s New Ad Formats Set to Engage Audiences in More Personal and Social Environments

COMPANIES & CAMPAIGNS

Aureliant: Influence Marketing is the Way to Go

3digitalminds expects Strong Move into Mobile Social Media Services and Location-based Services in the Future 39

7 9

LEGISLATION

Social Plug-ins are Difficult to Assess with Data Protection Regulations

BUZZWORD

What’s a SocialEngine?

APPOINTMENTS

IMPRINT

Utilization of Mobile Marketing and Spending on Mobile Platforms on the Rise in 2011

Enabling Social Experiences with Mobile Technology

The Four Ps of Successful Mobile Advertising

Why mobile advertising will ignite a creative Renaissance

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Social Media Rules for Employees

Ethically Socialize Your Business

Social Network Marketing: Online Response to Recommendation Marketing

How to Increase your Privacy on Facebook

Digital Mash-Up

TECHNOLOGIES & PRODUCTS

JamiQ Monitors Social Media across Asian Languages and Markets

Forrester Research’s Effective Three-Step Social Media Monitoring

ADVERTISE WITH US! Just take a look!

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

How Asia is Breaking New Ground in Social Media Looking back on what happened in the conference scene last year you probably have noticed that a lot of events were devoted to social media. MediaBUZZ and Asian e-Marketing both constantly zoomed in on this topic and will of course continue to inform you in 2011 on what‟s going on in the digital media arena in Asia. I guess I don‟t have to emphasize at this point that it is vital to understand the vast differences in adoption and use of social media, especially as we know that the trend originated in the US and spread like wildfire globally and in Asia respectively over these past 10 years. The effect it has had on marketing and advertising is enormous, transforming an industry reliant on mass market channels to one which must embrace the power of the consumer and attempt to engage in conversations. The traditional approach of wide reach and repetitive messaging is now being replaced by many much smaller, niche, and people-centric activities. To what extent is such power disparity healthy for today’s business world? With social media consumers continuously getting more power and more choices you might ask the question to what extent power disparity is healthy for today‟s business world. Especially in an environment that is focused on knowledge and intellectual territories, in

which intellect is more important than muscle power, mental workers are at the heart of the ongoing knowledge economy, and thinking against the rule is one of the most critical success factors to stand out of the standardized crowd of mediocrity. We all know that innovative performances can only emerge in areas of possibility and creativity requires playgrounds. Under pressure, only common solutions can be generated, but in playful dialogues we approach complex problems in unconventional and innovative ways, unveiling completely new paths. So, how are Asian countries breaking the new grounds of social media? In Japan and Korea, which arguably lead the world in terms of sophistication, it‟s all about ubiquitous access (mobile and PC Internet) and rich functional engagement through intimate social networking, open blogging and gaming. China, on the other hand, has its social media roots in discussion, information gathering and sharing through public bulletin boards and blogging with broadcast entertainment on the rise, and this pattern is being fast followed by Taiwan from a much smaller base. Other markets in the region vary significantly. In Hong Kong and Singapore, which have high digital penetration and rich broadband, the role of social media is

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS catching on but splits acutely between English and Chinese speakers, who consume the medium in different ways to augment their personal and professional networks. India too has evolved its very own type of social media centering on personal and professional networking. Matrimonial sites are hot platforms for socially engaging, and LinkedIn finds its highest demographics are Indians both at home and abroad. The opportunity for entertainment from the home of Bollywood needs no reminding as broadband penetration slowly increases. The Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia have a thriving social media scene which cannot be ignored by brands. Social networking and blogging are the key platforms for expression extending from the leading portals. Entertainment is on the rise, but still secondary.

Even the likes of Indonesia and Thailand have embraced social media by providing a platform for netizens to collaborate with each other and to reach out and learn from public blogs in ways they couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x;t through traditional media. What is most important is that their high use of mobile has already seen internetenabled SMS services being offered in these markets to see mobile start to go social.â&#x2122;Ś By Daniela La Marca

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Social Media Poses Opportunities and Threats for Media Industry According to Ovum‟s new report 2011Trends to Watch: Media and Broadcast Technology, publishers and broadcasters need to seize the opportunities presented by the growth of social media and video on mobile devices this year and should be aware of the long-term threat these channels pose to their share of audience and advertising budget. The independent technology analyst further states that opportunities lie in using social media as a new channel to engage directly with audiences, to derive greater insight into their preferences and demography, and to directly capitalise on them through products such as casual games or virtual goods. Combined with the growth in video viewing on the latest generation of smartphones, this is an important method to get the attention of the highly specific audiences that advertisers are increasingly looking for. The threat social media poses, however, is always present and Adrian Drury, Ovum analyst and author of the report, said: “With the massive audience clustering around platforms such as Facebook, there is great potential for publishers and channel programmers to use social platforms for audience acquisition, engagement and profiling. Social media presents a clear threat to traditional media and entertainment platforms as it steals a growing share of audience attention and advertising spend.” In the report, Ovum also looks at the growing trend towards defensive collaboration within broadcast, publishing and further down the content supply chain to studios, music labels, and production companies. The

goals are to define common standards, labels, and service platforms to drive a single experience for the customer across multiple devices, as well as establish a framework for shared technology infrastructure costs and supply chain efficiency. Defensive collaboration within this market, however, is beset with execution risk. As the music industry has demonstrated, mounting a coordinated response to a disruptive technology threat in a hyper-competitive market is highly challenging. Drury states “In 2011, the market will see ongoing polarization between two distinct classes of technology investment in media and entertainment markets. The first is the broad-based and highly strategic, in many cases, employing shared infrastructure models between former competitors – examples include UltraViolet, YouView, HbbTV projects across Europe and digital newsstand projects within the publishing industry. This type of project presents an opportunity for the IT vendor and SI community to deliver technology services and potentially play a vital project co-ordination role. “The second strand is tactical, driven by product managers looking to exploit audience engagement and revenue streams in the short-term that have been opened up by new consumer technology platforms. These projects are creating opportunity for highly agile SaaS vendors that are able to offer a low-cost route to fast service deployment and experimentation.”♦ Source: Ovum, part of the Datamonitor group

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Social Networks’ Future Growth Prospects According to Deloitte, social networks will most probably surpass the breathtaking milestone of one billion unique members in 2011 and deliver over two trillion advertisements, implying advertising revenues of about $5 billion. Despite social media‟s large and growing audience, its advertising revenues represent less than one percent of the worldwide advertising spend total and may remain relatively modest compared to other media, at least in the short term. Other sources of social network revenues, such as payment systems and e-commerce, might exhibit faster growth. It seems, therefore, that social networks‟ long-term market value will continue to polarize opinions in 2011, with some looking at it as the technology sector‟s “next big thing”, promising even greater rewards than the decade-old phenomenon of search advertising. Others compare social networks to the dot-com bubble and argue that monetizing their users at dollar levels similar to online search has not yet been demonstrated. Deloitte‟s view is that the advertising revenues from social networks in 2011 are likely to be very significant in absolute terms: total industry revenues of $5 billion dollars and year-over-year growth of 40 percent are impressive numbers; individual companies may experience even higher growth rates. Yet, revenues on a persubscriber basis are unlikely to match search or traditional media in the next year or two. Also, advertising rates, measured on a CPM (cost per thousand impressions) basis, are likely to remain low compared to other

forms of online advertising as well as traditional media. Nevertheless, thanks to a low cost base, social networks might still achieve impressive gross margins despite their relatively low revenues-per-user - particularly when compared to the traditional media companies they are competing against. A social network‟s cost of content is close to zero since it merely provides the infrastructure, while its users and third party app developers provide all the content. An assessment of social networks‟ potential hinges on three metrics: subscriber growth, time spent on the network, and CPMs. Many social networking companies have been recording impressive gains in some of these metrics, but it is worth examining how much additional growth they can achieve. When social networks attain the billion unique user milestone, nearly half of one global user base – computer-based Internet users - may be signed up by yearend 2011. This could put a ceiling on future growth if global Internet adoption continues to expand at the pace that consensus analysts expect. So, it might be increasingly difficult for social networks to sustain their impressive subscriber growth trajectories. However, as smart phones and 3G networks become more widespread, the base of active social network users should rise accordingly, particularly in developing countries where mobile penetration continues to rise steadily. If social netwrks‟ advertising revenues are only worth $4 billion in 2011 with half the potential user base al-

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

ready signed up, or if future growth is largely restricted to the low-value mobile ad market, most of the upside for social networks would need to come from increased time spent on the network, which rose sharply in 2010, or from improved CPM metrics. If there are limits to audience growth and time spent, then the burden would primarily fall on CPM to drive revenue growth. Social networks‟ understanding of individuals‟ backgrounds, preferences, social groups, activities, and behaviours are without equal. So, there have been hopes that this would enable social networks to deliver superior advertising results, but paradoxically, social network CPMs remained among the lowest of all forms of online advertising. That could well change, as the ability to mine the myriad of data on social networks may find new business models that allow for much higher advertising revenues. For 2011, however, it is difficult to find the levers that would cause social network ad revenues to accelerate from their already rapid pace. Perhaps the vastness of social networks‟ repository of user information is itself a limiting factor; as of 2011, it remains a challenge to economically extract useful insights from the volumes of user data that social networks generate. The billions of stated “likes” may not all necessarily signal an intention to purchase. Also, in 2011, as in previous years, privacy concerns may constrain the ability to collect the most valuable data. Nevertheless, once social networks figure out how to rapidly and economically analyze their data, and to monetize the billions of recommendations made, a new seam of valuable customer insights will be available to mine and exploit.

In 2011, social networks will definitely remain an emerging business founded on innovation; yet they have already achieved levels of market acceptance that might have seemed inconceivable just a few years ago. The question now is whether social networks can sustain their growth trajectory and find better ways to monetize value. Even if social networks 2011 ad revenues only meet industry forecasts, they may still have other valuable ways to generate revenue. For example, they could serve as a payment platform for the hundreds of thousands of application providers in their ecosystem. Or they could adopt a blended e-commerce department store model, where they charge for online floor space and earn a commission on any sales. Advertising firms and their clients, for instance, will likely need to expand their use of social media to protect their image and reputation in a world increasingly influenced by personal opinions and grassroots communications. Studies have shown that word-of-mouth feedback and peer reviews exert tremendous influence on purchasing decisions; in fact, one survey found that up to 78 percent of people trust peer recommendations, compared to just 14 percent who trust advertisements. Thus, agencies might begin pushing other forms of advertising or decide to sell high value advisory services, such as public relations and reputation management, to help a brand manage its presence on social networks. Yet in 2011 these additional revenue streams, although very profitable, are unlikely to surpass advertising in importance to social networks (see figure below).

Source: Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, 2010, based on data from eMarketer and NextUP Research

Throughout 2011, it seems likely that the forecast for the social network sector will continue to be promising, but unclear. As more information is released and as business models become more developed, all advertisers, competitors and analysts will get a better picture of the future potential of this industry.♦ Source: www.deloitte.com

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Retail Banks Continue to Resist Social Media Despite fragile consumer confidence, most retail banks do not view social media as an important tool to engage with customers, putting them in a dangerous position, according to Ovum. A new report from market analyst Datamonitor‟s technology arm reveals that almost two thirds (60%) of the world‟s retail banks have no plans in place to use social media in any way. Currently just 6% of retail banks use social media to deal with customer queries and only a further 1% envisage using it in this way between 2011 and the end of 2012. Meanwhile only 14% currently use it for marketing, with a further 12% planning to use it to promote their business by the end of 2012. Ovum analyst Martha Bennett said: “We feel that this attitude from retail banks towards social media is a major issue in an era of aggressive competition. The banks without a social media strategy are being shortsighted and are placing themselves in a dangerous and vulnerable position compared to competitors who have realized that social media can and must play an intrinsic role in their business.”

lands, although they are still feeling their way and their strategy is very much a work in progress. Bennett continued: “These banks have been justifiably held up as industry leaders for their use of social media, however there is not universal acceptance that social media is either important or suitable for retail banks. The latest move by National Australia Bank (NAB), through their “break up” campaign, has shown how banks can utilize social media not just as a marketing tool, but also to manage and understand their customers over the social media channel. The campaign was started through the social media channel, before it was slowly built up into a major campaign. “Consumers are not averse to receiving promotional messages via social media, or using it for customer service enquiries so a massive opportunity to rebuild confidence in the sector that is so desperately needed is being ignored.”♦ Source: Ovum, part of the Datamonitor group

According to the report, there is a handful of retail banks that have begun to use social media such as First Direct in the UK, Citibank, Bank of America and Wells Fargo in the US and Rabobank in the Nether-

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

APEJ CIOs will be Rising Corporate Starts as they Drive ROI-Led Transformation Initiatives in 2011, says IDC In 2011, the emerging Asian enterprise customer will be actively enhancing its competitive position, according to IDC‟s latest report on “IDC Asia/Pacific (Excluding Japan) IT Services Top 10 Predictions: ROILed Transformation in the Emerging Asia Enterprise to Drive IT Services Spend”. As a result, IDC expects CEOs of these organizations to drive transformative business projects where IT will be a key enabling factor and successful IT delivery essential to achieving desired return on investment (ROI). To address this strategic goal, IDC expects CIOs to exhibit an increased propensity to leverage external service providers, including alternative service delivery models, as viable alternatives to the use of internal IT and traditional outsourcing and managed services contracts. Increased ownership of capital expenditure (CAPEX) and operating expenditure (OPEX) budgets as well as the expansion of IT and business services sourcing will drive a change in the role of the CIO, the structure of the IT organization, and the profile of IT staff within the organization. Mayur Sahni, Senior Analyst, IT Services for IDC Asia/ Pacific says, "The increased responsibility of the CIO office to be more accountable for business outcomes will lead to a fundamental shift in focus from technical to commercial facets of IT operations. The ongoing trend to use more externally sourced services will bring the need for a high level of commercial understanding across contract management, service-level agreement (SLA) management and vendor management. Consequently, CIOs will need to reassess the capabilities of their current staff with a view to building an IT organiza-

tion for the future wherein resource allocation towards sourcing and commercial management, customer (internal and external) service and IT management will be top of mind.” Drawing from the latest IDC research and internal brainstorming sessions amongst IDC's regional and country analysts, the following are the top 10 IT Services Predictions for 2011. These represent major trends with either the most significant financial impact or long-term market impact across the APEJ region and IDC has them grouped under "New Buying Behavior", "New Delivery Models", "New Competitors" and "New Technology Shifts". New Buying Behavior ROI-Led Transformation Will Push the CIO to New Levels in the Business Hierarchy IDC believes that ROI-led transformative business projects will eventually move the CIO up the corporate hierarchy. Transformative initiatives will bring about changes across the infrastructure and application layer of an organization‟s IT built-up, create a shift in services sourcing and internal IT resource utilization as well as necessitate a re-assessment of vendor engagement models. The CIO will inevitably be tasked with a higher level of accountability and responsibility for driving successful outcome of these initiatives. CSOs To Set Standards for Data Governance In 2011, the CSO will become a de-facto entity in large

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

organizations. In this role, the CSO needs to secure the enterprise environment externally and internally from threats such as security breaches or infrastructure outages to ensure business continuity. Business outages and security incidents in 2010 have led to a realization that a downturn can impact brand equity in a sensitive customer market. Hence, in 2011, governance and data protection will be areas of focus and will also manifest in vendor SLAs. IDC believes that CSOs will be demanding for SLAs to include business outcomes-based matrices instead of just technical parameters. New Delivery Models Federation of Internal and External Services Will Be Essential for Cloud ROI and Ongoing Market Growth The ability to integrate, or federate, applications or services from the cloud with applications or services from an in-house IT environment or with services from another cloud service provider (SP) will be a key enabler or inhibitor for enterprise cloud adoption. Most businesses in Asia do not have significant experience toward adoption of cloud solutions and even fewer have a wellplaced cloud adoption strategy. Businesses that do not conduct a robust assessment of their cloud adoption strategy are likely to find it difficult to achieve their desired ROI.

less danger of being commoditized. The move will not only lead to the maturing of the cloud stack but also, change discussions between vendors and their customers from cost-savings to service delivery capabilities and their associated business value. Ownership/Accountability Drive Cloud SLAs

In the early days of cloud computing adoption, SLAs for public cloud services were very basic and customers accepted loosely defined service commitments from vendors. IDC observes that in 2009-2010, there was a push toward aggressive SLA commitments due to increasing adoption of platform-as-aservice (PaaS), software-as-aservice (SaaS), infrastructure-as-aservice (IaaS) and the entry of telcos. As a result, in order to be competitive, service providers had to be committed to drive up SLA levels. As we enter 2011, the use of cloud services is now a common choice for regional CIOs. IDC predicts that cloud SLAs will evolve further again to recognize the federated cloud and in-house service environment. CIOs will seek to apply their IT governance processes to multiple external services and will exhibit demand for explicit SLAs that describe the boundaries of vendor responsibility for that service, the measurement metrics, and the penalties for non-achievement. New Competitors Dynamics

Business as a Service: The Next Level of Cloud

Vendor-Partner Polarization Datacenter Space

The existing breadth of public cloud services available are mainly centered on the infrastructure and application layer which are in the lower end of the value chain and have a high risk of being commoditized. This prospect of a quickly commoditizing market is fuelling the push for public cloud services to move up the value chain toward business oriented services that not only add more value but are also in

Ongoing adoption of virtualization and private cloud solutions is viewed by vendors and channels alike as a significant growth driver for their services business. However, with CIOs raising the bar for vendor selection, technology vendors and their channels now have to showcase capabilities to drive technical discussions at the CIO level. For channel partners, this fundamental shift to services has

been slow to occur. Meanwhile, technology vendors are rolling out their end-to-end services engagement model to maintain the brand position in front of the CIO. Due to a conflict of interest, channels have two options if they want to continue to be in the game. They can either build their capabilities and partner closely with a vendor or, be a reseller of services. In contrast, IDC foresees that technology players will turn to acquiring either their own or competitorsâ&#x20AC;&#x; channel partners that have strong services capabilities and geographical reach. Non-traditional Infrastructure Outsourcers to Ramp up Their Presence From a competitive perspective, IDC expects 2011 to be the year when non-traditional IT services players (in particular, the Indianbased players, telcos and even niche cloud players) will cement their position in the infrastructure outsourcing marketplace. According to IDC's contracts database in 2011, US$2.61 billion worth of infrastructure led outsourcing contracts will be up for renewal in APEJ, of which 60% will be held by global IT SPs. IDC expects that there will be a shake-down as at least 30% of these renewals will be won by non-traditional players. This shift in sourcing, delivery, and pricing models will be in-line with the CIOs ROI-led transformation agenda, and the large IT SPs that are unable to shift their approach accordingly will find themselves under significant threat from these players. New Technology Shifts Intelligent X 2.0 Will Drive IT Services Spending in Emerging Industries A key promising area for project oriented services will be Intelligent X, which in 2010 witnessed projects initiated across Australia, China, India, South Korea and some parts

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

of Southeast Asia. The scale and budgets of Intelligent X projects are large as well as complex and therefore, a compelling business case or a legislative requirement will be essential for these projects to be adopted. In addition, while not all utilities and national or state governments have the financial capacity or resources to undertake such engagements, adoption of public/ private partnership (PPPs) models to deliver these services for the public sector, or the use of standardized cloud-delivered services for specific industry needs, will gain traction in 2011. The Appliance Will Threaten Data Warehousing Services Spend Emergence of data warehouse appliances has gained significant traction with CIOs for a few reasons - it promises simplification, performance and lower cost of ownership. Since these appliances come preconfigured, the days of long-term data warehousing projects look to be numbered. In this context, IDC predicts that the data warehousing

appliance market will cannibalize services spend but significant opportunities will continue to exist in the advanced analytics space. Adoption of Collaboration and Socialytic Apps to Drive IT Services Spend Adoption of collaboration and socialytic applications will witness increased level of traction from customers in 2011. The fusion of social or collaboration software and analytics with packaged applications will lead to popular applications being socialytic in nature. In the near term, enhancements across ERP, SCM, HRM and CRM applications that include socialytic features hold the promise of delivering external and internal collaboration with real-time business intelligence. In the long term, this trend has the potential to redefine the application landscape with inclusion of â&#x20AC;&#x153;mobilityâ&#x20AC;? features. The market will also be more innovative in its service delivery models. For example, socialytic applications may potentially be delivered "as-a-service".

This will also have an impact on next generation service practices that vendors are building out, and drive premium for vendors' ability to link development and operations teams since the applications effectively run in the cloud.â&#x2122;Ś Source: IDC

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Yahoo!’s New Ad Formats Set to Engage Audiences in More Personal and Social Environments Yahoo! Inc. has just announced the launch of four new advertising formats, which will bring rich media advertising to iPhones and sharing capabilities on social networking sites to advertisers in Asia. The digital media company creates deeply personal digital experiences that keep more than half a billion people connected to what matters most to them, across devices and around the globe. With the proliferation of smartphones across Asia, advertisers and marketers can now engage with their consumers in an interactive manner through a range of advertising formats that have been built for the iPhone. These formats include adhesion banners, expandable banners and click to video banners. Yahoo! has also launched a social ad unit that has been designed to prolong the engagement with users and to promote the sharing of display advertisements on Yahoo! properties through popular social networks. According to Yvonne Chang, Vice President and Managing Director of Yahoo! Southeast Asia, “Yahoo! has redefined the creative canvas for digital marketers by delivering audiences to advertisers through the science we build into our advertising products. Every day we are pushing back the boundaries of the Internet and

digital landscape with innovative ad solutions such as these new advertising formats we are introducing today.” “As users spend more time consuming and sharing content on their smartphones, they are likely to be influenced by mobile advertising. Leveraging this trend across the region for users to access the Internet through mobile devices such as smartphones, Yahoo! is offering marketers an opportunity to experiment with new digital canvases, to engage and target audiences through sophisticated mobile advertising solutions”, she adds. The four new Yahoo! advertising formats include:



Expandable Banner: designed to engage iPhone users with a larger canvas. The ad format expands downwards and has the capability to cover nearly two thirds of an iPhone screen. Click to Video Banner: shows a video clip when a user taps on the banner right from the ad on an iPhone. A video plays full screen on the native video player and users are brought back to the website to resume their session at the end of the video.

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS



Adhesion Banner: remains fixed to a place on a screen while a user scrolls through content on their device. This ensures an ad does not get lost while a user is looking through content on a device. Social Ads: designed to support existing online advertising campaigns, social ads allow users to comment on and share an ad on social networks including Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo!, Buzz and by email directly from the ad format. Social ads are expected to generate word-of-

mouth brand impact, exponential reach and increase viewer engagement levels. Each ad contains a widget that will enable self-contained apps to be shared with full functionality at any location or on any platform. Instead of receivers of the content linking back to a destination site to view an ad or video, they can experience the video and „share‟ functionality within their own Facebook page. Advertisers will be able to gather consumer insights through capturing data such as the frequency an ad has been shared on social net-

works to derive a sharing multiplier effect. The social ad format is available immediately across Southeast Asia and the other formats will be available from March 2011.♦ Source: Yahoo!

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Utilization of Mobile Marketing and Spending on Mobile Platforms on the Rise in 2011 According to a new survey from ANA (Association of National Advertisers) in partnership with MMA (Mobile Marketing Association), 88 percent of client-side marketers say they will utilize mobile marketing in 2011 and 75 percent plan to increase their spending on mobile marketing initiatives by an average of 59 percent more than their 2010 spend. The survey was conducted online during SeptemberOctober 2010 and identified methodologically 97 respondents - all client-side marketers largely from ANA‟s membership – that specifically indicated their intent to utilize mobile marketing in 2011 and asked these marketers a battery of questions about their experience and observations with the medium. It revealed that 62 percent of marketers, in 2010, used some form of mobile marketing for their brands. An additional 26 percent reported their intention to begin doing so this year, elevating the expected 2011 utilization rate to a near-universal 88 percent. Respondents cited two companies as being particularly successful with mobile marketing: Coca-Cola for its mobile advertising and Target for its integration of mobile web, rewards and wish list registry.

Most respondents, however, were less enthusiastic about their own mobile initiatives. Only 25 percent rated their efforts as “extremely” or “very” successful, while 53 percent said their efforts had been only “somewhat” successful. Those marketers claiming above average success rates have the following traits in common:

   

Have been using the medium longer Tend to use more of mobile‟s individual platforms Integrate platforms with each other Measure mobile efforts with a wide array of metrics “Mobile is clearly a fast-growing platform for marketers, but it has yet to attain its full potential,” said Bob Liodice, President and CEO, ANA. “With the anticipated increase in adoption this year, we expect to see fresh, innovative approaches, increased brand-building success, and better accountability for this exciting channel.” More than a dozen distinct interactive mobile platforms are currently being used by marketers, according to survey findings. The five with the highest adoption levels – at least by one-half of the firms surveyed – are the following:

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

    

Mobile websites Mobile apps Mobile messaging/SMS Mobile display ads Mobile search "The results of the ANA-MMA joint survey strongly indicate that we will continue to see increased adoption and spending this year across all mobile marketing platforms,” said Greg Stuart, Global CEO, MMA. “The MMA is committed to further establishing critical best practices and guidelines that create efficiencies and eliminate barriers for marketers to make mobile an indispensable part of their marketing mix." In the survey, respondents noted several specific advantages of mobile marketing, including:

 

Portable web access Ability to deliver content/ promotions to on-the-go consumers  Convenience for immediate consumer support/sales support/loyalty Conversely, the research found numerous barriers to the adoption of mobile marketing by client-side marketers, including:



Lack of metrics to properly allocate mobile marketing within the overall marketing mix  Inability to prove ROI  Lack of mobile marketing understanding by key people in the brand/company To date, many companies (71 percent) have assigned responsibility

for mobile marketing to an existing internal group. Only 19 percent of respondents say their companies have created a new internal group to manage the mobile marketing function, while in most cases this group reports to the digital marketing team.♦ Source: ANA & MMA

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Enabling Social Experiences with Mobile Technology Industry estimates peg the number of unique social media users to increase to two billion by 2015. For marketers who see it as an effective media for consumer engagement, the question then becomes: Is it enough to just create campaigns on every website based on the concept of linking or is there additional value that can be offered through personalised engagement? Moreover, where do you draw the line with personalisation to ensure that your users/consumers donâ&#x20AC;&#x;t end up confused and lost in the number of available customisable functions/options? The key is to understand that success does not depend on offering everything in one go. It depends on offering something that works, and works well. A successful engagement experience should be both relevant to your target audience and accessible across the different technology interfaces. From an advertising perspective, there is a lot to be learnt from the recent upsurge in campaigns using mobile technologies/ applications to create engaging social experiences for consumers. Here are some campaigns that demonstrate the successful use of mobile as a social media: The North Face â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Red Flag The North Face, the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x;s premier supplier of authentic, innovative and technically advanced outdoor ap-

parel, equipment and footwear, used mobile to encourage a more adventurous lifestyle amongst Chinese urban dwellers. To get the largely stay at home people of China interested in exploration, The North Face decided to show them the benefits of exploring where they lived. The integrated campaign covered advertising, in-store promotion, online, live events, mobile and field marketing. Over 18 days, consumers were persuaded to go out and visit as many summits in Beijing and Shanghai as possible. Once there, they were encouraged to plant a red flag in the true spirit of adventure - and plant electronic flags via mobile SMSes to claim a virtual piece of China. Day by day, the number of flags planted was kept score of on a campaign website. There were over two million unique visitors to the campaign website, and nearly 1.2 million people saw the live on the ground event in Beijing and Shanghai. Dealer store sales climbed 106% during the campaign period and event coupon redemption was 150% above average. Over 651,000 red flags were planted during the campaign period. The overall champion alone planted an amazing 4,000+ red flags. The campaign was a runaway success for The North Face.

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Cadbury 5 Star – College Fests Mobile solution provider TELiBrahma used its BluFi technology to create an engagement campaign geared towards college students for Cadbury 5 Star. BluFi helps convert locations into BluFi Zones (Bluetooth-zones), which are robust mobile media networks that deliver rich mobile content, context based advertisements‟ and location based services directly to the user‟s mobile. For the 5 Star campaign TELiBrahma partnered with Cadbury to create Bluetooth zones for the annual festivals of some of India‟s leading colleges. The theme of the campaign was to encourage users to get „lost‟ in the taste of 5 Star. Users received clues (via BluFi) about a „lost‟ person in the event. Clues were in the form of videos, animations and text. Using the clues when users spotted the lost person, they received surprise gifts from Cadbury. The users then received animated messages informing them to collect a free 5 Star from a kiosk. Visitors who went to collect the free 5 Star were requested to capture their „lost‟ mo-

ment on their mobile and upload the photo to BluFi. The best photos were rewarded with surprise gifts from Cadbury. Several other contest and activity updates were delivered to users throughout the duration of the festivals. The contests were also promoted through communities and updates on Facebook, Orkut and Twitter. The campaign reached some 23,600 people across five college festivals. There were up to 110,000 unique content downloads over 17 days of engagement. The exercise created a great level of excitement, involvement, positive word of mouth and brand recall for 5 Star. The photographs resulting from the campaign were used on social media platforms to create further buzz around the event, increasing registrations for the official 5 Star communities on these forums. The digital social engagement revolution currently underway is going to be, in the years to come, a very enlightening case study for the digi-

tal marketing industry. The always on, always available nature of mobile makes it a great enabler for social experiences. As marketers continue to explore the strength of this medium, mobile will continue to be the most engaging and influential social media. History is in the making with mobile devices taking the lead as THE media for customised marketing innovations.♦ By Rohit Dadwal, Managing Director, Mobile Marketing Association Asia Pacific

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

The Four Ps of Successful Mobile Advertising Mobile is the ultimate engagement media – the highway to reaching consumers anytime, anywhere. With the huge adoption rate of mobile across the globe, the mobile advertising eco-system will definitely see a surge on business potential in 2011. However, to capitalize on this unprecedented growth potential, mobile advertisers have to keep focus on some basic P.T.O. In order to succeed in this dynamic business environment, advertisers have to leverage on four basic parameters – what we can call the 4Ps of mobile advertising: Penetration – Reaching out to the focused target consumers Permission – Consumers decide what they want to see, receive or engage with Privacy – Consumers decide where their information should be and how it is used Preference – Consumers decide what content is relevant to them

quential data disregarded as spam. Today the consumer is not willing to receive such blasts and there is various telecom legislation across the globe to help prevent such misuse of the medium. Moreover, the purpose of mobile advertising is lost if the message reaches an irrelevant audience. Now more and more mobile marketers are going for consumer opt-in models and gaining fantastic rates from subscribers. Out There Media has recently achieved a record breaking 2.5 million consumer optins in Asia within a few weeks of recent roll-out of our next generation permission-based program with Maxis and Globe Telecom. The number keeps growing steadily and should soon break the five million threshold just in Asia. With a very low level of churn, these statistics indicate how permission-based advertising gives value to both consumers and advertisers. We believe this is going to be the norm in future.

Penetration Mobile advertisers have to engage with service providers to increase the reach of their network. However, the key factor is not the number of consumers reached but how relevant these consumers are to the particular advertisement. Greater penetration of the mobile network offers a bigger pool of consumers to target. It enhances the possibility of a more focused targeting, relevant to a particular campaign.

Privacy Protection of subscriber information and privacy of consumers is essential for mobile advertising and the telecom industry at large. It is important to realize that mobile is a personal device. Consumers and their personal devices aren't just numbers that mobile advertisers can blast for gauging feedback and response rates. We need to approach mobile phone users with the respect they deserve. It is the consumer‟s prerogative to share any personal information if they want. Mobile advertisers should consider intrusiveness and privacy issues and show the sort of courtesy likely to appeal to consumers.

Permission With the increase in connectivity, mobile marketers in the past have flooded consumers with a tsunami of information - most of which were irrelevant and inconse-

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Preference Most advertisers across the globe are struggling to conjure up a model that seems to satisfy everyone. If advertisers respect consumer privacy and offer value amidst a blanket of permissionbased access, it can work wonders for them. It is important to understand what consumers want and deliver exactly that. Users can sign up and fill out what kind of advertising they would prefer to receive, which gives them a measure of control over the information they want to receive or share. This will ensure better turn around for the advertising campaign as it offers a personal touch of unique relevancy. Moving beyond these four important factors, it is also necessary to keep in mind the three basic rules of consumer engagement while planning a mobile advertising campaign. 1. Transparent Messaging Mobile advertising campaigns have plain and simple statements so individuals at the receiving end can understand what they are getting. The future of small print is actually big print!

2. Relevant Communication Do you want a ticket to the Malaysian Grand Prix? May be not but there are a lot who would die for one. Hence targeting the focus group is really crucial. Further, the same individual may not always be given the same incentive and we cannot expect that he will receive it in the same manner. The value of such incentives needs to be individualized and customized depending on factors of relevancy to the particular consumer. 3. Easy Interaction The key to consumer engagement is to make the communication comprehendible and interesting. The rule of thumb is that consumers should have it easy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; served in accordance to their needs and without facing any difficulty whatsoever. Mobile advertisers should never forget that it is not their brand anymore â&#x20AC;&#x201C; it is the brand of the consumers. Consumers have ultimate control of the advertising channel and the content therein. Respecting consumer privacy and seeking permission actually contributes to the paradigm of increased knowledge resulting in increased relevance of the campaigns. The mobile adver-

Fabrizio Caruso

tising eco-system can prosper only by accepting this reality and by capitalizing on it. It is like any other relationship - the purpose of communication with consumers is not just to use their preferences and permission to enhance any brand value in their eyes. It is rather to provide them with something that enhances the mutual relationship!â&#x2122;Ś By Fabrizio Caruso, VP Business Developent & GM, Asia Pacific, Out There Media Asia Pte Ltd.

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Why mobile advertising will ignite a creative renaissance Steve Jobs said, “Most mobile advertising really sucks.” We at InMobi agree. While our approach may be different than that of Mr. Jobs, it‟s impossible to deny that iAd brought some much-needed attention to mobile creative execution. We‟re convinced the important differences between mobile and the PC Web will spark the re-emergence of creative as a driving force in digital advertising. Creative‟s impact on advertising is well understood and has been the focus of agencies for almost all of the 20th century. As advertising began its migration to the PC Web expectations were sky high. But after 10 years, instead of ushering in a new era of creativity, Internet advertising creative has a tarnished reputation. Creative on the Internet is generally viewed as either a nuisance, with the continued persistence of unfriendly formats such as pop-up windows. Or it‟s factual and mundane, lacking all emotional impact. For example formats such as Google search ad copy or tiny graphical ad badges offer little opportunity for creative talents to shine. To illustrate this point I sometimes ask audiences when I speak, “When was the last time you saw a PC banner ad that you actually remember?” and I usually answer this myself with, “Never.” On mobile things are going to be different.

Mobile advertising ignites a creative renaissance Creative with high production values has already had a huge impact in the mobile advertising space. iAd alone doubled the spending on mobile display in the U.S. and this demonstrates a real pent-up demand for high quality creative in the mobile channel. Advertisers driven by the demise of television viewership, the failure of creative on the PC Web, and the success of performance base advertising in digital, now see a golden opportunity to leverage the creative potential of mobile devices. Why creative on the PC web failed Creative did not work on the PC Web like it did in television for a variety of reasons. Initially the PC Web did not support animation or video, and website design was visually austere, progressing only to become more cluttered and confusing. But the least quantifiable and what I believe is the most impactful reason why advertising creative never evolved, is the nature of the content that drove the PC Web‟s success. The PC Web is primarily a fact-based medium. Consumers love to “Google” facts and figures, look-up information in Wikipedia, read the news online, get driving directions, research major purchases, browse travel

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

sites, the list is endless. But what all these tasks have in common is that they are fact based. The entire medium lacks a major element that has traditionally made advertising on television so compelling. That essential element is fiction. The lack of fictional content is what drove advertising to be all fact based. Performance based ads with compelling offers and coupons succeeded, because the PC Web became synonymous with factual content. There was no place for fiction. Mobile, your personal entertainment destination Mobile content on the other hand is almost entirely entrainment or fiction based. Games are by far the most popular form of content on the iPhone. The iTunes store charts are dominated by games and entertainment apps. With the monumental success of Angry Birds, this game alone is poised to define the medium, much in the same way Pac-Man did for early video games. Consumers will soon clearly see this division of content by device. The PC will be relegated back to the office, and survive purely as mundane business machine, relegated to boring and serious tasks. The smartphone will be the “fun place”, where you go to relax and be entertained – exactly like television.

What does this mean for advertisers? For advertisers this means high impact creative execution will be the new standard on mobile devices. Consumers will expect the advertising to be as entertaining as the content. While we have seen movies and games pioneer mobile advertising, youthful brands, such as athletic apparel and inexpensive cars have been quick to follow. In 2011, as the smartphone moves from the early adopter to the main-

stream, expect to see more conservative brands embrace mobile and its creative potential. By Gregory Kennedy, Head of Developer Community, InMobi This is a part of InMobi’s thought leadership whitepaper series from the Mobile World Congress 2011 which focuses on concepts that will define the next phase of mobile advertising.

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Social Media Rules for Employees Even if a company doesn‟t use social media tools for its external communications yet, many of its employees are definitely active in the Web 2.0 world. They are, for instance, members of Facebook or LinkedIn, or write their own blog or twitter, posting in that way quite often not only private matters, but company information as well. Employees are always ambassadors of their company, even though many may not even be aware of this. In order to make sure that the company is properly reflected by their employees, companies should manage the social media attitude of their staff. Introducing a social media policy that outlines the corporate guidelines or principles of communicating in the online world is a good solution to get a grip on your social media marketing. To counteract any potential threats, companies should establish clear rules and set up a so-called social media policy for their employees. The following questions should provide a good guide to help you plan for your very own social media policy. Simply ask yourself: 1.

WHY have such a policy?

From a legal perspective you should consider two important points:



Employers need to be upfront with employees that they have no right to privacy with respect to social



networking. “Employers reserve the right to monitor employee use of social media regardless of location (i.e. at work on a company computer or on personal time with a home/personal computer).” Employees “should be made aware that company policies on anti-harassment, ethics and company loyalty extend to all forms of communication (including social media) both inside and outside the workplace.” People need to remember that negative comments about or bashing your organization/ superiors/co-workers online can lead to consequences at work.

2. WHAT can social media do for my organization? You should think about forming your social policy with an understanding of how your employees are aligned with your company values. “It‟s important that authenticity can exist without the need for what may be perceived as forced company morality.” 3.

WHO should the policy cover?

Media is for everyone - not just your marketing department. So for it to be truly effective consider expanding the policy to all employees, not just for a select handful of people. One way to think of it is, while it‟s called social media, it has a vibrant customer service component to it.

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

You wouldn‟t take the telephone or email away from your employees, so why take social media away from them? “Companies have existing communications policies, directives that spell out the company‟s expectation when employees use the telephone or email.” Since the conversation has moved to the Web, “it‟s important for organizations large and small to acknowledge that and extend their existing communications policies to include online activities.” 4. WHERE should you let employees know about this policy? When you give all of your employees the ability to interact with the whole world, you should provide them with some training on how to use it properly and effectively. Encourage your employees to have, for example, Twitter accounts so that they can interact with current and potential customers, but make sure that they know how to use it properly during new-hire orientation. It‟s definitely a great way to form more personal connections with both employees and customers. 5. WHEN is the right time to implement a policy?

The time to think about drafting a social media policy is now. Facebook, Twitter & Co. are growing at incredible rates, proving social networking applications success. Companies are using social media tools to establish value in terms of marketing and branding and should start thinking about social media in the same context as all other forms of communication. Common sense is actually all that is needed: Develop guidelines for its use, train people to leverage the benefits, and proactively create a positive social media presence for the organization. Attention: Keep in mind that it is NOT WHAT you say, but HOW you say it Since the boundaries between work and private life on the Web can blur very quickly, and effective social media guidelines cannot be pushed through with only conditional authority, the acceptance of such policies primarily depends on your staff. An imposed, inflexible set of rules with many bans will certainly not achieve the desired effect. Good social media rules should instead be written in a way that offers employees support and information about the opportunities and risks for their own reputation and

that of the company. This means, a good social media guide looks at both aspects: firstly, the document demonstrates a direct benefit for the employees, which has a positive effect on their interest and acceptance, and secondly, the two aspects affect each other anyway and should therefore logically be considered together. Conclusion What has been on the Internet once can usually be found there for a long time and cannot be withdrawn easily or in a hurry. That‟s why companies should not ignore social media, but regard it as a part of their corporate communications to the outside world. This includes offering employees guidance and support as well as clear rules within what‟s permissible. In this way, it is not only possible to avoid potential damage to a company‟s reputation, but over time help promote a positive effect on it, as no one propagates the company culture more authentically to the outside world than your own people.♦ By Daniela La Marca

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Ethically Socialize Your Business The social web has changed the communication rules for the Internet as its users are now no longer mere recipients of messages, but can publish content as well. This has an enormous affect on online brand management and corporate communications as established marketing and PR tools simply seem to be less and less effective. Social Media requires a dialogue between enterprises and Internet users on equal terms, thus, warnings or threats usually have a negative effect, which can even cause long-term damage to the image of a brand or company when pressurized by the public. While the individual can be powerful in the social media environment, everyone should be aware of netiquette and behave properly on the open platforms. Still, it seems, many who register underestimate the broad public reach of personal information and data. They upload private pictures or publish articles that would better remain unpublished, behaving as if no one would ever look at it. This error can have fatal consequences and even lead to a job dismissal as very few seem to be aware of what a bad light they cast on themselves and their employers. Therefore, social media needs clear rules of conduct. It's up to companies to properly educate their employees

Usually it is enough to demonstrate to employees on a screen that their profiles are displayed in search results when someone is looking for his employer on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn and to show them how many of their supposed private texts and pictures are publicly visible. Once they see what impression they provide of themselves and their company, they will usually agree to improve their profiles immediately and are more careful in the future with such applications. Develop a code of conduct As a further step, employer and employees can jointly work out codes of conduct for social media in the real public world. Such guidelines are more likely to be accepted if the employees have a say in them. If the company wants to use the social media activities of its employees for business communications, it should also make clear when and how long people are allowed to remain in social media platforms. Clear rules that simplify dealing with the topic for both sides will allow for a transparent online world, positive activities and commitment to the employer. The emergence of social media has generated a new and innovative way to create dialogue and receive useful feedback in a way never seen before. The impact it has achieved in recent times is overwhelming and nobody wants to miss anymore the movement and the free speech of the Internet population, but what to do

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

when you are publicly criticized on social media platforms? Keep cool when the fear of too much "me" in social media is breathing down your neck Donâ&#x20AC;&#x;t lose your temper, over-react or fall back into your traditional marketing thinking by creating barriers to social media initiatives, as you might feel disrupted in your hierarchical management model, when you get attacked on social media sites. Instead, try to face the challenges with bravery and etiquette by adopting a respectful approach when communicating with users on blogs, social networks and Web sites with social areas. While negative user reviews or critical blog posts may be a thorn in the side, the constructive potential of social media should always be realized instead of annoyed interventions with threats of legal action. Successful social media marketing generally requires a public, respectful dialogue between advertisers

and users on equal terms, which means sometimes to accept, even welcome, criticism, and above all to give honest responses. The Social Media Code of Ethics offers guidance in the tension between authenticity and brand management:

1. RESPECT - We respect all us-

2. 3.

5. 6.

ers and their opinions and ensure a respectful interaction amongst all players. OBJECTIVITY - We welcome thematic content and objective criticism. ACCESSIBILITY - We respond promptly and appropriately to direct questions, suggestions and criticism. CREDIBILITY - We stand by our public statements and reviews in all good conscience for transparency and credibility. HONESTY - We deal with mistakes openly and do not hide them. LAW - We respect the rights of our users and the rights of un-

involved third parties, including copyright and personal rights as well as privacy.â&#x2122;Ś By Daniela La Marca

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Social Network Marketing: Online Response to Recommendation Marketing Have you noticed how social and work related activities get more and more mixed up in our increasingly digitally driven world? Banks have Facebook accounts, insurance companies have Twitter feeds, and hotels get rated on various blog platforms. A company that has a well-maintained social network sets our mind at rest, addresses our emotions, and gives us a sense of belonging. So, if all these companies are successfully playing with your emotions while expanding their customer base, why you donâ&#x20AC;&#x;t do the same? Creating a social networking campaign is actually simple, but there are still a few things you should learn before you jump in at the deep end. Initially you should decide how aggressive you want your first campaign to be. You may simply just want to sign up at any social networking platform to maintain a number of blogs with daily entries, or you might choose a more passive approach. However, before making your choice you should consider personal and business aspects as you can adjust your strategy anytime later by creating a niche or a general marketing strategy. Niche social media websites are industry specific and attract mainly visitors within your industry but generate a high percentage of targeted potential direct marketing customers. If you are for instance a texting agency, it would make sense to sign up on a social media platform for journalists. Having discussions there with others gives your brand a voice and makes sure that the community gets to know the soul of your company. There are a number of other strategies that you can apply, e.g. you can test your product by well-known

product-comparison sites, whereby you can get, at the same time, high quality links from these websites. Maybe you want to join a discussion forum in your niche to exchange ideas and opinions with other members. In that way you can intellectually leave an impression and make a name for your company as an industry expert. Actually, the blogosphere is a great environment to make a name for you too. Blogs can be less formal than your company's website and are ideal for current news. Use your blog to express the personality of your company or open new communication channels by writing a comment to an industry blog, which in turn links to your blog. Facebook and Twitter are generally social media tools that allow real-time updates that even allow you to synchronize your Facebook status with your live Twitter feed. Maybe you may want to register at Digg and make links to your favorite sites, new articles and pictures as the more votes your website receives the higher the probability that you will be listed on the home page of Digg. These examples are only a small taste of what social media can do and for more you can check out the current, most important players in the social networking world which are for instance, besides the ones already mentioned above, WordPress, Blogger, MySpace, Del.icio.us, Reddit, and StumbleUpon. Always keep in mind that the more you interact with your target audience and impact their emotions, the higher the chances of winning new customers. Establishing a networking platform means free traffic, potential sales, and strong Internet presence.â&#x2122;Ś By Daniela La Marca

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

How to Increase your Privacy on Facebook On Facebook, private and business affairs are more and more mixed together, so do help protect yourself by learning how you can customize your privacy with just a few clicks. Please also consider that humor is usually a matter of taste and context, but it is reflected unfiltered on Facebook. I point this out, as I have the feeling that people sometimes don‟t really seem to realize that they give a “wrong” image to the public and what an impact it can have on their real life. Protection of sensitive data and images Who wants to share texts and images with friends on Facebook that are not intended to be seen by business partners, bosses, or your mother? You can set your privacy through the menu item "account" and "privacy settings” to define exactly who you would allow to see what kind of area. If you exclude everyone but your friends, as a consequence, you cannot accept a single contact as a friend who shouldn‟t see your contents. As the case may be, all future friend requests would need to be rejected from the professional field, which usually brings with it potential for conflict.

Create groups of friends For those who feel that these general attitudes are not precise enough they can organize their contacts in groups. In the field "user-defined settings" on the privacy page groups can then be assigned specific permissions. So make sure that every new friend gets assigned to the right group, so that they do not get to see the wrong content. In addition, this group of friends function is also suitable to divide contacts by language. When properly set, Chinese-speaking friends would only see Chinese status messages and English speaking friends would only see those in English. All without warranty Even if everything is set up correctly, there is no guarantee in future that no one will see a piquant picture or sensitive comment, which may have been explicitly permitted. Facebook system updates of the software‟s privacy settings have been made public several times in recent years - without warning. Whoever wishes to be absolutely sure of no mishap is best advised not to publish anything that is not suited for the public eye. For private communications, there are more discrete channels through the largest social media platform in the world.♦ By Daniela La Marca

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Digital Mash-Up

“We lived in farms, then we lived in cities, and now we're gonna live on the Internet!” – Sean Parker, The Social Network It took a very short period of time for the Internet revolution to swallow the world whole. Can you believe that Wikipedia was founded in 2001, Facebook in 2004 and Twitter only in 2006? Today, the average Facebook user has 130 friends, and the average Twitter user follows 350 people and has 346 followers. Their Chinese counterparts Renren and Kaixin001 have 200 million and 75 million users respectively. Publications by users are seen by their friends and friends‟ friends, depending on their privacy settings. Imagine how many people a single person‟s post is capable of reaching. As people‟s lives become increasingly tied to their online identities, it‟s become imperative for them to have access to those identities at all times. Close to three quarters of the planet is currently mobile. The always on, always available nature of the mobile device therefore makes it the ideal medium for people to stay in touch with their online communities. The combination of the social and mobile media has led to people now spending more than half their day consuming media. Social networking via mobile browsers was up 90% toward the end of 2010. The two technologies have converged to create the new mobile social media. For marketers, this is the media that gives them fast, targeted and ongoing interaction with their customers. In the medium term, it will be one of the biggest media for marketing communications. It will be imperative for brands to ensure that their marketing messages are sparking, continuing or adding value to conversations happening across the digital universe. Businesses today have more ways to reach more markets than they ever could before. It would be foolish not to leverage this medium as it continues to change our social and professional lives. It‟s easy to get started. The key is to employ a few easy methods to ensure that your digital campaigns fully explore the potential of social and mobile elements.

The basics: Mobile friendly websites and crossintegration Any digital content should be accessible by all mainstream mobile devices. Since the appeal of mobile is that it helps you make decisions anytime, anywhere, it is essential that your digital content can be accessed by consumers anytime, anywhere. Marketers also need to ensure that the content is not only accessible via mobiles, but accessible in the right format. Mobile screens are smaller and require marketers to ensure compatible prioritization of content. Additionally, cross-integration is the key to successful digital campaigns. We‟ve seen numerous examples of microsites being cross-integrated with mobile, Facebook, Twitter and the like. These are small steps that can completely revamp your marketing campaigns and breathe new life into them. Promotional gimmicks: In April 2010, Jimmy Choo launched the @CatchAChoo trainer hunt on London‟s streets. The treasure hunt campaign incorporated social media outlets by posting hints about the whereabouts of Jimmy Choo trainers on Foursquare, Facebook and Twitter. Contestants obtained instant location updates by accessing the social sites on their mobiles and the first person to locate the shoes got to keep them. There are several such campaigns that have made a huge impact on consumers and go a long way in improving consumer involvement with the brand and building loyalty. Reward your brand‟s social network via mobile coupons or offer product previews via mobile with a link to your social pages. Social media brings tremendous value to the mobile marketing mix, whether it‟s getting closer to customers no matter where they are, communicating with them on a social level, or releasing information. With purchases of goods and services via mobile devices expected to reach $200 billion by 2012, the linking of mobile marketing and social media is a marriage made in heaven. A whole region of uncharted possibilities awaits the exploration of marketers.♦ By Rohit Dadwal, Managing Director, Mobile Marketing Association Asia Pacific Limited

TECHNOLOGIES & PRODUCTS

JamiQ Monitors Social Media across Asian Languages and Markets Many companies still haven‟t found a proper social media strategy and are in the meantime experimenting in blogs, on Facebook, or Twitter, although they actually often have no idea where their customers exchange information among each other. They use social networks in the first place to promote their products and seem to completely leave behind the analysis of the various channels content and the implementation of the results in their marketing strategy. That this has to change is out of question and JamiQ‟s multilingual social media monitoring software has a lot to offer, as it helps businesses listen, measure, and gain insights from conversations taking place online. JamiQ uses advanced data mining and natural language processing technology to produce real-time buzz trending, sentiment detection, influence scoring, and market segmentation that gives businesses the critical insights they need for immediate and strategic decision -making. Knowing this, it is a pity that so many marketers still fall into the trap of measuring social media success based

on generic measures such as the number of hits, number of referrals and level of engagement. Though they may be relevant, success should actually be measured in the context of the task in hand - the ability to reach, identify and convert influencers as well as the effectiveness of the „influencer‟ to spread the word to desired consumers. Benjamin Koe, JamiQ‟s Head, Client Leadership, is aware of the problem, explaining: “Knowing what's being said publicly about your company's brand, products, services, and even people are of utmost importance to managing the reputation of a business and its communication needs. With the online and social media now becoming mainstream, our mindset and approach towards monitoring what is being said about our companies in the public space will have to evolve to take advantage of the new opportunities”. According to JamiQ‟s spokesperson “using the right tools improves significantly a company‟s ability to cope with the evolution in the social media arena“, as it will help them identify who's really influential and who's just talking to a wall. And he believes profoundly that the foundation of social media monitoring is the ability to

TECHNOLOGIES & PRODUCTS

capture most, if not all, online conversations. Just like a search engine, the more web pages that are covered the better the service. Therefore, his company uses extensively the world's best search engines, APIs, RSS feeds, and specially built web crawlers to monitors the social media in realtime and even specializes in monitoring the diverse and multilingual Asian social media due to their strategic positioning. However, as the social media phenomenon is a global one that impacts every country, JamiQ gives their clients the option to monitor the social in any language, from any market and even provides a one-click translation option for any foreign language post. "The benefits of what we do for our clients are clear”, says Benjamin, “it is almost impossible to manually track and measure what is being said about your brand online because there's just too much data from too many platforms. As a consequence, any company keen to analyse the social media needs technology to aid the research.”

One of the best features of their system is, according to him, its ability to detect a growing crisis, where their system automatically sends an update to the customer as soon as it identified spikes in the trend. In addition, JamiQ visualizes the buzz of all the entries over any date range, even down to the hours in a day, while links to frequently used date ranges and interactive charts provide quick access to the most critical data. In general their dashboard provides an easy to manage quick overview of the most recent updates on all important topics. Not to mention that their smart algorithms automatically analyze the influence of every website on the fly, which is again visualized by a chart that gives you an instant view of the impact your brand is making on the social media. Just as important knowing what is said about you, is knowing where the conversations are taking place, JamiQ uses its smart algorithms to discover which country a post comes from and what media type it

is (blog, forum, news, etc.), too. This gives their customers the ability to zoom in on their local market and appropriate media types. Since September 2008, when JamiQ was founded, the company seems to have come a long way. It managed to grow its offering from a simple monitoring technology to a complete social media dashboard within this short time. Up to the task of meeting such fast movements - social media monitoring becomes increasingly important to PR, crisis and issues management, advertising ROI, campaign evaluation, reputation management, and customer service – JamiQ knows that it is key to all of them to stay informed on what‟s being said online, thinking: “Let‟s talk about business!”♦ By Daniela La Marca

TECHNOLOGIES & PRODUCTS

Forrester Research’s Effective Three-Step Social Media Monitoring Performance figures and metrics can very often overstrain marketers when they are monitoring their own social media activities. Social Media Marketing is drowning in a sea of figures. Each social network, each monitoring tool has its own metrics and there are hundreds of ways to measure the success of your own social media activities. With such an enormous amount of possible indicators and the same time (yet) lacking insight and perspective in which indicators are important, it is no surprise that marketers are often overstretched with the monitoring of their social media activities.

Consider which key figures indicator success

Don‟t think about graphs and lines on your report, instead consider which consumer behaviours and feelings correspond to your goals and focus your measurement on these figures. If your goal has been to activate, your success is defined by how many people say positive things about your brand. If your goal has been to support, your success is defined by whether and how many people ask for help and advice, and whether and how well you have provided that assistance.

Forrester Research has developed a simple three-step strategy to facilitate the measurement of social media activities. Follow these three steps, and you will end the chaos in your marketing reports and more effectively measure your social media activities in the future:

Again, it's not about specific figures, it's about whether and how your hopes that the relationship changes with your customers through your social media activities, have been fulfilled.

Think about your marketing

Go back mentally and search your notes you have made when planning your social media activities. Recollect the goal you wanted to pursue. If you can‟t remember what it was, you will neither know what to measure, nor if and when you have achieved it.

Look for "your" key figure

Once you have found "your" key figure(s) you can search for ways to measure and compare them within the social networks you use. If, for instance, the performance figures, which you receive from your Facebook activities, are most important to you, look for similar networks to expand "your" monitoring and get closer to your marketing goal.♦ By Daniela La Marca

COMPANIES & CAMPAIGNS

Aureliant: Influence Marketing is the Way to Go In the past few years social media has developed an incomparable momentum and dynamism that seems to be unstoppable despite the ever changing, fast-living digital environment.

online lives by simply changing the way people use social networks. This was a time when Facebook had only 15 million subscribers and was just one of many social networks out there.

The challenge for companies working in this field is to apply creative solutions and combine them with a strategic approach that hits the bullâ&#x20AC;&#x;s eye every time to get permanently and successfully involved in the Web 2.0 world.

Thorben, has worked for multinational corporations in Europe, US and Asia in the areas of mobile Internet and wireless technologies, was convinced that it would be possible to make social networking easier to use for the consumer and got down to work.

The principle of Web 2.0 development is not based on a new technology, but on a change of use and perception of the Internet. "User-generated content" is the keyword and driver of the concept, where the user is both a transmitter and receiver of Web content.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;You have to remember back in 2007 we had MySpace, Friendster, new and upcoming Bebo and Orkutz, as well as Plaxo and LinkedIn - in a nutshell maybe 10 to 15 social networks with around 500 million users that had on average three social networking accounts. As almost everyone had multiple accounts to manage, I got the idea to build a platform from where you could sign into all of your social networks and manage them from one access point. We chose to do a desktop app because this should really happen sort of intuitively before you get on the Net, just like Skype or MSN Messenger today. By the way, I built in Facebook

Thorben Linneberg, an enthusiastic Singapore based Danish entrepreneur, jumped quite early on the social media movement bandwagon. In 2007 he started Aureliant to tackle his idea of developing a tool - today known as OrSiSo (Organize, Simplify, Socialize) - that helps social network users manage and organize their

COMPANIES & CAMPAIGNS

chat, Gtalk and MSN, too. It was the world‟s first desktop application to aggregate social networks and currently supports ten social networks that have registered prominent growth in terms of adoption and usage in the past few years.”

Thorben Linneberg Thorben is still convinced that there is a market for his business idea that gives users the ability to aggregate and consolidate contacts, images, or news feeds, regardless of whichever social networks they belong to. What has changed is the fact that OrSiSo now faces several well funded competitors while he vanished into thin air for a year to recover from a serious motorbike accident in June 2009, shortly after the launch of OrSiSo. TweetDeck and Twhirl, which built their products on the same Adobe AIR technology as OrSiSo, didn‟t let the grass grow under their feet and moved on with the development of their products. “It turned out to be a sort of disadvantage to be in Singapore for a social networking start up, because all of the investors I spoke to really had a hard time believing the numbers in terms of the value of social networking. They laughed at Facebook and asked “It‟s worth $15 billion, are you crazy?” Well, it is completely out of scope now with Facebook being worth $50 billion and having around 500 million members. So, I did not manage to raise money the first couple of years but still launched OrSiSo. It has been a set-back by being out of business for a year due to my motorbike accident.”

Back to work Thorben made a shift by concentrating on their pedigree social networking, their understanding of social APIs and how to make use of them, in order to facilitate consumers‟ experiences with social networks. As he realized that the market was saturated he faced up to the fact that everyone now has Facebook and therefore less people cared about managing multiple social networking accounts because they are now just part of the big one; the whole idea of having a tool that manages multiple networks seemed to be unprofitable. Although they were still growing, Aureliant knew that they would never have a huge number of users. So, they jumped on the next wave in social networking, where brands and companies started to find out how to use the social networks to have a return on their marketing dollars. Today people go to blogs and forums to discuss with friends products they are interested in, recommend what they like or what their friends should be aware of and or should avoid, this helps shed new light on social networking from a marketer‟s perspective. “Facebook has opened up an avenue to interact with friends on a global scale that we have never seen before. Facebook‟s APIs are designed for other third-party websites or applications that can use that social data. For instance: if you give me your Facebook credentials in an IT sense, then I can request from Facebook that they give me a list of who your friends are on Facebook. Everyone can do that, which means I know you, but I also know all of your friends now. So, the whole point of all this is obviously influencer marketing. It is the ability for a brand to suggest products based on friends‟ recommendations which they were not able to do before.” Aureliant is now using their same service and APIs on knowledge

and understanding, but instead of building software that can be used to manage an individual‟s social life, they have developed software a company can use to manage its social marketing efforts. “Let me give you a user case of what this system is”, Thorben said, explaining: “SingTel has SingTel Shop, Football Frenzy, mioTV, broadband Internet and all in all they have a lot of websites where you can see mioTV or select a plan for your mobile phone. So when you are browsing for a new mobile phone, you go to the SingTel shop and they have 150 different phones it‟s really tough to figure out which one to choose. So what I do is to show on that website where the products are. Let‟s say “Facebook functionalities” means that I can share anything I want, I can comment on it, I can like it and I can see if any of my friends did the same, so when I go in and look at all the 150 mobile phones, I can sort by price, brand, or by what my friends like, and it‟s that last one that is important. You can sort all of the contents of the mioTV programs based on what your friends like. It‟s our ambition to build user interfaces that even work on TV, so when you are watching you can favor the program and your friends will be able to know that you like CSI:Miami and you would also be able to see when you are watching TV that your friend has just switched over and is watching the same program as you. This is an extension of the same system they are providing social integration to TV, mobile and web.” At the same time there are powerful social business analytics in the background to identify influencers, people who will have a higher likelihood to get their friends or peers to repeat the action and to do the same they did. “All the data points are there”, Thorben confirms, “so what I have done is to build a system that organizes this, pulls it out, creates reports where you can say the top influencer in mobile or

COMPANIES & CAMPAIGNS

smartphones is Brian because he has posted four times this month and on average he gets 18 people commenting, four people re-sharing what he says and 200 people liking it and indeed some people even click back to SingTel‟s website based on his sharing. I have tracking in those areas, I know that it was generated by Brian‟s post on Facebook. That means you can run loyalty programs, so when you preorder the iPhone5 - if you get five of your friends to do the same - you get a free leather carrying case and the logistics of figuring out who won is built into our system as well, because we track everything that happens.” This is really a new derivative from where Aureliant started, and they build in tracking functionalities into their system, so that it can be used for marketing purposes, because influence among marketers is a very old conundrum. Although Aureliant won‟t run any loyalty programs, they provide this option to their clients to enable influence marketing specifically to influencers.

“The point here is that this type of brand marketing is actually sort of free and even gives brands a chance to react to negative comments about their products. The systems I provide are systems that will bring the brand very close to the users and will enable them to understand the social behaviors of consumers and to identify influencers”, Thorben concludes. Aureliant seems to have its business model worked out well and still has its competitive advantage – the aggregation and SocialCraft engines are key to OrSiSo„s monetization. “Since we are able to gather a lot of demographic information about users and their connections, we will be able to deliver highly-targeted advertisements,” shares Thorben. What impressed me most was his honest self-reflection and confidence, saying that you can only call yourself an entrepreneur after you have failed a few times and that no business degree can prepare you for starting your own company. “Never say never, never give up,

Thorben Linneberg

always listen but stay true to your own vision” is his credo, adding: “Many people are extremely uncomfortable living with uncertainty – that is an area I am comfortable with today. When I think back on important lessons I‟ve learnt, I must say, I always learnt much more from the difficult times,” Thorben concludes.♦ By Daniela La Marca

COMPANIES & CAMPAIGNS

3digitalminds expects Strong Move into Mobile Social Media Services and Location -based Services in the Future n the December 2010 issue of Asian e-Marketing I introduced in detail 3digitalminds in the article 3digitalminds Power your Online Business in Greater China where the three experts decided to bundle their expertise to increase their range of services. Presented as a specialist in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), I want to point out this time that social media has also been part of their portfolio from the beginning. 3digitalminds have actually been running social media projects for more than three years now for different industries such as consumer electronics, finance, software, and B2B. They design the strategy, execute the project and do the reporting, while the scope of

their social media services comprises blog marketing, Facebook and SNS marketing, online PR, Twitter and more. The consumer insight reports are another important tool they generate for their clients that provides loads of detailed information about how consumers talk, evaluate, review, and recommend products and services not only at the brand level but also by digging down into detail specifications of products. To achieve all this, 3digitalminds developed a sophisticated five-step social media strategy to fully leverage the potential of social media:

COMPANIES & CAMPAIGNS

1. Understand your target group. Listen and learn and collect consumer insights. Find out where your target group likes to stay online; 2. Your target group consists of different kinds of online contributors. Define the right channel for the respective user group; 3. Execute the channels; 4. Make sure that channel managers communicate with each other to leverage content and create links; 5. Track, collect more consumer insights, learn more and use this information to refine your approach. The main benefits of social media marketing that the three experts name from a marketer‟s perspective is gaining consumer insights and the possibility to learn about consumers‟ way of thinking and decision making; from a user‟s point of view certainly the way to interact, to instantly collect information, and to spread words and

thoughts in real-time. One of the most common mistakes made when planning and running a social media marketing campaign, the experts mentioned, is a lack of patience and good execution. “Starting social media projects and not maintaining them is the biggest one. It‟s about conversations with your peer group and many people just expect results too quickly and give up too early. Great content and products/services are the best basis for successful social media campaigns”, they sum up. Asked what they think gives them the edge over their competition, the group of three confidently stated:

1. We have bits and bytes in our 2. 3.

blood and a pure passion for the digital business; Deep and rich expertise in different industries and different online business models; We operate online portals by

ourselves (e.g. financial review site, group buying site) and by doing this we generate detailed insights about the online business which flows into our agency business. Thus clients always receive state-of-the-art knowledge and consulting which is based on practical experience. According to 3digitalminds, however, doing online marketing in Asia and getting paid for online marketing consulting is still a difficult task, especially if SMEs are the target group. The awareness for marketing and branding is still lacking behind other markets, they note, and therefore they still have to invest a lot into the education of their clients before seeing some revenue. As social media already plays a more important role in Asia than in other regions of the world, they expect a strong move to mobile social media services and location based services in the future.♦ By Daniela La Marca

LEGISLATION

Social Plug-ins are Difficult to Assess with Data Protection Regulations With more than a half a billion users, Facebook definitely knows a great deal about a huge number of people by managing to collect a lot of personal data since 2004, which is a gold mine by now. Still, its effectiveness in monetizing its pool of knowledge gained from each user lags far behind other prominent internet companies like Google or Yahoo! In its pursuit to benefit from all the data it holds by turning it into competitive advertising offers, Facebook has ended up in hot water several times, like for instance, when they combined social actions from members, such as a purchase of a product or review of a hotel, with an advertiser's message. It triggered a hue and cry on privacy issues, but Facebook nevertheless applied the same concept to activities within their News Feed. It simply seems that Sponsored Stories ran afoul of the same laws that made Social Ads so problematic, namely that Facebook assumes that if a person talks about a product, it‟s like an endorsement and can be used in an advertisement – but the permission is not given automatically to feature a user's name and likeness in an ad. Well it seems, at least, that Facebook has suspended a feature that would have allowed thirdparties to access members' telephone numbers and addresses and is deliberating right now on how to modify the way it asks consumers for permission to share their personal data. These are, however, only a few bumps in the road for the biggest social network, which is trying to expand its revenue stream. Thus, the concerns I want to highlight will probably add only a little bit more fuel to the fire.

Social plug-ins are quite popular among Facebook users, where they are outing themselves with a mouse click as fans of a particular site. That‟s why companies happily integrate these "Like" plug-ins as a promotional tool on their website. According to the experts, however, this can be quite explosive regarding data protection laws. Why the integration of so-called Facebook plug-ins such as "Like" are significant for data protection regulations Its social plug-ins actually serves to exchange information between Facebook users. The logged-in Facebook user confirms by clicking the "Like” button their sympathy with the appropriate site, which will then be posted on their Facebook page and then reaches their "friends”. What‟s interesting here is the fact that although the website operator installs the plug-in, they actually get no insights into the concrete exchange of information between the plug-in and Facebook, but they only receive new visitors via back-linking, without finding out anything about its users. To no surprise a “Hate” button doesn‟t exist, as nobody is interested in finding out about their own unpopularity. For acceptance of data protection there has to be a way to distinguish between Facebook members and non-members

LEGISLATION The Facebook member gives through their registration, permission for the transfer of their personal data to the Facebook servers in the U.S (identifiable user profiles). There is doubt, however, that this consent given during the Facebook registration is sufficiently transparent to users and there is question as to whether the Website operator has liability or not - which would make the agreement legally incompliant. Instead, legal regulation is required for the delivery of such data. Often, the clause is brought into play, whereby a service provider may collect and use personal information of a user to the extent necessary for the use of the service. If the website owner includes among other things this Facebook service, then the transmission to the Facebook server is also required and therefore admissible. Indeed it is argued here that the data would not be submitted by the website operators, but directly by the user to Facebook. In this respect, the relationship between provider and user wouldn‟t be affected and consequently the norm nonapplicable. However it is likely that at least here the paragraph applies appropriately, as the operator makes his website actively available for the service. More problematic, however, is the legitimacy regarding non-members. Thus, from credible sources in the U.S. with

reference to insider claims, Facebook would not only submit data of logged-in users to its servers, but also user data from Website visitors who are not Facebook members. Since it appears that this user data includes the IP address of the visitor, which from the perspective of data protection authorities is regarded as personal data, the transmission is prohibited, unless a user's consent or a statutory authorization standard exists. So, there is indeed a permitted transfer of personal data to the U.S., if the concerned company has joined the so-called Safe Harbour Agreement, which is the case for Facebook. Unfortunately certified U.S. companies often stick only slightly to the standards, so that the transfer may still be considered as inadmissible. The use of the Facebook social plug-in is therefore difficult to assess from a data protection point of view. If the plug-in really transmits IP addresses from non-members in the U.S. as well, the entire service should be illegal. Unless, however, only member‟s data are transferred to the U.S., its use should be justified. It is important, in this context, that the website operator is required to inform visitors about the nature, extent and purpose of the collection and the use of the personal data. Unless one assumes that only data

of members are sent (otherwise the plug-in would be prohibited), the website operator has to point out, by all means in its privacy policy, that the Facebook social plug-in is installed and automatically transmits data from Facebook members to the U.S. server when the page is called up. Therefore, if you use Facebook’s “Like” button you should consider including the following points in your privacy statement:



The website runs a Facebook (company address) plug-in;  Our websites with this plug-in are designed to connect to Facebook and informs them which sub-page has been visited;  Logged in Facebook members are assigned to a user account and clicking the "Like” button leads to a corresponding message being sent to Facebook and is stored in the user account. Both can only be prevented by logging-off Facebook before calling-up the Website;  More detailed information is available on the Facebook page (privacy policy). The only point of principle I have right now is what else will Facebook do to turn its users into living advertisements? Well, we will see.♦ By Daniela La Marca

BUZZWORD

What’s a SocialEngine? SocialEngine is a PHP-based white-label social networking service platform that installs a customized fullfeatured social network on a user's website. Main features include administration of small-to-mid scale social networks, complete customization capabilities, unencrypted code, multilingual capability, and modular plug-in/widget compatibility. There are a wide range of templates and add-ons available to extend the basic features already included in the SocialEngine core. SocialEngine version 4.0 has been released, and has been built on an entirely different architecture than previous versions, Zend Framework (an open source, object-oriented web application framework implemented in PHP 5 and licensed under the New BSD License - a family of permissive free software licenses). This was intended to provide scalability and new feature sets. SocialEngine most recently announced that the newest features to be added will be built in membership billing as well a simple package manager. SocialEngine installations are unbranded by default. Webligo Developments does not supply templates to alter the appearance of an installation, but these templates are available through third-party vendors. Webligo Developments offers a variety of plug-ins to extend the functionality of SocialEngine into blog hosting, photo album hosting, groups, music sharing and hosting, video sharing and hosting, chat and instant messaging services, event planning, online polls, and forums.

Third-party companies such as SEplugins, SocialEngineMods, Hire-Experts, Radcodes, OpenCrypt, iExperts, SocialEngineZzz, and many others offer modular add-ons to create new functionalities. These functionalities may include:

         

OpenID authentication Facebook integration Twitter integration Skype integration Membership/subscriptions File sharing Language packs for multilingual support Games Searches Icons Source: Wikipedia

APPOINTMENTS

Microsoft Advertising has announced the appointment of Jason Scott as the new General Manager for Asia, in alignment to its move to strengthen its global leadership team. In his new capacity, Jason will lead in growing revenue and market share of display, search, ad networks and emerging assets for Microsoft Advertising, which includes online properties MSN, Windows Live, Office Live, XBOX, Bing, and more.

Jason Scott

Previously based in Europe and then the United States, Jason was responsible for developing and executing Microsoft Advertising‟s global agency strategy. He had also been based in Sydney, Australia, as Commercial Director for ninemsn, where he managed the company‟s commercial business and its national advertising sales and operations. Prior to joining Microsoft, Jason worked across several creative and media agencies around the world including GGT Advertising, CIA Media and EURO

RSCG.♦

Mediabrands announced the appointment of Steve Blakeman as Global Chief Integration Strategy Officer. Based in Singapore, Steve‟s primary responsibility will be to strengthen the firm‟s integrated offering for Mediabrands‟ and McCannWorldgroup‟s portfolio of global clients in Asia Pacific. Steve will also lead collaboration between the creative and media planning agencies, and activation partners to generate ideas aligned with our customer experience strategy. As Chief Integration Strategy Officer, Steve will divide his time between responsibilities at Mediabrands and McCann Worldgroup. The immediate benefit for the global clients of both organizations is a truly integrated service offering and seamless collaboration across IPG companies. Previously, Steve has been Chief Strategy Officer, Mediabrands Asia Pacific and gained working experience over the past two decades in the telecommunications, consumer durables and electronics, as well as the automobile industry.

Steve Blakeman

He has also served as Pan European Director of Strategy at Initiative, where he worked on the firm‟s Unilever account and as Managing Director at CIA. Steve began his career at J Walter Thompson.♦

Award-winning integrated agency iris Singapore has appointed Lawrence Stevenson as senior creative and Kim Lim as producer. Stevenson joins from TBWA and Lim joins following several years working at agencies including Y&R and Publicis and within the local film industry. Both join this week and will report in to creative director Tom Ormes. The hires follow the launch of iris Singapore‟s latest tongue-in-cheek initiative, its iQuit.com website, which it launched this week as part of a new recruitment drive. The site, which has the interface of a typical recruitment agency, allows those in the ad industry to create their own resignation letters using bespoke templates for all the main agencies, including Ogilvy, Publicis, Y&R, Saatchi & Saatchi, Grey and McCann Worldwide. Lawrence Stevenson

Stevenson will begin work on activity for the agency‟s clients Heineken, Johnnie Walker and adidas, while Lim will work across the agency‟s key accounts. iris Singapore‟s recent campaigns include the Heineken Office Chair Grand Prix, the Audi A8 launch in Singapore, and adidas Refresh. iris‟ Singapore operation, which launched in 2006 and serves as a strategic hub for Asia Pacific, is now 60-strong, making it one of the fastest growing agency networks in the region. ♦

Kim Lim

APPOINTMENTS

Acision, a world leader in mobile data, announced the appointment of Chris Jenkins to the position of Executive Vice President and Managing Director for the Asia Pacific region. Based in Singapore, Chris will play a lead role in driving business growth for the Asia Pacific including the Japanese markets. Prior to his appointment to the region, Chris was the executive vice president of Acision‟s Mobile Data Charging Business Unit, and CMO for the company, where he led corporate marketing, the market development activities and helped deliver innovative charging solutions to the global mobile operator market. Chris Jenkins With experience in the retail and technology sectors spanning 25 years, Chris has a wealth of experience in merger & acquisitions, marketing and developing growth markets. Chris has also held leadership positions with Openwave, Bytemobile and Ericsson.♦

Global Payments Inc. announced the appointment of James R. Hicks as President of Global Payments Asia Pacific. Mr. Hicks has extensive payments industry experience, most recently serving as President of the company's Prague-based payment processing business in Central Europe. Previously, he also held responsibility for Global Payments' Canadian Product and Marketing functions as Vice President and Senior Vice President within Global Payments Canada. Global Payments Asia-Pacific Limited currently provides merchants in eleven countries and territories across Asia with the card acceptance products, services and support they need to meet and exceed their business goals. The company is a strategic joint venture between Global Payments Inc. and HSBC and is the largest panAsian card processing company in the region, currently operating in Brunei, mainland China, Hong Kong, India, Macau, Malaysia, the Maldives, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Taiwan.♦

James R. Hicks

Media Monitors Acquires Majority Stake in Brandtology, a social media intelligence company. The acquisition strengthens Media Monitors' ability to provide the highest quality and most comprehensive suite of media intelligence services across the region and beyond. It is Media Monitors first acquisition since being acquired by Quadrant on 1 July 2010, and represents significant opportunities for cross-selling across all markets. Brandtology will remain as a distinct brand within the Media Monitors Group. ♦

Media Monitors CEO John Croll and Brandtology CEO Eddie Chau exchange signed contracts

iris Singapore has appointed Lisa Mehydene as group account director. Mehydene joins from one of Dubai¹s leading independent agencies Expression, reporting in to the agency¹s managing director Craig Mapleston. Mehydene will drive several of iris key accounts, which include Audi, Asia Pacific Breweries and Emirates. Mehydene brings 10 years of experience gained at some of the world¹s leading agencies, where she developed campaigns for brands such as Land Rover, Carling, Air France, MasterCard and Unilever. iris Singapore operation works with global blue-chip brands including Diageo, Unilever, Tiger, Heineken, Sony Ericsson, Audi and Emirates. The agency launched in 2006 and serves as a strategic hub for Asia Pacific. It is now 65-strong, making it one of the fastest-growing agency networks in the region. ♦

Lisa Mehydene

APPOINTMENTS

Interpublic Group’s Mediabrands announced the appointment of Aloun Liu as Regional Master Data Steward, Asia Pacific. Based in Singapore, Aloun will be responsible for maintaining and improving Mediabrands‟ data collection and analysis throughout the region. Aloun will be part of Mediabrands Asia Pacific CIO, Dene Schonknecht‟s organization. Aloun will play a key role in the aggregation of information across Mediabrands. This aggregation will provide our clients with a holistic view of their media activities, as well as help them make critical business decisions efficiently. The appointment of Aloun to this role is just one example of how Mediabrands‟ technology is investing to offer customized business solutions to its clients. Aloun joins the Mediabrands team with over eight years of data management, development and analytics experience. He is an expert in multiple database platforms that include Teradata, Oracle and SQL Server, which he has managed for large international companies across the financial, consulting and higher education sectors.

Aloun Liu

Previously, Aloun was Senior Programmer Analyst, Finance MIS, Charles Schwab & Co, Inc. He was the data architect for Schwab Finance‟s reporting portal and also worked in technology consulting for PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and FTI Consulting, Inc., where he was involved with the collection and analysis of data from many Fortune 500 companies. Aloun began his career as a database administrator/developer at the University of California, Los Angeles, which is his alma mater. ♦

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) appointed Randall Rothenberg as President and Chief Executive Officer of the leading digital trade organization. Rothenberg served with distinction as IAB‟s leader from 2007 through 2010. During that period, IAB's membership increased by more than 50 percent, its revenues more than doubled, and IAB‟s service to its member companies grew and broadened. For the past month, Rothenberg has served as Executive Vice President and Chief Digital Officer at Time Inc., the largest magazine media company in the United States.♦ Randall Rothenberg

MOL AccessPortal Berhad and Zynga Inc announced the launch of Zynga Game Cards in Asia to provide an easy way for players to pay for virtual goods in their favorite Zynga games. Zynga Game Cards will be available for purchase in more than 500,000 outlets in six Asian countries including Malaysia, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. The partnership reaffirms the growing popularity of online gaming in Asia. Photos can be downloaded at: www.flickr.com/molpr. ♦

Smaato, the leading mobile ad optimizer and mobile advertising company, announced the closing of a new institutional round of funding. Singapore‟s EDBI led the $7 million round, with participation from existing shareholders including global private equity firm aeris CAPITAL. The new funds will help fuel Smaato‟s international expansion, in particular to extend its presence in Asia from its Asian headquarters in Singapore.♦

APPOINTMENTS

China Mobile Limited and Vodafone Group Plc signed Strategic Co-operation Framework Agreement, which means that the two companies will continue their co-operation in areas including: Exchange of corporate management, technical and operational expertise; Enhanced Roaming Services; Multinational Customers; Green Technology; Network Roadmap Management, Joint Innovation and R&D, and Promotion of converged LTE technology and LTE terminal development, to improve competitiveness and influence on international organization, value chain and industry by partnership in management, technology and operation. On behalf of each company, Mr. Wang Jianzhou, Chairman of China Mobile Limited, and Mr. Vittorio Colao, Chief Executive of Vodafone Group Plc, signed the agreement at the China Mobile-Vodafone Strategic Co-operation Chairman/CEO Forum in Barcelona.♦

SinoMedia Holding Limited announced that the the Group has signed a media agency agreement with a wholly-owned subsidiary of MediaCorp Pte Ltd to become the master advertising agent of MediaCorp TV channels (including Channel NewsAsia and other TV channels) in Mainland China. The privately-owned media advertising operator will be responsible for the bid invitation, marketing, and sales of advertising resources for MediaCorp in Mainland China. Whereas the partnership will broaden SinoMedia‟s overseas media resources and enable them to provide high quality overseas advertising options for its customers in China, thereby diversifying their revenue streams. ♦

mig33 announced the appointment of Chris Chandler as vice president, business development. Chandler joins mig33 from Microsoft Corporation's Consumer & Online Division, and will spearhead mig33's expansion across mobile-first markets worldwide. Chandler brings more than a decades' experience developing, marketing and distributing consumer services and content for web and mobile platforms. At Microsoft, Chandler managed the mobile services business of Windows Live and MSN across Southeast Asia including Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. He has previously worked with Yahoo! as head of mobile products for AsiaPacific where he co-developed the region's first business plan and developed the product strategy and roadmap for the newly formed business unit across China, India, Korea, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia. He also served as Director of Operations at Mikoshi (Asia-Pacific) Pte. Ltd., a boutique gaming developer/studio that produces multiplayer Java and SMS games for mobile phones.♦

At the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Polycom and Ericsson announced collaboration around an integrated end-to-end solution for hosted telepresence services that will enable telecom operators to deliver affordable, high-definition (HD) visual communications services to businesses and consumers. During the event, Ericsson and Polycom previewed integration between the Ericsson IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) network and Polycom infrastructure and telepresence endpoints, in a first step for collaboration between the companies. The collaboration between Polycom and Ericsson – driven by dispersed workforces, globalization, travel restrictions, and green workplaces – responds to the rising adoption rates and increasing customer demand across enterprises of all size, and will extend visual communications as a truly global mass market service. The new solutions are based on the standardized IMS technology, the same underlying technology used by telecom operators today.♦

IMPRINT

MediaBUZZ Pte Ltd, launched in early 2004, is an independent online publisher in the Asia Pacific region, focusing on the business of digital media and marketing. Asian e-Marketing is a true pioneer in Asia Pacificâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s digital marketing scene, empowering e-marketers in the vibrant and fast-paced electronic marketing environment. Key sections include e-marketing tips, best practices and trends/statistics, legislation affecting e-marketing, training the spotlight on companies and their e-marketing campaigns and e-marketing leadership profiles. Click here for the latest online edition Editor-in-Chief: Daniela La Marca Circulation & IT Manager: Mike Khoo

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