The Singapore Marketer (Oct-Dec 2016)

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oct-dec’16

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10 What’s the Link Between Underwater World Closure and O2O 14 Socialising with Singaporeans, how brands can start the chat app conversation 27 How to run a successful influencer marketing campaign in Singapore The Official Publication of the Marketing Institute of Singapore, the National Body for Sales and Marketing

Editor’s Note

THE SINGAPORE MARKETER

October - December 2016

Editor Mickey Hee Contributing Writers Tim Davies, April Koh & Ebenezer Heng, Zoe Lawrence, Jeffrey Tay, Peter Justin Yu, Andrea Olivato, Veronica Lind and Antoine Bouchacourt MIS EXECUTIVE COUNCIL President Roger Wang 1st Vice President Bhavik Bhatt 2nd Vice President Dr Roger Low Honorary Secretary Gerry Gabriele Seah

Dear Readers When we talk digital marketing, the attention has to be at the latest mobile gaming phenomenon, Pokémon Go. Are you hooked to the game and travelling around the island to catch the rare Pokémons? There are plenty of location based mobile games available, but why is Pokémon Go more than just a game?

Before this “augmented reality” mobile game was launched, most brands are using sponsored or paid advertisements in mobile applications in getting the attention of their target consumers or to push out their messages. This game has brought digital marketing to a whole new level, with a mixture of digital, location based and experiential marketing. Users can purchase “lures” – beacons that attract Pokémons, and thus Pokémon hunters, to a particular spot for a limited time.

Enterprising retailers have seized on this to turn their businesses into Pokémon havens, and reaped real rewards. There is already talk of letting companies and brands purchase “sponsored locations,” taking this concept to the next level. The ways of using digital marketing channels have evolved so quickly that virtual reality and augmented reality are being developed and commercialised by major players in the market.

In April Koh and Ebenezer Heng’s article on ‘What’s the link between Underwater World (UWS) Closure and Online-to- Offline Marketing’, they have shed some light on what UWS could have done to stay afloat the competition. So, flip through the pages to find out on the latest digital marketing tools and practices available.

As we enter into the final quarter of 2016, let’s keep a watch out of the latest happening in the digital space and how marketing could be done better!

Honorary Treasurer Jackson Chua Asst Honorary Treasurer Freddy Tan Co-opted Council Members Lee Kwok Weng Mark Laudi Design & Layout Kelvin Wang Production, Advertising & Circulation Joreen Yee joreen.yee@mis.org.sg Publisher Marketing Institute of Singapore 51 Anson Centre #03-53 Singapore 079904 Tel: (65) 6327 7580 Fax: (65) 6327 9741 Email: singaporemarketer@mis.org.sg Website: www.mis.org.sg

Mickey Hee

Editor

The Singapore Marketer is a quarterly magazine published by Marketing Institute of Singapore.

Tel: (65) 6294 7227. Subscription is available upon request; please contact Joreen Yee at joreen.yee@mis.org.sg.

The views expressed in The Singapore Marketer do not necessarily represent those of the Marketing Institute of Singapore. No responsibility is accepted by the Institute or its staff for the accuracy of any statement, opinion, or advice contained in the text or advertisements, and readers are advised to rely on their judgment or enquiries, and to consult their own advisers in making any decisions which would affect their interest. All materials appearing in The Singapore Marketer is copyright. No part of the publication may be reproduced without prior written permission of the Marketing Institute of Singapore. The Marketing Institute of Singapore welcomes contributions and letters. These might be edited for clarity or length. Articles, letters and requests to reproduce articles appearing in The Singapore Marketer should be sent to the Editor, Marketing Institute of Singapore, 51 Anson Road, #03-53 Anson Centre, Singapore 079904 or write to singaporemarketer@mis.org.sg.

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Content Page

04 COVER STORY When It Comes to Digital, We’re Still Playing Catch Up

A MARKETER’S STORY

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Interview with Brad Lau & Melody Yap, LadyIronChef

FOCUS

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What’s the Link Between Underwater World Closure and Online-to-Offline Marketing

FEATURE

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GURU TALK

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Six Signs that You Are Doing Digital Marketing Wrongly

BUSINESS SCHOOL

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PR is dead, Long Live Digital PR

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How to run a successful Influencer Marketing campaign in Singapore

DIGITAL DIGEST

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Will Analytics help you do Digital Marketing Better?

LEARNING SITE

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High Cost of Free vs Blended Video Marketing Strategy

Socialising with Singaporeans: How brands can start the chat app conversation

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Cover Story

When It Comes to Digital, We’re Still Playing

Catch up In December 2014, a PwC report warned businesses of a huge “media gap” in reaching audiences digitally in Singapore. The good news is that in just a year, our digital spending increased to 13%, which is higher than the forecast 8% for 2015 as reported by Mumbrella.

We have been quick to realise the significance of digital marketing and are catching up, venturing into Social Media Marketing and Search Engine Marketing. Despite the impressive growth, we still have a long way to go. What should we focus on and why?

having a presence in their lives. They value and expect so much more out of companies. They:

Big Spenders: Millennials and Their Consumption Behaviour

This behaviour has shaped and changed the digital landscape and business approach, in both contexts as businesses try to woo customers.

We must understand millennials’ consumption behaviour as, according to KPMG, they will become one of the biggest spenders, personally and professionally, in the upcoming years.

In a B2C context, this generation of spenders are not easily sold by just

• Look for personalisation.

• Appreciate quality of life.

• Value experience over owning products.

• Rely highly on opinions and reviews (As reported by KPMG).

In a B2B context, savvy B2B buyers are influenced by their personal buying experiences online and hence, demand similar seamless experiences across channels when purchasing for their companies, reported by Forrester Consulting.

Local Businesses Showing a Preference for Social Media and Search Engine Marketing This phenomenon is increasingly being recognised in the local scene.

» By Tim Davies Small businesses are displaying a preference for popular social media platforms and search engines. We know where millennials are and we are trying to get their attention.

The powerful combination of low up-front marketing costs in these spaces and their popularity among the millennials makes them very attractive, especially to smaller businesses with limited resources.

Now that we are all on these platforms, what’s next?

To help businesses succeed in their digital marketing efforts, I would like to offer my views on how we can progress from here, but before I do, I have two questions and a case study: 1. What is Digital Marketing?

2. Is the adoption of our current digital channels part of a well thought-out strategy, or are we merely bowing down to the pressure of needing an online presence?

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Businesses should pay attention to their customers’ needs across channels.

There’s More To Digital Marketing Than You Might Think.

Case Study: Disney Imagine this: You went on a vacation to one of Disney’s Resort hotels and it was nothing short of magical.

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Pre-trip, you used both your computer and mobile phone to access their trip-planning tool. It was really convenient due to a few features: you could add everyone travelling with you into a group to make plans together, make reservations via the tool and store all the booking details under your account.

During your vacation, you made use of the free mobile app which complemented the trip nicely. It allowed you to find your way easily around the attractions and kept you informed of the estimated waiting time for each of them. Perhaps the most amazing item was the MagicBand- a waterproof wristband, which acted as the key to your hotel room, ticket to the attractions, photo storage device and a food ordering device.

Needless to say, you had an unforgettable experience. Disney definitely lived up to its expectations.

So how did they do it?

4. Businesses should pay attention to their customers’ needs across channels.

They were able to communicate relevant information to you when you needed it most. It was highly accessible and highly customised to you. This allowed you to manage your time well and visit the places you wanted to go, while making the process really fun and creative across their digital channels. By using their understanding of what you would value most while being there, they delivered impeccable service to make sure that you were at the happiest place on earth.

Multi-Channel Strategy (Businesscentric) vs Omni-Channel Strategy (Customer-centric)

Key Takeaways from the Disney Example for Your Strategy 1. Digital Marketing doesn’t involve just promotion activities or Social Media/ Search Engine Marketing.

2. There should be a functional purpose at every digital touchpoint, which fits into a bigger strategy.

3. Not every digital touchpoint needs to translate into sales.

When a small business manager thinks about Digital Marketing, it is tempting to just consider Social Media and Search Engine Marketing given their popularity.

However, Digital Marketing is so much more than email marketing, banner advertising, advertising in mobile apps and numerous other examples, all fall into the category.

Besides a lack of familiarity with the available digital channels, local businesses seem to lack user focus – businesses are too often adopting a multi-channel strategy.

A multi-channel strategy is where businesses seek to be present in several channels, including offline channels such as physical stores, without necessarily considering interactions across these channels.

According to John Bowden, Senior VP of Customer Care at Time Warner

Cover Story Cable, a multi-channel approach takes an operational view from the business perspective, where businesses are concerned about how customers complete the desired actions in each channel.

However, the consumption behaviour of the millennials renders this strategy ineffective. We must recognise that today’s customers are fickle, they don’t often use each of the channels independently.

Customers can easily switch between channels and sometimes simultaneously, use multiple channels before making a purchase.

It is therefore important that we deliver consistency across all our channels to fulfil customer needs.

How do we get there? With an omnichannel strategy.

An omni-channel strategy utilises the same channels, but considers them each from the perspective of the customer. Businesses anticipate what customers look for in each channel and tailor the experiences across channels to achieve a seamless shopping experience.

Disney provides a great example of a business with an omni-channel strategy done right. You might be thinking, “I don’t have Disney’s budget”, but you can still achieve great results by focusing on user experience.

Next Step: Get Familiar with the Available Channels and Cultivate User Focus The omni-channel strategy concept isn’t new, it was widely discussed in 2014. However, many businesses have been slow to make the changes required. To speed up, I would suggest that businesses start with these simple steps: 1. Take some time to understand your customers’ consumption behaviour when making transactions. a. Where do they look for information? b. Which channels do they use, what do they use each of the various channels for?

2. Invest a little time to understand the available channels, both online and offline, to see how you can utilise them to meet the needs of your customers.

3. Decide which channels to adopt and brainstorm ideas for a seamless experience across the chosen channels. a. What would your customers value in each channel, and at each point, of their purchase experience? (e.g. Estimated waiting time on the Disney App) By following these steps, you’ll develop an understanding of the reasons behind customer preferences for certain channels.

You’ll then be able to provide the information customers are looking for, as well as leverage the strengths of each channel, to personalise the shopping experience for your customers.

Simply having digital touchpoints is no longer sufficient; we need to pay attention to our customers’ preferences, focus on brand building efforts and seek consistency across all platforms, to quickly move towards providing a “seamless user experience” for the next generation of spenders.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Tim Davies is the Head of Strategy & Marketing for HikeMeUp (www. hikemeup.com), the mobile app that enables businesses market to Singaporeans on their mobiles. He has Bachelors’ degrees in Information Systems and Business (Finance) from Swinburne University in Australia, as well as a Master of Business Administration from Babson College, the world’s #1 ranked school for entrepreneurship.

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Interview with Brad Lau & Melody Yap, LadyIronChef.com

Brad Lau, better known by his pseudonym LadyIronChef, is a Singaporean online personality and food writer. He is the chief editor and founder of the food and travel website, ladyironchef.com. Along with his better half, Melody Yap, who is the business director of LadyIronChef, they travel to and visits food and dining places, countries and cities and share their personal experiences through writing and appealing photographs. In this issue, Brad and Melody gave The Singapore Marketer a scoop of their life as food bloggers.

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Tell us how the both of you get into food blogging?

It was random. The website was started for fun and out of inexplicable love for food.

What do food writer does day in, day out?

Well, we just eat a lot. We check out new places such as restaurants, cafes, food events and whatnot, so as to experience and share them with our readers.

Could you guys tell us more about your experience with branding? How do you brand Ladyironchef?

Integrity is the key for us. While we choose to focus on food and travel, the experience has to be something worth sharing, be it a

restaurant, a seasonal menu, a promotion that is worth checking out, a hotel that is worth spending a night at, or an event that everyone should look out for.

Geographically, where do most of your readers come from? How do you reach out to these readers?

A large percentage of our website’s readers are Singaporeans and people who are based in Singapore, with the second largest percentage coming from Indonesia, followed by Thailand. As for social media, we see a great mixture of both regional & international audience.

What are the advantages of bloggers or food writers’ engagement especially for new local restaurants?

Brands are able to reach out to the mass audience via our platforms.

Every website and media owner has their own pool of audience, and it is through our content that the audience can learn about new brands and products in the market.

I see very well taken photographs on your social media channels and website. Is photography something you have learnt before, or something you picked up as you started Ladyironchef?

Brad (chief photographer of Ladyironchef) has a great passion for photography, and his skills are self-taught. He used to be in the photography club back in NUS, and ever since, he has gained a keen interest in photography and he is always learning through YouTube

A Marketer’s Story

videos, trial & error on his own, and picking up tips from professional photographers.

Have you thought of creating your very own recipe, since we are talking about food here?

We are more talented in eating (Laughs).

What do you think food blogging will look like in five years? Will it still be around?

The climate in Singapore is pretty unpredictable and susceptible.

While it is currently looking good and digital advertising looks like the way to go, we can’t say the same for five years later. That being said, everyone and everything is going online these days; there is only room for improvements for the whole social climate.

Which part of blogging excites you most: the post writing, photography or visiting new places?

It is a combination of all! But we guess at the end of the day, it is the sense of satisfaction we get when readers tell us they followed our recommendations and had great meals. That recognition is priceless, and it is this strength and support that keep us going.

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What’s the Link Between Underwater World Closure and Online-toOffline Marketing » By April Koh & Ebenezer Heng 10

By the time this publication is out, Underwater World Singapore (“UWS”) had served its last visitors in June and probably would have sent its remaining marine life to the marine park in China.

If you are thinking what has digital marketing got to do with UWS, simply think back to how you knew about this news reported by Channel News Asia titled ‘Feeling the squeeze: Older and smaller attractions on Sentosa’. Chances are, you first read it on Facebook or one of the digital platforms.

Consumption Pattern That leads to my first point. Content consumption is mainly on digital platforms due to the high usage of smart devices in Singapore.

We are consuming our news from our Facebook and LinkedIn, in fact, the perishability of news take on a new meaning, News that are published in the hardcopy newspaper or broadcast on TV channels are “old news” by the time they reached us!

Remarkable content The second point is about content marketing.

There is no doubt that all attractions in Sentosa are leveraging some form of social/digital media, but the question is if the potential of digital and social media have been fully maximised. There are two types of content: average content and remarkable content that is thumb-stopping. It’s an easy guess as to which type of content that as marketers, we need to create so that it doesn’t get scrolled past.

Think about it: how many of you actually look for offers or shout out about one place that you have not visited for a decade?

Dynamics of Shopping Pattern Changing content consumption pattern on smart devices has an impact on the buying patterns.

Delve deeper into the closure of UWS and the struggles faced by its smaller and older neighbours in Sentosa, you will probably see it’s a reflection of

Focus

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... if a brand does not have its own assets or a compelling narrative online... “it wouldn’t work”

the retail sector in Singapore, which most readers would agree is more gloom than cheer.

The long-held belief that the key success factor for a retail business is ‘location’ is being challenged today.

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1. Location - Sentosa probably enjoys more visitors than anywhere else in Singapore. That should have helped UWS and older neighbours in Sentosa. However, a sentiment study would have revealed that most of the visitors to Sentosa have the intention of only going to Resorts World Sentosa (“RWS”). When RWS came on shore to Sentosa in 2010, there was understandably a lot of expectations that its arrival would revitalise Sentosa. According to Sentosa’s Annual Report 09/10 and 14/15, the number of visitors arrival at Sentosa has since more than doubled from less than 8 million before RWS opened in 2010 to almost 20 million in 2015, it may be safe to say that the older attractions may not have fully benefited from the increase in the traffic.

2. The Narrative - This, perhaps then points to the need for more compelling and relevant narratives and steps to mitigate the falling numbers at the older attractions.

This is an actualisation of onlineto-offline (“O2O”) marketing, many tourists probably only read about RWS in Sentosa, equating Sentosa to RWS. So the point here is, if a brand does not have its own assets or a compelling narrative online, and expects to benefit from an “anchor tenant” such as RWS, this is a case in point which has shown that “it wouldn’t work”.

So, if digital marketing is so important, how could marketers have harnessed the 20 miliion traffic?

Embracing O2O execution Which leads to the main point: digital marketing will evolve, online to offline marketing will be even more important to capture audiences. As virtual reality (“VR”) and augmented reality (“AR”) are being developed and commercialised, led by major players like Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Samsung, Canon, GoPRo, we can expect the tipping point of mass adoption to happen, brands will be jumping on the bandwagon to find audiences with VR and AR experiences. The outdoor medium, the perceived poorer cousin to the other media like TV, print, radio, etc becomes the bridge between online and offline, with its precision targeting and platform for rich and interactive VR/AR experiences.

According to fastcompany.com, with Samsung’s VR, visitors to an attraction in Sentosa could easily share 360 videos to Facebook and Youtube. These can be shared on interactive digital display solutions like LED screens located at Changi Airport, train advertising sticker reminders in the Sentosa Express

Focus

connecting Sentosa to HarbourFront and inside the Harbourfront MRT station. Some tourists may even eschew Sentosa and will be at other tourist hotspots so a powerful draw could be having a giant billboard in the middle of Chinatown for immediate call to action. What about even getting tourists excited as they are on the way departing from Batam in Indonesia via the Harbourfront, so offline media located at Batam Ferry Terminals become an opportunity to reach this group of audience. Purchase of tickets could even be made via AR installed on the interactive LED screen, making the offline to online experience a seamless one.

Interestingly, Pokeman Go being the latest craze, it is fast changing the way we communicate and disrupting the way we do marketing.

It may well be the tipping point for AR.

These are some statistics on the evolution of communication to support this:

experience, companies here are less likely to adopt something new or what they do not know.

It took Radio 39 years to reach 50 million users. TV took 13 years, internet only took four years.

Facebook added 100 million active users in 9 months. AR Pokemon Go grows bigger than Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter in less than 14 days!

If the idea is always to move to familiar tried and tested platforms, wouldn’t we always be followers and not innovators? The speed of evolution in communication meant that being followers tend not to reap the maximum rewards, innovators with the first mover’s advantage may have a higher chance.

Imagine if attractions like UWS had implemented some form of AR-game like Pokemon Go, would it have been a positive impact and perhaps “saved” UWS? By the time this article is published, Pokemon Go would have been launched in Singapore.

Augmented reality is in the industry for more than a decade, and is readily available in Singapore.

However, the adoption for AR has been very slow. Based on our

We believe online-to-offline marketing – and vice versa - is a new communication platform and the mashing of content is the norm moving forward. There would be bumps and failures as we gear towards its full potential, but this would be what Google was in the 90’s and Facebook was in the 2000’s.

ABOUT THE WRITERS

Co-authored by April Koh and Ebenezer Heng, advocates of O2O Marketing.

April is the Managing Director of TPM Outdoor Productions. She is passionate about building brands 24/7/365. She is also the advocate for O2O Marketing. Write to her at aprilkoh@tpmoutdoor.com.

Ebenezer Heng runs a community that reaches out to 0.5 million people daily (Oncoffeemakers.com’s digital assets). He also lectures in a Singapore Tertiary Institution and advises digital marketing for organisations such as SCCCI, National Sports Association & Constituencies.

April Koh

Ebenezer Heng

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Feature

Socialising with Singaporeans:

How brands can start the chat app conversation » By Zoe Lawrence

In April this year, Facebook Messenger announced the introduction of chatbots, presenting a major opportunity for businesses in Singapore, and beyond, who are looking to connect with their customers on a more personal level.

The move is designed to turn the instant messaging platform into a space where brands can become an intuitive part of their audiences’ own conversations, and thanks to the artificial intelligence of chatbots.

Facebook is only just catching up with Asian chat apps WeChat, LINE, and Kakao Talk, which have been experimenting with chatbots for years. Asian businesses, particularly in Thailand, South Korea, Japan, and China, have been using these platforms successfully to interact with their consumers. As a result, the chat app functionality has evolved quickly as its potential to provide innovative customer engagement solutions has been realised.

Singaporeans are social

Reaching the Singaporean consumer

Singaporean consumers are already using instant messaging more than most other markets, with 76% of people using it every day, mainly through Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. This new function on Facebook Messenger means that there is now the potential to do everything from booking flights to getting customer tips to making a purchase, all within the app.

Marketers looking to use chat apps as a brand channel need to realise that many Singaporeans are already familiar with the chatbot experience. TNS’s Connected Life data reveals that 48% of connected consumers use LINE, while 37% have a WeChat account. Brands focused on connecting with the Singapore market need to tread carefully ensure they provide the optimal experience for a demanding, and experienced chat app audience.

How can brands enter the chat app space?

Branded chatbots are still in their infancy – but it’s easy to see four key opportunities emerging: Opportunity 1: Brand engagement Chatbots allow brands to engage with people in the space in which they are already spending time.

To do so, they need to be able to interact in the same way that people interact with friends – in an entertaining and relevant way. The first branded Facebook Messenger accounts launched in April focused on simple questions and answers, for example Poncho, which engaged people through customisable weather forecasts. The account was a light-hearted way of finding out about the weather, however was hit by a few glitches early on – for example it could not locate Singapore. Similarly, many of the major global news outlets created accounts to allow users to proactively seek out the news

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By not requiring people to download a particular app, the brand is removing any friction that may be a barrier to them completing the transaction.

stories that were of interest to them.

Yet these chatbots were spamming users with irrelevant content.

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Strategy 1: To successfully engage consumers, brands should look to chat app pros. Bobbi Brown has been successful in using KakaoTalk in Korea to have one-toone conversations. Users interact with the brand in the chat window, receiving beauty tips, taking part in competitions or even sharing vouchers with friends. It’s not about spamming people with content through a new channel, it’s about using the functionality of the chat app and the intelligence of chatbots to deliver tailored, relevant content to users in a more effective way than previously.

Opportunity 2: facilitating sales

Strategy 2:

The arrival of chatbots has also expanded the scope for using chat apps as sales channels. The Burger King chatbot allows users to select the meal they want from home or when in the outlet, enabling them to collect themselves and jump the queue.This functionality places the brand in the customers’ ecosystem – the messenger environment - where they are already spending time.

We know that there is a movement towards app consolidation, where consumers are reluctant to keep downloading additional apps and are focussing their attention on a fewer number of apps. By not requiring people to download a particular app, the brand is removing any friction that may be a barrier to them completing the transaction.

Brands that want to take advantage of chat apps as a sales channel will need to think carefully about all aspects of payment and distribution – will Singaporean users be comfortable providing card details, or will there be a need to link through to a payment site to complete? WeChat, LINE, and Kakao Talk have developed their integrated payment solutions which have now become standalone mobile payment solution powerhouses to overcome this hurdle. While Facebook has been testing its payment solutions in the US, it will need to ensure it develops a secure and trustworthy offer to win over audiences and complete the sale. How will the goods or services be delivered?

Does the brand have the distribution network in place?

Feature

Opportunity 3: Providing information The opportunity to use chat apps as interactive information providers should not be overlooked. Many brands already have simple chat functions embedded into their web pages. Moving this functionality onto Facebook Messenger through chatbots enables brands to remove the number of steps that a customer has to take between asking a question and receiving an answer.

Strategy 3: In Asia, we have seen government organisations using chat apps to better inform the public. The Singaporean government has been quick to see the promise of chatbots and the potential to reach out to people and improve public services.

Microsoft recently announced that it was working with the government to build prototype chatbots for selected public services. The first stage will focus on chatbots that can answer simple questions, however soon they will be able to complete tasks

and transactions. The final stage will look at customising the chatbots for each user. As chat apps embed themselves into the daily lives of Singaporeans, it’s not farfetched to imagine that we will soon be talking to government chatbots via our chat app window.

Opportunity 4: Customer service The new world of chatbots allows brands to have one-on-one conversations with consumers at scale. This facilitates an ongoing relationship and provides a consistent user journey, opening up huge opportunities in the realm of customer service.

Strategy 4: The chat app window should be viewed as a treasure chest of interactions, meaning that brands automatically know who the user is, their preferences and past conversations. Used correctly, this can provide the consumer with timely, helpful and intuitive input. To ensure this experience is truly end-

to-end, brands need to work across the different business functions – from marketing to customer service, finance to digital – to make sure that they are well placed to meet the needs of consumer in this environment. Businesses can only deliver a truly 360 customer experience by breaking down these silos to deliver comprehensively against the customer’s needs.

A personalised approach requires a personalised strategy Progress is not quick or simple, so it’s understandable that the firstmovers in the chatbot space are not going to get it right straight away.

Looking at how Singaporeans are interacting with brands on Asian chat apps will give businesses an unparalleled head-start when it comes to developing effective uses for the channel. And as the artificial intelligence powering the conversations advances, chatbots will learn to understand the nuances of conversations better, leading to smoother and more intuitive interactions.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Zoe Lawrence works with businesses to leverage social, mobile and behavioural data to help brands better engage with their connected consumers. She has been with TNS since 2010, shaping TNS’s thought leadership around the connected consumer.

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Guru Talk

Six Signs

t hat You Are D oi n g D igita l Mar ket ing Wro n g l y » By Jeffrey Tay

Gone are the days of giving flyers off the street or spending tens of thousands of dollars on TV commercials. With today’s pervasive use of consumer technology, more SMEs today have made digital marketing a priority. Digital marketing is more flexible, powerful, cost-efficient, measurable and most importantly, effective.

The Pitfalls of Digital Marketing Mistakes As SMEs experiment and employ different digital marketing strategies, mistakes are unavoidable. If left unnoticed, digital marketing done incorrectly will definitely take a huge toll on the business. Loss of potential revenue, declining online popularity and wasted marketing costs are just some of the nightmares to all business owners.

In this article, we will explore some of the most common digital marketing mistakes that are often overlooked. Recognising the signs early and finding ways to fix them will allow SMEs to avoid these pitfalls and avert costly mistakes altogether. We want a digital marketing strategy bounded by core principles resilient enough to withstand technological changes.

Six Signs That You Are Doing Digital Marketing Wrongly 1. You Focus on “Viral Content”, Likes and Shares Viral content is all the rage right now. All website owners want their content to go viral. Who does not want tons of social media shares, backlinks and thousands of visitors?

While these look totally desirable, viral content does not always equate to high success rate.

The one million visitors to your website are useless if only 10 of them buy your product or service.

Additionally, the large number of irrelevant visitors can do more harm on your website by increasing bounce rates. Having visitors leave your site quickly can make a dent in your SEO. Why? Because Google ranks pages with high bounce rates lower in search results.

Likes and re-tweets might look amazing but the best way to assess your social media marketing is through click-through-rates and conversions – not the number of shares and likes, or how viral your content is.

It is far better to focus on driving targeted traffic to your site – from a highly relevant audience who is more likely to buy from you.

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The rule is pretty simple - successful campaigns should be replicated while failed ones must be analysed to determine what went wrong.

2. You Don’t Have Bigger, More Strategic Goals

3. You Don’t Measure Success and Failure

All digital marketing strategies should include a clear set of goals and objectives. The things you do such as paid advertising, SEO, content promotion and social media marketing should work hand in hand to reach your targets. And all of them should follow a realistic digital marketing objective because without it you will be totally lost in the middle of nowhere.

In the world of digital marketing, trends are forever changing. And the only way to keep up with these changes is to measure the effectiveness at every step of your campaigns. Bear in mind that failure and success are both significant on all your campaigns. Start analysing your campaigns to recognise what are working and what are not.

Do you want more traffic? Gain more email subscribers? Generate tons of backlinks? What is your ultimate goal? Remember that without a clear goal you will most likely fall into the trap of creating content just for the sake of creating content.

The rule is pretty simple successful campaigns should be replicated while failed ones must be analysed to determine what went wrong. However, do not be too quick to ditch failures. Sometimes, it is not the marketing idea that is bad but the timing and presentation.

4. You Buy Social Media Followers For SMEs to look reputable, well-established and popular, it is common practice to buy social media followers. But people nowadays are savvy enough to tell whether you have bought fake followers.

To avoid ruining your reputation, build a network of real people who are willing to become potential clients. Remember that social media marketing is not all about the number of followers, but more importantly, the quality of your followers.

Guru Talk

5. You Don’t Do Email Marketing

6. You Don’t Invest in Training

Email marketing is no longer as cool as social media or viral content but it is still a powerful medium that can deliver your marketing message. Email marketing offers direct communication and adds up that “personal touch” making them a trustworthy digital marketing vehicle.

There is nothing wrong with traditional digital marketing methods, but sticking to outmoded, conventional approaches usually brings not-so-great results. Since the digital world is changing ever so rapidly, strategies frequently come and go.

About 91% of customers are fond of receiving promotional emails. And 86% of them would prefer getting monthly emails instead of weekly messages. These numbers are too substantial to ignore, but generic emails will not make the cut. Make it more personalised and do split testing (sending the same emails with different subject lines to two different groups) to avoid getting your emails reported as spam.

One great way to cope with these changes is to continuously train digitally literate key personnel in your team, letting them participate in digitally sophisticated training such as transformation classes or digital boot camps. To shift gears from outmoded methods to newer marketing strategies, digital literacy training is a must.

Digital Marketing – A Double Edged Sword Beyond the tempting advantages and promise of instant results, digital marketing is like a doubleedged sword. The devil lies in the complexity and intricacy of the digital marketing process, which requires a more sophisticated and strategic approach than most SME owners realise. And with trends evolving almost every day, SMEs need to constantly keep up with these changes or be rendered irrelevant.

Keep in mind that prevention is better than cure. Recognising the signs early and avoiding them at all costs is essential for a successful and thriving business in the digital world we live in.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Jeffrey Tay runs a digital marketing agency, helping companies craft digital marketing strategies to generate sales and leads for their business.

Jeffrey is also a trainer with Conversion Hub, focusing on social media marketing. Learn Internet Marketing FREE at www.conversion-hub.com.

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Business School

PR is dead, L ong Li ve Dig i t a l P R

» By Peter Justin Yu

Public Relations (PR) has been around since mankind’s earliest civilisations realised the importance of communicating with the public and the upkeep of a positive public image. However, since then nothing much has changed.

In my opinion, traditional PR is dead, and the next phase will be Digital PR, a term that describes a service that combines digital marketing with public relations. The line between these two disciplines no longer exist as you cannot do one without the other. One cannot simply walk into a client pitch with just press kits, connections, and copywriting skills. There needs to more, much more being offered to stay relevant.

History of PR Modern day PR as we understand dates to the early 20th century.

According to ipr.org.uk, there were two fathers of public relations: Ivy Lee (1877-1934) and Edward

Bernays (1891-1995). Lee coined the term “public relations” and created the modern press release, which Bernays then refined. These forbearers were also to blame for the PR being guilty by association to mass propaganda.

How little present day PR agencies/ agents have changed This brief trip down memory lane serves to remind us that PR hasn’t changed after almost two centuries of existence. Despite the advancement in technology and mindsets, PR agencies are still fond of creating press releases. These press releases are sent out as a oneway communication tool – without taking in feedback. PR agents are still seen as spin doctors in helping spread false propaganda.

Every main advantage a PR agency has, eroded with the advent of the Internet age. PR agents were able to claim that they could write so

well that journalist would just use the press release as their editorial copy.

Today, there is artificial intelligence writing bots at Automatedinsights. com who can churn out a thousand insightful reports a day for media outlets like Reuters.

Many would argue that the “little black book” that allowed PR agents exclusive access to the top journalists kept them relevant.

Yet, nowadays, contact details of almost all journalists are available on databases such as Muckrack.com.

Alternatively, anyone can use social media or find a public email address to feed journalists exclusives or tips.

Agencies win business based on how many inches of columns achieved, the sentiment of the coverage and media value saved.

Yet, in the cutthroat world of numbers, it matters little. Such matrixes do not add to the bottom line of any business.

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The true challenge is not just following trends, but it is to spot the next one before everyone does.

PR in a digital world requires a much wider understanding of marketing

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Digital PR is mixing traditional PR with content marketing, social media and SEO: changing staid news into in-depth conversations with your target audience online directly. Successful PR campaigns should also be able to show a marked increase in the client’s key performance indicators.

News can be relayed wider, quicker, and more directly than ever before. Instead of just seeking for a single placement, one piece of news can be shared exponentially.

Content marketing is retooling existing content like press releases into new content. Extend the lifespan of a press release by turning it into a Slideshare presentation, a blog post, an Opinion Editorial, a Pinterest infographic, a LinkedIn news update, etc.

Utilise social media to share, share, and share. Content can be fed to multiple sources. Instead of just using the business wire, the press release can be adapted into a casual blog post / Facebook update that connects with to a real audience.

This can be a better platform for twoway communication between the brand and the users.

Commit to SEO (search engine optimisation). It’s a quintessential marketing skill for PR practitioners in the digital age. Increase the accuracy of your content finding its real target audience by integrating search keywords. Do keyword research to see the trends of readers so to better improve the readership of your press releases.

When you can do all three, PR will get in direct contact with the clients’ consumers. This way, there will be a call-to-action to showcase the impact of the campaigns directly.

It can be measured in engagement rates, brand recalls, sales volumes, and more. So it is now much easier to defend the PR budget than ever before.

Stay ahead of the curve by acquiring future critical skills By adopting a wider view of what PR is supposed to be and supposed to deliver is a good start. The good news is that there are plenty of online avenues where PR agents can learn content marketing, social media and SEO skills to keep up with the digital marketing wave.

The true challenge is not just following trends, but it is to spot the next one before everyone does. Here are the four skills that I believe will be essential in the coming years for PR agencies and agents.

Business School

1. An in-depth understanding of traditional, digital and business analytics We all have a superficial understanding of Facebook Insights, Google Analytics and other platforms. The goal is to be the one who can translate the data into actionable items.

2. Produce reports that the clients comprehend Similar to the skillset above, this is the ability to dumb-down the complex data yet still deliver an impact. Few people have the ability to create presentations that the client can have a handle on and implement.

3. Managing and working well with virtual teams For a mobile society that’s always on the go, virtual work environments are more commonplace than ever.

It is crucial to understanding ideal workflows, the best collaborative/

communications tools, and using them well. This is especially applicable when your team is working remotely around the world and clock.

4. Identifying and collaborating with influencers Many have trouble understanding platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat – yet they cannot be ignored due to their sheer size.

Instead of building a fan base from scratch, get to using influencer outreach. It isn’t easy finding the right one who believes in the clients’ brands and able to help them achieve results.

In the Internet age, traditionally large PR agencies are getting phased out due rapid technological changes.

However, they are still stoically offering the same solutions with agents boasting the same skillsets.

In this impending fallout, nimbler boutique firms and practitioners that embrace the next evolution of PR will rise to dominate.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Peter Justin Yu is the chief agent for countless guerrilla PR campaigns at Bebop Asia. He was also the Head of Public Relations at various successful startups like Dropmysite (reverse IPO) and Folr (multi-million dollar acquisition). He specialises in creating meaningful and long-lasting conversations about game-changing businesses that go after grand ideas.

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Business School

How to r u n a successful Influencer Marketing campaign in Sing ap o re Âť By Andrea Olivato Why should marketers consider influencer marketing?

According to a recent study by androitdigital.com, 60% of consumers (aged 16 - 33) find social advertising having the most influence and thirty nine percent feel that brands that don’t reach out through mobile channels undesirable. 52% of them prefer companies who were willing to listen and change with public opinion. However, 38% of them will switch brands if the company has bad business practices, close to the number who will hold the recommendations done via word of mouth. Making sense of the numbers presented, it will be folly to ignore influencer marketing.

An Analytical Overview Of Influencer Marketing In Singapore Singapore is a very peculiar market when it comes to Influencer Marketing: the population is very small in terms of reach compared to the rest of the world. However, influencers based in Singapore – attract a global external audience.

On average, Singapore influencers on Instagram have less than 40% of their followers from Singapore: many of them have the rest of the audience from Indonesia or Malaysia; others from the US, UK and Australia. ers Oth

Country of origin of followers for @elvinngchoonsiong on Instagram

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This means that local brands and agencies must choose their Influencers carefully in order to direct their budget towards the right target or they risk to waste 60% of their investment

Demographics On average, the audience on Instagram is quite young but we are not just talking of teenagers. Most of the followers are between 18 and 35, making them the perfect audience for most brands.

Many influencers’ target audiences are very gender-specific - they attract either mostly Females or mostly Males. Brands looking to invest in influencer marketing must be sure that the influencers’ target audience is what they want.

Otherwise, they could communicate to the wrong audience.

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Competition and pricing There are few good influencers, and the scarce competition, combined with the country average salary being very high, cause fees to be 30%-40% higher than the average while comparing the interactions received.

A similar situation is present in Hong-Kong, affected by the same problems. It is completely different in Indonesia and Malaysia. The internal market being large and the use of a local language makes Influencers in those countries very local and appealing for investments. ers Oth

Gender distribution of followers for @ bongqiuqiu on Instagram

Age distribution of followers for @ bongqiuqiu on Instagram

Country of origin of followers for @ noradanish on Instagram

Business School

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Singaporeans tend to like many posts, keeping the interaction rate quite high, but they do not comment so often, causing posts not being so conversational.

Performance The average Singaporean interaction rate (number of likes/ comments compared to the number of followers) is 2.5%, in-line with that of other countries even if a bit lower than our neighbours Malaysia and Indonesia (roughly 5%).

Between likes and comments there is a huge disparity: Singaporeans tend to like many posts, keeping the interaction rate quite high, but they do not comment so often, causing posts not being so conversational. This is could be attributed by cultural factor or the usage of social media. Most Singaporeans use social media while on the move, most of the times in public transport. Hence the simple act of ‘liking’ comes very easy, while having to type to comment might require more effort and it is therefore less common.

Comparison between Likes and Comments interactions for @dreachong on Instagram

On the other hand, what is lost in terms of conversation, is recovered in conversions: mobile-shopping is a daily practice in Singapore and this enhances the possibility to convert directly from an Influencer Marketing campaign to a sale on an e-commerce platform.

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Top influencers There are many blog articles analysing the best Singaporean influencers but they only evaluate the followers as whole, without actually checking how many of those followers are local. If we consider the source of the followers, the top influencers in Singapore are not actors or singers but bloggers and social media personalities.

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@Ladyironchef example post on Instagram

For example, with 191,607 Singaporean followers, Brad Lau, food blogger better known as @ ladyironchef, is the top Singaporean Influencer on Instagram, followed

by Cheng Yan Yan Wendy, blogger better known as @xiaxue, with 136,272 followers.

Here’s a complete chart of the Top-10 Singaporean influencers based on the real followers from Singapore.

Business School

Five tips to run a successful campaign of Influencer Marketing Check your target As mentioned earlier, marketing managers need to be sure they are reaching the right target before investing.

Share personal experiences, never mere Advertisement People on Social Media are not looking for banners, or explicit advertisement. They are looking for personal stories, shared by their favourite influencer.

When creating your campaign, be sure to communicate something in a personal way, telling a story, a personal experience that applies to real life.

This is the most fundamental rule to succeed with influencer marketing

Choose influencers in-line with your brand Because the message must be a personal recommendation, the campaign must involve influencers that are not only passionate about your vertical but who can really be enthusiastic about your product.

The best way to ensure this is to ask the influencers you are planning to hire about what they think about your brand and your product. Be sure they understand its potential and that they like it for real. That’s the key to passing an authentic message to their followers and hence have a high return on your investment.

Beauty is the key When creating the content for your campaign, be sure it’s the best possible from an artistic and beauty point of view. The pictures and videos must be bright, colourful and capture the eyes of the final consumer.

Especially on Instagram, people look for the beauty of the photos and that is what makes a campaign viral.

A beautiful picture is worth more than a thousand hashtags.

Measure before The beauty of Digital Marketing lies in the fact that it’s possible to foresee the outcome of a campaign - the same applies to Influencer Marketing. Whenever you are looking to hire influencers, monitor and analyse their past performance, especially in terms of interactions, and you will be able to understand what to expect from your own.

In summary, Singaporean companies need to look beyond the task of marketing quality products to their customers, and instead look at starting meaningful discussions that engage and build relationships with influencers and their audiences.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Andrea Olivato is the Head of Operations, Popular Chips. He is passionate about digital trends and an advocate for data-supported investments. He is also the sole director of Italian branch of Performance Marketing Network TradeTracker Int., bringing the company from zero to 1.2mil revenue in two years.

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Digital Digest

Will Analytics help you do

Digital Marketing Better?

Âť By Veronica Lind

Damn right it would! I am talking about Marketing Analytics which is NOT just web analytics and is beyond specific marketing metrics. Most importantly, I am referring to Integrated Marketing Analytics which is usually more people-centric, featuring the prospect, lead or customer as the unit of focus. This gives you richer insights on the effectiveness of your entire marketing campaigns so that you can make wiser and better business and marketing decisions - know where to play, how to play and when to play. An article from McKinsey in 2014 indicated that an integrated analytics approach could free up some 15 to 20 percent of marketing spending. I believe the savings would be more now with the sophistication of Marketing Analytics.

1. Analytics can make a huge impact on business development strategies.

When you marry your marketing analytics to your Sales CRM system, you get a very powerful view of your different customer segments’ behaviours.

You can track and monitor their every interaction with your company and know which mechanism trigger a sales engagement. You can then tailor your offers and align to sensible marketing and sales channels and processes.

I realise that different stakeholders may have different KPIs. There are tools in the market, for example, Hubspot that allows you to customise reports and create visual dashboards, diced from analytics so that you can quickly identify bottlenecks in your lead flow with funnel visualisations, enabling you to optimise your processes in real time. Now your sales department wants to work with you because you can demonstrate real actionable data that relate directly to their business.

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Integrated Marketing Analytics play a big part in Inbound Marketing to help you create quality content that pulls people towards your company and product, where they naturally want to be.

EXAMPLE ON HOW ANALYTICS HELP MAKE BETTER DECISIONS: One home-appliance company, for example, typically spent a large portion of its marketing budget on print, television, and display advertising to get into the consideration set of its target consumers. However, according to Forbes, analysis of the consumer decision journey showed that most people looking for home appliances browsed retailers’ websites—and fewer than 9 percent visited the manufacturer’s site. When the company shifted spending away from general advertising to distributor website content, it gained 21 percent in e-commerce sales.

2. CMOs struggle BIG time when it comes to measuring Marketing ROI. With an integrated view of ALL of your marketing and sales data in one place, you can quickly pinpoint what exactly works and what doesn’t and make insightful decisions on

what to do next. You can see the revenue generated from each asset, each tactic throughout the entire customer lifecycle to be able to make informed decisions on where you want to put your money. Integrated Marketing Analytics play a big part in Inbound Marketing to help you create quality content that pulls people towards your company and product, where they naturally want to be. Based on Gartner Research, by aligning the content you publish with your customer’s interests, you naturally attract inbound traffic that you can then convert, close, and delight over time. This eventtriggered marketing can potentially save 80% of your direct mail budget.

According to a study done by MIT Sloan School of Management, this concept can generate 54% more leads than traditional paid marketing: • Attracting Site Visitors: Customers reached 2.40 times more visitors per month within one year.

• Converting Visitors to Leads: Customers reached 5.99 times more leads per month within one year.

• Turning Leads into Customers: 69% of customers saw an increase in sales revenue, 74% of which experienced this increase within seven months.

3. Tracking your brand and your competitor. Based on search engine rankings by Comscore, web traffic and social media reach, you can build keywords, streams of interactions and see what matter to you and compare that with your competitors. Keywords are important because on average, 12 billion searches are conducted per month on the web in the United States alone. Sadly, the average click-through rate for paid search in 2010 (worldwide) was only 2%, according to Convario. That means it is critical that your content has the right keywords to attract customers

Digital Digest

and that you are tracking this against your competitor. How would you know which keyword or stream of interaction except with insights gained from Integrated Marketing Analytics. When it comes to social media, according to Awareness,Inc, 96% of social media managers measure number of fans and followers, 89% measure traffic, 84% measure mentions, 55% track share of voice, and 51% track sentiment.

That’s all good, but be careful not to be too caught up in the little things of big data and lose sight of the bigger picture.

4. You can create an agile marketing engine with Integrated Marketing Analytics. There are so many advantages. You have a complete REAL-TIME view of your customers, your activities, your content and how each impact leads and sales at every customer’s

lifecycle. You make informed decisions on your investments, resources, campaigns and build relevant offers and content to attract and nurture leads. You can design attribution models to track and provide sensible business related marketing reports. You can manage your posts, emails, marketing channels and your teams from one platform. You can orchestrate how marketing works to your advantage very quickly. To do this, I suggest you look at Integrated Marketing Analytics platforms which include CRM and Marketing Automation like HubSpot.

5. 79% of marketing leads never convert into sales. According to MarketingSherpa, lack of lead nurturing is the common cause of this poor performance. Everything is integrated and orchestrated and you are bringing prospect and

customers along their journey with the right content and actions, you can actually replace more than 60% of dated sales functions like cold calling. That means your sales people could focus on talking to high propensity prospects, building deeper customer relationships and providing better customer support.

Analytics will continue to evolve to support what we call Real-Time Marketing. We are already talking about predictive analytics where you are able to anticipate your customer’s next action to drive more targeted engagements. The art of doing sales and the creativity of marketing will depend heavily on the Science of Integrated Marketing Analytics. The role of Integrated Marketing Analytics is so important in shaping how businesses sell and perform.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Veronica Lind is an expert on Inbound Marketing. She is passionate about helping businesses in Australia, Singapore and beyond, grow and connect with more customers. Having deep technology skills, marketing expertise, business development experiences, and having owned several businesses and developed markets globally, she understands how small businesses and large corporations work. Veronica Lind will be conducting a workshop on Inbound Marketing in Feb 2017. Register your interest now at tinyurl. com/InboundMarketingFeb2017.

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Learning Site

High Cost of

Free vs Blended Video Marketing Strategy

» By Antoine Bouchacourt

When it comes to implementing a video marketing strategy, do you invest in a premium (i.e. paid) online video platform (OVP) to host your video content or upload your videos on free social media sites like YouTube, Vimeo or Facebook? A marketer’s usual answer is the latter.

While many marketers think free social media platforms are the best option because of the access to millions of viewers, there are tradeoffs to using these platforms exclusively, particularly if videos are integral to the success of a brand’s content marketing strategy. This is why it is vital to incorporate a blended distribution strategy, where marketers can take advantage of the benefits of free social media sites and free video players, but also consider owning and controlling the video experience. In this article, we outline the pros and cons of free social

media sites and why controlling the video experience is paramount to any brand.

Pros and Cons of Hosting Video on Free Social Media Sites Free social media sites have their place in every company’s online video strategy for the following reasons: 1. Audience Reach and Brand Awareness: The biggest advantage of both YouTube and Vimeo is their popularity and audience reach, which makes them very effective platforms for building brand awareness and getting eyes on your content.

2. Google Search Ranking: YouTube videos get indexed in Google’s search results. This means a better chance for your brand’s video showing up on a related keyword search.

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When your content lives on someone else’s site, you give up your ability to manage user experience...

3. Community: At its core, YouTube is a video sharing and social network that facilitates conversations and drives social engagement.

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4. Ad-free Experience: The upside to Vimeo is no ads are run on any of your company’s videos.

These features are important but comes at your brand’s expense if used entirely on their own. Free video options actually cost you: 1. Poor SEO for Your Site: Videos are considered high quality content and are rewarded in search results. However, they have to be embedded on your own site or you miss out on the valuable SEO traction they offer.

2. Lack of Context: On YouTube, anything goes. A viewer could see competitors’ content or unrelated ads pop up next to your videos, or the recommended videos that appear in the “Up Next” section could be completely off-message from your brand.

3. Lack of Branding: Both YouTube and Vimeo limit your company’s branding and customisation options on your channel. When you embed their video player on your site, their branding shows up, which can hurt your brand’s credibility. Ultimately, you pay for the service by building someone else’s platform and growing their brand.

4. Lack of User-Experience Control: When your content lives on someone else’s site, you give up your ability to manage user experience such as buffering, which may cause consumers to abandon the video or hesitate to make a purchase from that company.

5. Limited Administrative Control: With free players there is no way to limit levels of administrative access to the channel. This means you have people uploading and tagging videos, or possibly deleting them without central oversight.

6. Denied Access: Some organisations do not allow their employees to use sites like YouTube and Vimeo in the office.

Certain countries like mainland China block access altogether.

7. Create superficial Analytics: YouTube and Vimeo offer helpful analytics for videos hosted on their players, but are superficial when it comes to tracking leadgeneration and ROI on your videos because they cannot be tied to individual prospects.

8. Analytic Consequences to Video Edits: Making any edit to a video already being hosted on YouTube causes you to lose all viewing history and stats associated with it.

Learning Site

Why You Need Your Own OVP To overcome the disadvantages of using free social media sites, it is critical that a video platform enables marketers to control and own the video experience. Such premium platforms will allow you to: 1. Increase SEO for Your Site: Embedding videos on your own site through an OVP will improve your SEO because your brand “owns” the video file.

2. Keep Customers on Your Own Site: When visitors watch videos on your site, they are engaged in your branded environment without any distractions - an ideal opportunity to convert prospects into buyers.

3. Get Deeper Customer Insights: Premium OVPs offer a much more complete suite of metrics, such as tracking viewership at the individual viewer level and analysing video completion rate, duration watched and what action the viewer took afterwards.

4. Integrate with Marketing Technologies: Integration with marketing automation platforms like Marketo and Eloqua simplifies your workflow and allows you to tie viewer analytics directly to lead scoring.

5. Control Brand Experience: Premium OVPs have an extensive set of options for customisation of the video player on your site. This enables you to keep your brand and user experience consistent with your marketing goals, without ads, competitive noise, or third-party logos.

6. Manage the User Experience: Premium OVPs are fast, have a responsive site and load videos instantly without buffering, regardless of bandwidth connection. You can also curate videos and create playlists.

7. Sophisticated Administrative Control: Multiple user account creation is possible with premium OVPs where different groups and business units in your

organisation can keep all video assets on one platform, but allow each group to administer their own content.

8. Distribute to All Your Social Media Sites with a Single Click: Video is a key marketing asset on and for all social media networks.

With your own premium OVPs, you can manage your videos – no matter how many social media sites they are distributed to – from a single platform.

A blended video strategy brings together the best of both worlds. The social sharing strength of YouTube or Facebook helps build brand awareness and is a powerful way to engage with audiences in the early stages of the customer journey.

Combine that with the capabilities of a premium OVP like Brightcove and brands can ensure that they own and control the video experience as well as keep customers engaged throughout their online experience.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Antoine Bouchacourt is the Regional Sales Manager for Brightcove, growing digital marketing and media publishing business in Asia. Antoine is passionate about all things digital and video. He believes we are living in exciting times as media publishers and brands embrace power of video to move businesses, audiences and revenue.

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