The text below are the original replies from my interview with MyPaper. As I think some of the points that are being covered may be useful to some readers, hence I’ve uploaded the original text herein for your reference. Will be translating an English version shortly for the reading pleasure of the larger community. Cheers!
I was touring CommunicAsia together with @skribe and managed to meet up with a few new found friends from Twitter, some who are exhibiting at this grand annual information technology event. We were caught by @stsanto from Getit Comms, who invited us for an interview with @B2Bento, to share some of our take on social media and marketing on virtual worlds. Here are the full recording of our interviews.
Hello my friends, the following article was written for the Chinese papers in Singapore but was never published due to sensitivity in comparison between traditional and digital media. Hence I am posting it herein for your reference. Will try to translate an English copy soon for the greater audience.
另外一间颇有远见的机构便是《星和电信》(Starhub Mobile)。在3间电信公司当中，只有《星和》勇于冒险跳上Twitter(@StarhubCares)这项微博(micro-blogging)服务。他们利用这平台与消费族群建立深远的关系，并同时为公司增添了多一条顾客关系管理频道(customer relationship management channel)。这允许他们在第一时间对于顾客的负面反馈做出直接的回应。也很有可能在长期内减少了危机处理所需的时间和柜台职员的负担。在某种程度上甚至能够为公司减少资源上的开支。但是根据经济报章，The Business Times近期关于Twitter的报道，《第一通信》(MobileOne)似乎对此平台仍心有余悸，目前正在观望状态。除了电信公司以外，有一些其它的企业非常适合运用类似Twitter这种微博平台与顾客直接对话。这包括了零售银行业，旅游业，科技产品等。只是目前还未发现有哪间本地银行愿意做出这样的尝试。
除了以上例子，还有一间值得一提的机构就是《HP惠普公司》。数字媒体在HP并不是一项短期营销手段而是完整地融入在他们的环球商业战略中，成为重要的公关策略之一。HP的每一条产品零售线都拥有自己专署的网络社交平台。各个产品线独自建立有用的线上人脉，透过这些直接管道收集民调，与消费者进行紧密的交流，在产品或营销运动推行时便能够事半功倍，有效地吸引影响者(influencer)的关注并且间接利用口碑行销(word-of-mouth marketing)手段将信息传播开来。其中，《HP改变世界》的企业社会责任(Corporate Social Responsibility)推广活动 是最突出的例子之一。HP展示了整个团体上下对于数字媒体拥有共同认识的重要性。介入社交网络，在数字空间占有一席之地并不是营销部门或公关部门单独承担的责任，而是全体同仁应有的共同努力和意识。
My virgin marketing article on Lianhe Zaobao, zbWeekly on 3 May 2009. In case you hadn’t seen the ad prior to reading this article, you can view it on youtube. The article gives an overview on the success and failure of this campaign attempt. I have translated a copy in English for your reading pleasure.
Is Creative Success True Success?
I believe everyone has already seen the ad, “The Funeral”, which was greatly hyped recently. The first time I saw it was on Facebook. When it touched on the words, “In the end… it’s these small things that you remember. Little imperfections, that make them perfect.” tears filled my eyes with warmth in my heart and a smile on my face.
The effectiveness of a creative ad.
It is rather rare for Singapore to produce an ad of such technical visual quality and rich content. It is indeed even harder to find one that is able to touch the hearts of the general audience in a short 3 minutes clip. MCYS seem to have gained approval and positive critics again after its success with “Family”. But is creative success a true sucess?
It is a very successful advertisement to a certain extend. Creatives of such is an unprecedented attempt in Singapore. Tapping on topics of taboo and controversy has always been the killer strategy for “buzz marketing”. And using themes to do with death is one of the 6 main strategies as suggested by Mark Hughes in his best seller marketing book, BuzzMarketing. The other strategies include “the unusual, the outrageous, the hilarious, the remarkable & the secrets“.
You can easily locate about 137 blog entries if you do a simple search for the topic on Google Blogger. The contest that “The Funeral” organised on Facebook also attracted many fans participation. Everyone uploaded photos with their loved ones accompanied with proclaims of love. This ad has also become the talking point at the dinner table.
Will the young compromise with an imperfect partner?
Those whom were the most influenced (or should I say most active in commentary) are the younger audience, aged between 16 to 30. But when the ad has passed and forgotten, will this fickle-minded group give up the pursue for perfection and compromise with the reality of imperfection? That might not be the case.
Although both “Family” and “The Funeral” has received much positive feedback, but it cannot exist as a holistic marketing strategy on its own. Actually, the theme of “Beautifully Imperfect” has much room for further development. Upon capturing the attention and becoming a public topic, MCYS should further on the theme, thread it together and strengthen through-the-line marketing efforts, to effectively imprint the key messaging into hearts of the single men and women. The slogan should also be more outstanding so to establish it as a top-of-mind recall. And hopefully people will cease to indulge in a Hollywood-style fairytale when making the considerations for a lifelong partner.
Agency did not make the best of it
Through the website of the family campaign, thinkfamily.sg, which is also the URL shown towards the end of the ad. It is easy to observe that the key messaging and concept design was not carried through. The blog and forum topics in the website are also not directly related to the campaign, as though it was not meant to be built on the same communications frequency. Also, I have yet to see any spin-offs from the current TV ad.
If not dealt with care, this successful million-dollar ad could risk to become yet another trending topic to be forgotten in time. A set of complete and successful marketing strategy should strike the iron while it’s hot and repeatedly enhance the key message so it will grow to find a common ground with the people. To achieve maximum results, the following tv ads should also be edited into a shorter version for people to remember it vividly. Just like the ”Stop at 2″ birth control campaign the government executed in the 70s. Although the overly successful campaign led to the problems of a declining birth rate after.
In any event, “The Funeral” has deeply touched me and given me a hope that I may too have my own family one day. I hope MCYS will make better use of the success of this ad to further strengthen the publicity stint. And perhaps this one perfect funeral could turn into many more perfect weddings in the near future.
My virgin article on marketing will be featured on zbWeekly, a sub-paper for Lianhe Zaobao on Sundays.
The first article is entitled, “One perfect Funeral”, giving an overview of the latest MCYS ad, “The Funeral”. Why it works or don’t work and how the success or failure could be expanded further.
It will be in mandarin. So if you can read Chinese, support me by getting your copy next Sunday! I will be uploading a scanned copy with translation here as well.
An advocate of self-defined success and excellence, Belinda found her passion and forte in the social media sphere, with an all-rounded perspective of the integrated marketing environment having served in areas of film, events, viral with a foundation in multimedia. She is also guest contributor for marketing column in Lianhe Zaobao.
