Asian e-Marketing July 2011 by MediaBUZZ Pte Ltd

July 2011

Performance Marketing ( P art 1 )

Exceptional In All Ranks,Top Page Springboard Researchâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 1032 Predictions in 2011, page 22

Ten Questions & Answers on Yahoo: Science is Insight, Social Networks and Google+, Not Hindsight!, page 41 Page 27

Effectiveness and Performance Out There Mediaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s State-of-the-art are Key to Marketing, Page 14 Mobile Advertising Marketplace, page 44

EDITORIAL:

O N L I N E

V E R S I O N

Dear Reader, Asian e-Marketing is getting granular on “performance marketing” this month, but I have to warn you: don’t expect a lot on affiliate marketing per se, but instead write-ups on logic, creativity and serious passion for doing the right thing at the right time for the right reasons. If you are preparing to take on your next project or business venture, or are maybe just looking for additional information on what’s up in the digital marketing scene in Asia Pacific, you should read on by clicking the headlines on the table of contents. Our e-magazine is delivered paperless eco-friendly, digital therefore searchfriendly, and of course free into your inbox as usual. Look out for the exclusive interviews with industry experts such as Nirvik Singh, Chairman & CEO of Grey Group Asia Pacific (page 32), Bill Lee, Managing Director of SAS (page 23) or Part II of Andrew Grant’s interview on how Akamai Technologies is transforming the cloud into a more viable place to inform, entertain, advertise, transact and collaborate (page 25). Interviews with Eddie Chau, Founder & CEO of Brandtology; Martin Häring, Vice President of International Marketing at Akamai Technologies, Piyush Shah, Vice President of InMobi SmartPay; Nicky Choo, Extreme Networks Regional Director for Southeast Asia and the charismatic Sandeep Casi, Founder & CEO of Cinemacraft Technology will follow in the next issue— all in addition to our regular reports, studies and best practices. Happy reading!

PS: If you couldn’t catch the previous issue of Asian e-Marketing here is another chance.

Sponsor of this issue:

Daniela La Marca Editor-in-Chief Asian eMarketing

JULY 2011

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

PERFORMANCE MARKETING (Part 1)

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS CMO Council’s “State of Marketing 2011” Report

COMPANIES & CAMPAIGNS

Exceptional In All Ranks

Ēclat for CommunicAsia and BroadcastAsia in 2011

Consumer Engagement in Mobile Commerce Strong in Asia-Pacific Region, MEF Global Consumer Survey Reveals

Winners of the 5th Annual Asian Publishing Awards

Remarkable Growth of Social Networking in ASEAN Region Reported

LEGISLATION

Smartphones and Notebooks Both Have Different Roles to Play in Online Usage

One of Three New Cyber Security Facilities Set up for More Protection in Singapore

Natural Search, Paid Search & Social Media Integration 2011 Report

BUZZWORD

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Marketing Performance Measurement (MPM)

Effectiveness and Performance are Key to Marketing

APPOINTMENTS

Marketers Need to Predict What Comes Next

IMPRINT

Affiliate Marketing is Most Attractive in Times of Crisis

What Does Red Hair and Marketing Research Have in Common?

TECHNOLOGIES & PRODUCTS

The “Power to Know” for Singapore’s Business Analytics Industry

Exclusive Interview with Andrew Grant (Part II)

Ten Questions & Answers on Social Networks and Google+

TV Genius Harnesses Power of Twitter to Measure Viewer Engagement with Content

ADVERTISE WITH US! Take a look at our rates!

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

CMO Council’s “State of Marketing 2011” Report In announcing its ongoing partnership with the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council, Asian e-marketing is notifying you about the CMO Council’s 2011 State of Marketing Report, which includes the results of a comprehensive survey of more than 750 senior marketers worldwide.

The fifth annual State of Marketing Report extracted a broad range of insights and views specific to mandates, spend, intentions and frustrations. Participants were drawn from each major region of the world and were representative of most vertical industry sectors and company sizes.

Digital marketing effectiveness and social media integration, measurement and alignment are the priorities for marketers seeking increased visibility and accountability, according to the latest State of Marketing Report from the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council, sponsored by Deloitte and OpenText.

Almost 64% of respondents said they reported directly to the CEO, President or COO, while another 14% said they were accountable to a regional vice president, general manager or division/business group head. Among the respondents, 34% held CMO or Head of Marketing titles, while 33% held roles of Vice President or above.

At risk are agencies and resources failing to bring value -added thinking, innovation, or technical knowledge to the table, notes the CMO Council, a global affinity network of 6,000 chief marketers controlling more than $200 billion in annual spend. Among the priorities, marketers intend to add a one-two punch of marketing analytics talent coupled with strategic planning and business development experience to better target, segment and then act on growth opportunities. The global marketing leadership group with members in 110 countries gather insights and contributions for its seminal report, "The 2011 State of Marketing: Outlook, Intentions and Investments".

Having felt the sting of flat or tight budgets over the past two years, marketing spend is being influenced by a shift to digital media and online marketing effectiveness, according to one in four marketers surveyed. However, only 5% of respondents give themselves high marks specific to current online marketing performance capabilities. To bolster capabilities, marketers surveyed are planning headcount increases in interactive design, online advertising, search engine marketing, web analytics, and integrated campaign management. Cost cutting and operational efficiencies are also an important mandate for marketers participating in this survey.

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Specifically, some 64% of respondents will move to improve customer segmentation and targeting. In addition, according to the respondents, steps being taken to manage impact and value of marketing in 2011 include:

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Investing in digital demand generation programs (43%)

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Further qualifying and tracking the conversion of leads (42%)

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Exploring alternative media and new routes to market (41%)

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Upgrading the caliber and performance of the marketing organization (29%)

Interestingly, in lean budget years, marketers depended on testing and piloting campaigns to analyze potential modeling. In 2011, only one in four marketers surveyed plan on heavily piloting programs. Yet, marketers participating in this survey also indicate they will not be looking at programs that analyze or measure performance more effectively as only 18% plan to leverage eMetrics and other online performance indicators, only 15% will conduct statistical analysis and predictive modeling to measure impact, and only 12% will implement closed loop systems to monitor acquisition impact and effectiveness. "While marketers have been focused on transforming their operations and customer engagements with hosted services and digital solutions, many have actually created a grab bag of siloed pointsolutions that just proliferate Random Acts of Marketing," noted Donovan Neale-May, Executive Director of the CMO Council. "Today's successful marketing organization is unifying its extended ecosystem, aligning more effectively with business and sales groups, and integrating campaign components to drive efficiency and more measurable outcomes," added Neale-May.

Marketing, as a function, continues to reach beyond the borders of branding. CMOs surveyed indicated a growing authority in highvalue areas, such as strategic planning and forecasting (74%), business development and collaborating (46%), pricing (36%), distribution/channel management (36%), and product design and specification (27%). This growing span of authority matches the rising expectations on the head of marketing to driving business growth and revenues. Among the top deliverables for marketing are driving top-line growth (46%), growing and retaining market share (45%), and further crystallizing and defining brand value (31%). Cost cutting and operational efficiencies are also specific management mandates for marketers polled. In order to increase the impact and value of marketing, 64% of respondents say they will move to improve customer segmentation and targeting. This will be critical as marketers responding to the survey are also looking to further invest in digital demand generation programs (43%), further qualify and track the conversion of leads (42%), and explore alternative media and new routes to market (41%). "Companies are focused on operational efficiencies. To improve ROI, we are seeing marketers leverage technologies to collect and analyze data, zeroing in on improved marketing performance," said Christine Cutten, Principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP and a leader in the marketing and brand effectiveness practice. "Early adopters are already leveraging advanced marketing analytics to help manage customers, markets and channels. As marketing evolves, we will likely see more use of advanced marketing analytics integrated into the marketing operational platform to enable delivery of optimized marketing strategies."

Marketers surveyed are also positive about budgets as 57% indicate an increase in this year's spending. In fact, 26% of marketers plan to boost budgets between one and five percent. While digital marketing and channel engagement will be drivers for marketers, digital media spend will likely represent less than 10% of expenditures, according to half of the respondents. Social media will likely be the biggest beneficiary of marketing allotments over 2010, with a majority of marketers increasing investments by over 5%. Other areas that may see greater than 5% increases in spend include:

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Search Marketing Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Online Video Online Banner Mobile

Media bracing for cuts greater than 5% include print magazines, newspapers, television and outdoor/ billboard placements. Marketers surveyed intend to focus more attention on better measurement, as well as yield and monitoring of social media investments. Top platforms to be deployed over the year will include social network or online community building (35%), social media monitoring and data mining (34%), and social network and online sentiment tracking. In addition, investments will more likely be made to deploy lead management, campaign management, and web performance and collaboration systems. The report can be downloaded in its entirety giving you detailed insights into how marketers across all regions are allocating funds, evaluating programs and utilizing internal and external resources. ♦ Source: The 2011 State of Marketing Report

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Consumer Engagement in Mobile Commerce Strong in Asia-Pacific Region, MEF Global Consumer Survey Reveals On behalf of MEF, On Device Research conducted in June 2011 a Global Consumer Survey across nine countries in five continents from both developed and developing markets - Brazil, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Qatar, Singapore, South Africa, the UK and the US with a total of 8,530 respondents. According to the survey, consumer engagement in mobile commerce has exploded. As much as 74% of respondents in Singapore said they access the mobile web on a daily basis, while 84% have already adopted mobile commerce by using their device to either research or buy goods. The majority of mobile purchases are digital goods (40%), but physical goods constitute a notable part, with 15% of consumers having bought electronic goods via mobile. Mobile banking is also clearly establishing itself in this market, with 32% regularly checking their balance via mobile and almost one-fifth (18%) paying bills on a mobile device. In Indonesia, 63% of respondents had sent airtime remittances via mobile. Among those in Indonesia that have bought something on their mobile, 19% have done so through a retailer mobile store front, illustrating the value of the mobile channel for retailers. Meanwhile, 41% have bought items via their network operator in the last six months.

“This global research clearly demonstrates that consumers across the world are embracing mobile as a key access point for their content and commerce needs,” commented Andrew Bud, Global Chairman, MEF, adding: “It also illustrates that mobile is an essential platform for companies wishing to drive consumer engagement and monetize their goods, services and digital products.” MEF expands mission to represent wider mobile ecosystem This change in consumer habits, and the increasing focus placed on mobile by a growing number of companies as a consequence, is the reason why now is the right time for MEF to expand its mission to include the entire mobile content and commerce ecosystem. “As a global organization with strong local representation, MEF is ideally placed to shape the industry, connect thought leaders, drive monetization opportunities and provide competitive advantage for mobile content and commerce leaders,” said Rimma Perelmuter, Executive Director, MEF. “Over the past 10 years, MEF has helped to grow mobile content into the $36 billion industry it is today, assisting its members in navigating the complexities of the channel and capitalizing on its opportunities”, he concludes.

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Fuelled by MEF’s deep engagement in mobile commerce, companies from a range of verticals have contacted MEF recently, interested in leveraging its expertise, skills and global network.

"It's a truly exciting time to be leading MEF in Asia, particularly as the association adapts to the amazing dynamics of this fast-paced industry. By focusing on a wider business remit, we can better address the market challenges faced by companies in multiple categories, including banking and retail, who are already seeking more guidance for mobile best practice across Asia,” commented Colin Miles, Chairman, MEF Asia.

Over the past 18 months, the organization has led a global mobile commerce initiative promoting the enormous commercial potential of the mobile channel. This work includes a partnership with ASC X9, the US technical group that develops financial industry standards, to establish privacy and security standards to advance m-Commerce.

“MEF Asia will proactively represent its enlarged membership base in the knowledge that we are in a strong position to benefit all our members in the Asia Pacific region, which continues to lead the way in all things mobile," he added.

Concerns about security were cited by an average of 27% of respondents across all markets surveyed as a reason why they did not make more purchases using their mobile devices.

“We look forward to working with all of our members, be they mobile operators, content owners, brands or financial institutions, to ensure the delivery of a robust and trusted mobile commerce experience for all consumers,” concluded Perelmuter. ♦ Source: MEF (www.mefmobile.org)

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Remarkable Growth of Social Networking in ASEAN Region Reported Facebook has gained immense popularity among users in ASEAN with 63% of all social networking bandwidth found to be Facebook related; while Facebook Posting and Apps consume 5% and 7% of social networking bandwidth respectively, according to Palo Alto Networksâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; latest Application Usage and Risk Report. The report provides a global view into enterprise application usage by summarizing an actual sample size of 1,253 organizations conducted between October 2010 and April 2011. The data in the report is generated via the Palo Alto Networks Application Visibility and Risk assessment process where a Palo Alto Networks next- generation firewall is deployed within the network, in either tap mode or virtual wire mode, where it monitors traffic traversing the Internet gateway. Of the total organization sites sample, 95 organizations are based in ASEAN region yielding 725 applications detected that consumed 225 terabytes of bandwidth. The findings have certainly confirmed what is in store for network security professionals going forward.

The growth in social networking is remarkable. A year ago, the bulk of Facebook use could be attributed, in large part, to non-work related activity. Now, corporations have increased their presence dramatically with efforts and spending is predicted to grow significantly.

A latest study conducted by usefulsocialmedia.com “The state of Corporate Social Media in 2011” shows that:

functionalities such as peer to peer file transfer applications to send large files during meetings and discussions.

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The rapid rise of social networking has however not led to the death of instant messaging (IM) and webmail (all browser-based email excluding outlook-web and Gmail Enterprise), as predicted by many social networking proponents.

• • •

The majority of companies expect social media to become integrated into more than just marketing throughout 2011. 89% of the companies expect social media budgets to increase over 2011. The most common corporate social media use is for marketing (88%) and communications (93%). By the end of 2011, the biggest change in corporate use of social media will be the growth of companies using it for customer service (73%), employee engagement (59%) and product development (52%).

The Web 2.0 revolution has enabled social networking and file sharing applications to play a pivotal role in shaping the way users socialize and collaborate in their work place. In fact, the use of these applications is now common place. Marketing division posting invitations via Facebook walls for event launches, customer service divisions keep track of their user feedback through twitter entries; users using browser-based file sharing

In ASEAN, socializing traffic patterns showed that IM, webmail and social networking were used at similar ratios. Compared with 12 months ago, webmail and social networking have increased nearly 500%. The uniqueness of social networking as well as file sharing applications is that they are designed to porthop in a network. The slippery nature of applications that can hop ports coupled with firewall infrastructure that could not detect such applications means that organizations will continually struggle to identify and control them. This user behavior introduces business and security risks as many of these applications are known to have vulnerabilities and can act as a malware vector. ♦ Source: Palo Alto Networks

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Smartphones and Notebooks Both Have Different Roles to Play in Online Usage Consumers across the globe are nowadays trying to stay more focused and make better use of the time they spend online according to findings from the ‘Living with the Internet’ study, a worldwide survey across 11 countries – Brazil, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Russia, China, India, Japan, Mexico, Canada and the US.

Similarly, planned activity had also outranked spontaneous activity in the two other Asian superpowers polled in the survey - China and India - which scored 76% and 72% respectively. Interestingly, this trend was somewhat curbed when it came to transactional and creative activities - with almost half of these activities said to be spontaneous in China and India.

The comprehensive study has been a collaborative effort between Microsoft Advertising, MEC and Mindshare Worldwide and culled data from 7,000 participants aged between 16 and 54 years old. Designed to gain better insights on consumer’s web behaviour and finding out how marketers and brands can tap into these insights to enhance their communication strategies was its goal.

General Manager of Microsoft Advertising, Asia, Jason Scott, said: “Despite the vast extent of content and endless possibilities on the web, random general surfing is on the decline in favor of a more time-efficient, planned and deliberate approach. With people being more focused on their internet journeys, there is thought that this would raise concerns for advertisers looking to market their brands online. The insights gleaned from this survey suggest that by understanding how, when and where the potential consumers spend their time, advertisers can then better engage with their target audience. It is no doubt that advertisers definitely have to work harder to get people’s attention with better targeting and creative strategies.”

Globally, the data revealed that 79% of respondents plan activity on the internet in advance so that they could stay more focused and do more in less time. This figure was fairly consistent in Asia as well, with Japan topping the list in the proportion of planned visits at 8%.

The study also ranks online consumer behaviour

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

across six different criteria - content creation, communication, surfing, entertainment, information and transactions - revealing that users in Asia spend most time communicating and seeking information. Globally, communication takes up the bulk of online time, representing 32% of all activity, followed by information, which accounts for 22%. The study showed, however, that there is a clear contrast in the types of digital content that consumers interact with and the devices through which they access that content.

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India has the most social Internet users in Asia. Indian users spend nearly half their online time (49%) on communication, followed by information seeking (35%) and entertainment (30%). Ranked lower is unplanned surfing (18%), content creation (14%) and transactions (12%). In China, communication takes the lead (41%), followed by information seeking (30%). Entertainment in the form of music, videos and gaming is the motivation for going online for 30% of all online occasions - which is significantly higher than the other two markets. Results in China and India proved similar with 18% of time spent on unplanned surfing, followed by transaction at 12% and content creation at 10%. Information seeking takes a considerable lead in Japan (47%), followed by communication (41%). The rest of the online criteria determined in the survey are significantly lower with entertainment (14%), surfing and transactions at 9% and creation at 6%.

“These results provide implications for marketers with regard to media placement, message and content development and budget prioritization. The emphasis for content and placement across markets such as India and China needs to be quite different to maximize engagement,” said Jon Wright, Regional Director for MEC Analytics and Insight. In addition to understanding usage behaviour, the study also sought to identify which portable devices consumers are using, allowing brands to modify their content by device. The study shows that across China, India and Japan, smartphones are surpassing notebooks as the main method for accessing information. Notebooks however remain the main device used for transactions and entertainment. With each device playing a different role, advertisers must customize their content and delivery dependent on their business objectives. “Consumers are becoming ever more sophisticated and conscious of using specific devices to access certain types of content at different times and locations. This is something that Microsoft and MEC will be investigating further. Marketing sophistication certainly has a way to go to keep up with today’s technology users,” Jon Wright added. ♦ Source: Global study from Microsoft Advertising, MEC and Mindshare

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Natural Search, Paid Search & Social Media Integration 2011 Report Hydra, a provider of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) marketing technology surveyed over 300 UK-based digital marketers in April 2011 and focused on how digital marketing teams currently operate, based on collaboration, use of technologies and competitor analysis.

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Technology is a necessity for managing, reporting and implementing digital campaigns

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There is a need to simplify benchmarking against and understanding of competitor data

The aim of the survey was to address three key areas: 1. Assess the level of integration between Natural Search, Paid Search and Social Media teams through keyword sharing across disciplines 2. Measure the number of tools currently used by inhouse and agency teams and the percentage of needs met by these toolsets

Measuring performance for terms at a granular level and discovering new high value keywords is challenging for most marketers. Nevertheless, Hydra's survey shows that teams sharing terms between disciplines display greater confidence in dealing with them when compared to their peers working in isolation. Thus, it seems that those that do are more confident:

3. Gauge the appetite for benchmarking against competitors and the level of ease for accessing competitor information.

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As Asian e-Marketing believes that the key findings of Hydra’s report could be of interest to digital marketers in the region as well, they are listed here:

The keywords and phrases in their campaigns reach their target audience (73% vs. 64% of the general sample and 54% of those that do not share keywords);

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Their team is 'on trend' when handling new keyword trends (47% vs. 42% of the general sample and 28% of those that do not share terms).

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Advantages of collaboration

There are benefits to sharing keywords and phrases across digital channels

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Although most respondents (55%) answered 'no' when asked about knowing which new words or expressions are worth spending money on, there was a palpable difference between these subgroups: of those that share terms, over half replied 'yes' (54%); whereas a great majority of those that do not share terms answered 'no' (80%). Consolidated technology The use of technology in online marketing has become ubiquitous. Marketers, however, are in need of a more consolidated technology landscape where single-task tools can be replaced by more comprehensive multi-functional systems. 29% of respondents to Hydra’s survey indicated less than 50% of their needs are met by their current toolset. Unsurprisingly, however, those with a greater number of tools (10 or more) had the highest percentage (39%) of replies within the '75+% of needs met' band. In contrast, a resounding majority (90%) saw an advantage in having digital teams use a common reporting and campaign implementation platform.

Desire for competitive intelligence Benchmarking performance against competitors is crucial for most online marketers. Yet, there is a palpable need for facilitating access to competitor information. The majority of respondents (77%) regularly benchmark their site against competitors. This was relatively consistent regardless of the number of keywords they managed. However, 56% admitted accessing competitor data was either 'moderately difficult' or 'difficult'; the most prevalent answer across the whole sample was 'moderately difficult' at 45%. Those with tens of thousands of keywords displayed the highest percentage of respondents finding access to competitor data 'moderately difficult'. “Hydra's survey shows teams that share terms and work collaboratively have greater confidence in their success than those who don't, because they can consider the whole picture”, says Ruth Zohrer, Solutions Consultant at Hydra.

is an obvious desire to gain greater insight into competitor data easily and efficiently. These two challenges justify their request for better, more comprehensive technology that meets most of their needs: an all-encompassing solution that can replace a set of multiple tools.” In response Hydra has launched the One Platform this year. It enables enterprise marketers to strategically and proactively monitor, report and participate in the conversation existing and potential customers are having about their brand online. One from Hydra is focused on driving revenue and return on investment (ROI) through integrated, efficient and optimized management and implementation of phrase marketing campaigns across online disciplines. ♦ Source: Hydra

“Across the board, however, there

â&#x20AC;&#x153;

Hydra's survey shows teams that share terms and work collaboratively have greater confidence in their success than those who don't, because they can consider the whole pictureâ&#x20AC;?, ~ Ruth Zohrer

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Effectiveness and Performance are Key to Marketing Over the years, marketers have progressed along different mediums, from traditional media like print and broadcast to new media like the internet and mobile. Where results used to be ambiguous and challenging to measure, marketers are currently able to present concrete findings and outcomes of a campaign and quantify results in a timely manner. Now that brands are able to see the effectiveness of marketing, just measuring is not enough - the next step would be improving. Imagine if marketers could make real-time improvements to campaign elements while the campaign is running. Having the ability to make immediate changes based on consumer behavior and reactions is bound to maximize results of any campaign. The goal or overall benefit of performance marketing is to actively create better results and drive revenue. Mobile marketers can monitor consumer response over devices and receive feedback in real-time. This enables marketers to analyze the impact and direction of the campaign as it happens, and make adjustments to boost effectiveness. Mobile campaigns will become live, evolving over the running duration to include improved functions and messages which would be better

received by consumers. This change has to be driven by capable marketers who can react based on current results and consumer interaction while retaining the core message. Having established the importance of consumer centric marketing, the key to mobile performance marketing relies very much on conversations with consumers. What better way to maximize campaign results than to give consumers what they want? To do so, there must be communication. The savvy consumers of today appreciate the fact that their opinions and suggestions are valued. Being able to influence certain elements of the mobile campaign even in a small way would create involvement and a sense of ownership. While focusing on performance marketing, however, mobile marketers have to ensure that they do not neglect consumersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; privacy and choice. Permission-based marketing is an essential element in any campaign. In fact, this ultimately drives the overall success of the campaign. Instead of bombarding consumers with all manners of creative marketing tactics through different media in hopes of impressing, marketers should focus their resources and energies on reaching out to key consumers.

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Asking consumers for permission and providing them with the choice to opt in or out of mobile ads works to benefit both marketers and consumers. Marketers are able to segment their audience and send precise messages, and consumers are happy to receive information that is relevant to them and will therefore be more attentive. This creates much needed quality in campaigns and consumer experience at the end of the day. Marketers are just getting warmed up to mobile marketing. The MMA is here to encourage innovation, provide frameworks and educate both seasoned and young marketers to make sure they have the right skill set and guidelines to fully leverage mobile technology.

A polished mobile marketing workforce will then just need the right technology to integrate mobile and performance marketing. The MMA continues to work with industry thought leaders towards this common goal to drive advancement in mobile marketing.â&#x2122;Ś

By Rohit Dadwal, Managing Director, Mobile Marketing Association Asia Pacific Limited

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Marketers Need to Predict What Comes Next More media, smaller audiences and higher cost pressures shape dialogue marketing. In demand is mainly intelligence and consistency and luckily it really has become significantly more intelligent, just because the companies now have more information about their customers and know therefore exactly how to respond to them. Dialogue marketing has finally managed to follow a system. The technology to do so has been available for quite some time already, but wasn't used consistently. Nowadays, companies are taking time to analyze how customers react and constantly include, for example, all customer feedback into their system, so they know who responded and who did not. It shows that today, consistency is more important than ever, because increasing cost pressures in marketing departments are forcing marketers to be better in predicting which customers they have to contact and at what time with their various offerings. The more consistent the companies use the information and data they have, the better they can predict whether a potential customer is interested to buy and is worth the trouble and expense. They can, for instance, only contact those who have a predicted success rate of 95 percent, but apparently it is still too cheap to write to large target audiences. At the same time it means that companies can’t answer a customer’s question of what the letter has to do with satisfying his life, which creates confusion and ensures that nobody is really happy about direct marketing.

All eyes are now turning to a medium for dialogue that is particularly easy to get a response - Social Media. It is unbeatable regarding the price-performance ratio, as companies can react extremely situational. Social media only works if the company actually starts a dialogue and has fully understood the special features of social media. It still seems that the traditional brand agencies are not fully proficient in dialogue marketing and the dialogue agencies are not competent in running good social media campaigns. In fact, social media and the traditional advertising media complement each other pretty well, as a company with an established brand can run marketing promotions on social media. Whoever wants to introduce a completely new brand, for instance, has to create awareness first and needs to reach out for media that covers a very wide range. When it comes to complex offers social media isn't suitable, as a kind of seriousness is needed which is not its forte. Companies need to aim for their customers opening their letter or email and saying “Wow, this is interesting”, which can be achieved easily through the design, an attractive offer, or simply by a physical invitation to a wonderful event. If a company is, for instance, inviting their customers via Facebook to an event, if they then send then a confirmation letter, it is a special form of appreciation. So far, many companies are still writing to around 2,000 customers in order to get 200 guests for an event. As letters are expensive, they usually

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

make the invitation very mediocre and indirect therefore it would be more intelligent to use the advantages of each media and to link them systematically, as especially print dialog marketing must become fancier not to lose its meaning.

On the internet we have a wealth of information that can be displayed on blogs, websites or Facebook walls, unfortunately it is often lost in the background noise that Twitter and Facebook constantly produce. Therefore, email from a trusted source is invaluable, as it summarizes for the user the important

event or relevant offers, which they would have otherwise missed due to the background noise. An email newsletter is still a wonderful medium to motivate customers to visit certain Websites again and again. â&#x2122;Ś By Daniela La Marca

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Affiliate Marketing is Most Attractive in Times of Crisis While the share of traditional marketing is stagnating or declining in the overall market, the rise of online advertising is expected to continue this year. The reasons for this prediction are quite obvious, as we all know that one major advantage of online marketing over traditional advertising categories is performancebased billing, a point that especially in times of economic crisis gets the attention of many companies. Marketers have few if any costs and only if there are results. An extremely efficient, long-term oriented and riskreduced business model is affiliate management. It is the online marketing activity with the strongest sales approach that provides excellent opportunities to expand sales channels and marketing activities on the internet. The focus is on generating qualified traffic, high-quality leads or direct sales of products and services on the internet to contribute to sales growth. The provider, called advertiser or merchant, offers to promote products and services for a corresponding commission via a comprehensive and neutral transaction platform (affiliate program or network). The affiliate, also called publisher, is usually an online distributor, who then integrates the advertising on its website. Affiliate networks allow an accurate assignment of success on an affiliate and advertising level, which means

a completely scalable pricing model, based on a compensation commission for clicks, leads, or orders. It is important not only to expand sales channels and activities on the internet, but also in getting additional free branding that effects and strengthens brand awareness, too. In addition, it allows increasing sales, while reducing customer acquisition costs and is of advantage regarding the transfer of the marketing risk to the distributor. It should be noted that affiliates can choose from a variety of programs and they commonly select those that offer an attractive product or service so the conversion rate is high and they feel well taken care of. Affiliate marketing has to be integrated as an instrument into the existing marketing concept and actively operated later in order to be successful. From a company's point of view, affiliate management is definitely a real alternative to expensive advertising campaigns such as banner campaigns. Advertising in affiliate management should, in the first place, support transactions and increase sales. The company that understands and integrates both, strategy and technology, as well as communicates successfully with their affiliate partners, will benefit in the long run from the integration of an affiliate marketing solution.

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

The three most important factors for successful affiliate marketing For a successful affiliate marketing program the following points should be taken into consideration: 1. Do start with a good concept and long-term marketing strategy Before the integration of an affiliate marketing solution, it is important to develop an appropriate strategy to advance and define your goals. In addition, the distribution costs for the products advertised have to be clarified. More specifically it means to answer the questions:

• What kind of goals are you planning to achieve in a specific period with the use of affiliate marketing?

• How do you expect your partner program to support you individually?

• How do you have to support your partner program?

• Is your company competitive in terms of product offerings, marketing strategy and the conversion rate of your online shop? When the goals have been clearly

defined, an affiliate strategy can be developed. It is primarily about the creation of a communication and action plan that includes, among other things, a commission model, suitable advertising and potential affiliates. Therefore the design and implementation of an affiliate marketing strategy considers the most important aspects for successful affiliate management. 2. Affiliate marketing is a people business An affiliate partner is only useful if it generates revenue or actively contributes to revenue growth with qualified traffic. In order to perform this important task, an affiliate must first of all set up optimal conditions for its activity. The basis is an attractive incentive merit and a transparent and well-structured affiliate program. In addition to the choice of a suitable network, the active support of the top affiliates is at the forefront. Since affiliates are taking on the marketing risk, they are very selective and usually choose only successful and professionally managed programs. Merchants should therefore provide optimal support to their affiliates, formulate their expectations clearly

and provide appropriate advertising as well as transparency regarding accounting and statistics. The affiliate partners are the capital of any partner program, so they should always be given the appropriate attention and importance according to their role, activities and position. 3. Powerful tracking is essential High-quality and accurate tracking, that allows a precise assignment of transactions to the intermediary affiliates, requires a technological base that records all sales and leads. In affiliate marketing the tracking has to be regarded as an essential pre-requisite for subsequent reporting and success control. Reporting on the other hand is based on the data recorded by the tracking, which is the reason why both the tracking and the reporting should as far as possible be automated. Apart from the tracking of the transactions, a major goal of both aspects is the optimization of the results of affiliate campaigns. Doesn't it sound like a good reason to give it a try? ♦ By Daniela La Marca

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

What Does Red Hair and Marketing Research Have in Common? I recently read an article that got my attention not only due to the fact that I am a natural redhead, but as I think its train of thought is worth a few lines, claiming that red hair is a statement, such as buying a product, recalling a TV spot or the likeability of a website. Molecular biology demonstrates that marketing research has in this case characteristics and behaviors that are always due to multiple events and their sequence. For the incidence of "red hair" it is the specific sequence of base pairs in the human DNA and the particular approach that serves molecular biology as a tool for deciphering these relationships is sequence analysis. Making use of this method for marketing research seems obvious. So far the application is limited to the university sector, although the method provides in all its complexity apparent advantages in exploring customer and user behavior as well as the determination for interactions of campaign contacts and advertising messages. In the process a sequence is always composed of a series of controllable and uncontrollable events, which result in a desired or undesired customer or user behavior. Marketers and market researchers expect answers to complex cause-effect interrelations, like: What behavior sequences at the point of sales lead to a purchase or not? According to what kind of patterns do audiences scan an internet presence? How can I embrace this behavior? Which series of campaign contacts leads to an increase in conversion rates? How does the usage behavior of internet users change in the life cycle of a search process? With the proper execution of sequence analysis all event combinations a customer is exposed to can be used for a true 3600 degree examination. Methodically, the approach can be considered a data mining tool. Complex behavioral chains can be operationalized by focusing on the really important patterns and with classical analytical approaches of quantitative market research converted into descriptive and exploratory actionable insights. This implies that the sequence analysis must meet a number of requirements:

•

Operationalization of the behavior and contact data → Providing patterns as independent variables

•

Results must be relevant and realizable → Immediate output of typical behavior and contact patterns, as well as modeling

•

Identification of all relevant behavior patterns → Iterative approach of the algorithm

•

Scientifically funded approach → "State of the Art" in the decoding of human DNA

•

Compatibility with various input data → Flexible adaptation of the analysis software to the data structure

As with most complex approaches, the benefits rise and fall with the choice of design and analysis of the approach as well as its adaptation to the available data. The various fields of operations, such as campaign contact data, click paths, eye movements, advertising or customer tracking, have in principle only one thing in common - they consist of several events with a chronology. With regard to content and the diversity of data there arise significant differences that must be considered in the application and interpretation. Theoretical knowledge, creativity and experience are at this point definitely an important asset and should be used as a criterion in selecting your service provider or cooperation partner. ♦ By Daniela La Marca

With the proper execution of sequence analysis all event combinations a customer is exposed to can be used for a true 3600 degree examination.

TECHNOLOGIES & PRODUCTS

The “Power to Know” for Singapore’s Business Analytics Industry The SAS Institute signed, some two months ago, a strategic partnership with the four leading universities in Singapore, aiming to jointly develop the local business analytics industry. As Business Analytics has been identified by the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) of Singapore as one of the key focus areas for economic growth, their venture has received a lot of attention and support. Coverage on the memorandum of understanding (MOU) and the four members of Singapore’s Institutes of Higher Learning (IHL) were covered in the June issue of Asian e-Marketing, but we got a chance to talk face-to-face with Mr. Bill Lee, Managing Director, SAS after the ceremony to get further information on the SAS institute. The outstanding leader in business analytics and services started its collaborations with institutes of higher learning from their Global HQ in Cary, North Carolina, US where they even have set up a department just to engage with universities. North Carolina State University was the first to launch a Master in Business Analytics, which was developed hand in hand with SAS. Similar programs are now provided in Singapore and even in China, just the intensity is different. “So over the last four years we decided that because the skill set is such a challenge here in Singapore and the gap here in terms of talent pool is quite wide, we have focused almost all of our corporate responsibility efforts into education specifically in the area of business analytics”, Bill Lee explained.

The key motivation for offering the course has been the fact that in many organizations in Singapore business analytics are mainly in the hands of foreigners and to change that, locals should get the right skill set to be able to enter this field, too. “It is a known fact that Singapore is probably five years behind North America and Western Europe in the use of business analytics in organizations, so we are playing a catch up game”, Bill said. He believes that Asia Pacific is generally doing a catch up game and depending on the country some might be even eight or nine years behind these advanced economies, pointing out the situation in the banking industry, exemplifying: “The DBSs, OCBCs, and UOBs of the world, they don’t have to leave Singapore and they are competing globally, why? Citibank is here, HSBC is here, Standard Chartered Bank is here and they are all going after the same customer. Citibank will bring in all of their capabilities from New York, from London, from all over the world, which means mainly business analytic skill sets. So, in order for the local banks in this particular example to compete actively, they have no choice but to also start building up such capabilities." SAS has been working to fill this lack of talent and skill set gap for quite some time now. In addition, Bill notes: “We can’t be going overseas to hire the skill sets all the time because it is very expensive and there are projects in the public sector where you cannot use foreigners, there are many sensitive projects where you need locals.

TECHNOLOGIES & PRODUCTS

Therefore we started to talk with government - the Ministry of Education (MoE), the Infocom Development Authority (IDA), and the Workforce Development Agency (WDA). We tried to convince them that there is a gap and a need to fill it. If you think about it, almost 90%+ of North American and Western Europe MNCs have their Asian Headquarters here in Singapore. Most of them also have their data centers here in Singapore, so there are tons and tons of data centers here and in Singapore the government often says the reason why all these MNCs are attracted to us is because of our good flight network, our good sea lane network, our communications, security and so on and so forth. There is this other advantage that we have, which we have not mined effectively which is with all this data here technically speaking an MNC with an Asian head office in Singapore, if we have a pool of business analysts, capable business analysts doing work here, this organization, this MNC sitting here in Singapore is actually able to analyze it’s data from around Asia Pacific. Directing its business whether it is strategically or tactically for example, so we have been pushing this message that if we want to create a knowledge economy and an information economy, we need to have our boys and girls leaving school able to spell business analytics because at the end of the day if we cannot move all of this data we have, if we can’t make head or tail of it, then how can we call ourselves a knowledge economy?” So I think the government gets that and believes that is true you know,

so we have been working closely with WDA and IDA to determine what can be done and what should be done and at the same time concurrently or even without government’s involvement. Singapore Management University (SMU) was the first IHL that started the initiative more than three years ago. SAS signed an agreement with the smallest, youngest and fastest moving university in the city, and introduced its Masters in Business Analytics for financial services and another degree in services for business analytics just last year. When the first batch of SMU students graduated, the success became obvious as all of them found jobs even before they finished their studies. So, most probably, the other universities were watching and saw the success of SMU and jumped on the bandwagon. So, for SAS the situation has slightly changed in the past few months, as they are now working closely with additional universities and polytechnics here in Singapore. A number of these institutions sent a study group to Cary, North Carolina to understand more about business analytics and what is possible. Bill Lee elaborated: “We have also sponsored them to visit North Carolina State University because the entire faculty, the full curriculum, has already been set up for a number of years now. On top of that we offer the schools help to install and maintain our technology. At Singapore Management University, for example, we have set up an SAS Advanced Analytic Lab, where the students and faculty can go to and that particular lab is set up not only for the students within the business analytics course, but it is for the

entire university. Further, we work with the universities to offer scholar -ships to encourage students to choose a career in business analytics, which are often non-bonding so that they can work for anyone they wish to choose later on, as well as internships. We also provide training faculty, so that the know how to use our software solutions in their teaching and very often when you teach a data mining course, for example, rather than having the professor start to grind out case studies and case papers, we provide the full course curriculum and sometimes even the content and the case studies so that they can focus on their teaching and they don’t have to worry about starting from ground zero building an entire course up. The university, of course, typically will take out material and they may have enhanced it depending on their focus. So in future we plan to do a lot more things and as we get to know the deans and as soon as we get to know the need of the schools, we can become more specific in the way we work with each of these IHLs.” SAS actually started to work with some of these schools before ink dried so as not to lose any time. NTU, Temasek Polytechnic and Singapore Polytechnic will soon follow SMU with their program and for the next few months the company is busy with providing their products and services to all IHLs interested in “The Power to Know”.♦ By Daniela La Marca

TECHNOLOGIES & PRODUCTS

Exclusive Interview with Andrew Grant (Part II) I hope you enjoyed as much as me the Q & A with Andrew Grant presented in the June issue of Asian eMarketing, where he elaborated on how Akamai Technologies is transforming the cloud into a more viable place to inform, entertain, advertise, transact and collaborate. Akamai’s enthusiastic spokesperson had so much to share that I am proud to present at this point the second half of his very informative and exclusive interview that focuses this time more on data analytics, which nicely ties in with our issue's main theme. Andrew Grant (AG) leads the development and execution of Akamai Technologies marketing efforts in the areas of Film and Interactive Entertainment and is giving in the second part of our interview on insights into data and analytics. Q: Everybody is holding a little piece of data and I ask myself, who will bring it all together and analyze it to create deep insights? AG: “Akamai has launched a media analytics platform that provides both a server side and client side solution that is fully integrated with Akamai's HD Network. We all know that gaining insights into the performance of live streaming and on-demand digital media offerings is critical for content publishers to tackle challenges like e.g. monitoring and allocating costs, or optimizing marketing efforts. As implementing video analytics solutions have been costly in the past or required substantial technical investment, many companies operated

without the intelligence although they knew that it is really important to manage a digital media business properly and meet audience demands. Akamai's comprehensive video analytics SaaS solution bridges the gap in existing analytics and reporting services by providing deep and contextual business and technical video measurements in audience behavior, content usage, and quality of service. We further believe that because we are able to search many devices, we are able to aggregate, defragment, and re-aggregate data for our clients. Q: Not to mention that consumers are getting more and more demanding. How is Akamai dealing with that? AG: TV Everywhere in North America is here a good example, as it raises the question if it is just a cable guy delivering video to a mobile device or if it is providing an opportunity to see how behavior with content changes from device to device? We work with TV Everywhere as well as Nielsen in the US, as they are experts in delivering rich data about advertising in the television domain. We use them to get deeper insights into our clients and meet their expectations. As consumers shift to consuming on many devices, there are suddenly a whole bunch of fragmented data sets around that need to be analyzed to make intelligent business decisions. Our Media Analytics solution allows us to put that all into place. Therefore our clients can focus on their job and we take care of the rest, always aware that Moore’s Law hasn’t expired quite yet!

TECHNOLOGIES & PRODUCTS

Andrew Grant Q: That prompts another good question: How do you try to keep up with the time and the demand of our days? AG: I think that a lot of the work we are doing in the mobile arena is probably the idea of the terrestrial home connected wired broadband connection as opposed to a wireless cloud being ubiquitous and always on. We have made significant investments and we will continue to make investments in serving that mobile environment. It involves partnerships with the telco companies, innovation in terms of software that we deploy across the

network, as well as around 2,000 of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s best engineers working exclusively on this problem in a global way. That is what gives me confidence that when we set off on that path to go from a hundred million to a billion in revenue and now to go from a billion to five billion in revenue in a much shorter period of time that we will be able to get there because we have those great engineers, we have them working in tandem with all of these dynamic business relationships to support that next generation of mobile experience. We have 90,000 servers distributed world-wide and can move the edge of the network to up to 2.1 billion mobile devices or connected devices world-wide. The mesh gets finer based on the ability to put software into different places and working closely with our partners. We are working down this path already, executing on the strategy, working closely with connected device manufacturers to be able to: first, optimize their ability to receive video streams off the network and deliver those to consumers in the best way and then be able to support the delivery using the device as part of the network as

pitching not just receiving. Suddenly, the possibility for media and that personalized experience is just immense.â&#x20AC;? Taking into consideration the prediction of media analysts that internet video alone will account for 62% of all consumer internet traffic in 2015, as content publishers continue to leverage online media as a premium distribution channel for advertising inventory and consumers continue to demand more content online, I can definitely confirm that we will hear more from Akamai in the future. I can promise to present an exclusive interview with Martin Haering, Vice President of International Marketing at Akamai Technologies, in the August issue of Asian eMarketing. Feel free to join us again then! â&#x2122;Ś By Daniela La Marca

TECHNOLOGIES & PRODUCTS

Ten Questions & Answers on Social Networks and Google+ Everybody is currently talking about the Google+ (G+) Project that is conquering the web marketing scene like a hurricane in typical Google style. It will certainly change the web marketing world and have an impact on other social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn in a big way. As social media sites showed us the past year a new dimension of growth, G+ doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to be left out, especially as the company always caters to the needs of the internet crowd. Early adoption is the name of the game when playing online and Google has been part of the scene from the beginning. Asian e-Marketing asked Anol Bhattacharya, Director and CEO of GetITComms ten questions on the new phenomenon. So, get a taste of the industryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s G+ perception by reading what he is thinking about it. Q1: Do you think we really need another social network? Anol: If innovation was solely motivated by need, MySpace would not have been able to rule the world, while Friendster existed; Facebook could not have gained market traction when MySpace would have

ruled the social networking roost. The same can be said of Gmail vs Yahoo Mail vs Hotmail. The future of Google+ is a completely different topic and only time can tell how that will fare. On the lighter side, though the biggest reason to join Google+ for now is that your Mom isn't there (yet)! Q2: Compared to Facebook and Twitter, what unique opportunities does Google+ offer to brands? Anol: I would rather not compare Facebook or Google+ with Twitter. Twitter is a bird from a different tree; it has a different purpose. In a face-to-face combat with Facebook, Google+ certainly has some quick advantages, which have nothing to do with the feature list. The potential for Google+ to be integrated with other Google services like Gmail/Gtalk is more exciting to me than Circles or Hangouts. Q3: The behavioral targeting model of interactive advertising has come under greater scrutiny with the privacy challenges that come with social networking. Can you please elaborate on the pros and cons of gaining permission?

TECHNOLOGIES & PRODUCTS

Anol: User Privacy will always be an issue with social networking and persona-based ad targeting certainly opens a Pandora's box, but, as a user, I prefer targeted ads to random ads, which have nothing to do with me. Q4: Should websites be more upfront about how consumer data is used to benefit both parties once they agree to access content? Anol: We all tell that lie everyday “I have read, understood and accept the terms and conditions”. All front-runners (Facebook/LinkedIn/ Twitter/ Google+) have clear terms and conditions stated when you sign up. Question is - who actually reads them? Until someone develops a more effective process that protects the companies from lawsuits, while making the legal jargon digestible for the layman, we're at the mercy of service providers’ terms & conditions. Q5: Do you think social media has contributed to the proliferation of permission-based marketing or brought its own set of challenges? Anol: Social media platforms provide a great base to launch permission-based marketing initiatives. But most companies so far are using social media as just another ‘channel’, not realizing that its nature is quite different. After all, the platforms are tools, and it is completely up to the marketers how these can be used. Q6: That Google is the leader in many business fields is obvious, but do you expect the launch of Google+ will change the way companies engage with consumers? Anol: I would wait for Google+ to pass the “user acceptance firewall” before jumping on the topic of Google+ for marketing (or busi-

ness). As it stands, it is very easy for a user to add a brand to a circle and then completely ignore it. So it might backfire for marketers. Sure, Google+ has features like Hangouts and Circles, which businesses can make use of, but whether these will be effective, depend on a whole lot of other variables. Q7: How do you think Google+ effectiveness to reach consumers could be measured? Do you expect Google+ to surpass Facebook in terms of reaching out to different groups of consumers? Anol: It’s still too early for Google to release the equivalent of Facebook Page + Insights combo. As I mentioned, I would wait for Google+ to gain audience share first before jumping on the bandwagon of using it as a marketing platform. Q8: Facebook is currently the local social media hotspot for companies with 65% primarily active on it - what can companies do to entice and engage in case of "Facebook Fatigue" Anol: As we got onto Facebook as a marketing platform after e-mail marketing fatigue, we are bound to gravitate towards the next platform/ solution when we get tired of Facebook. Novelty is the core of marketing science. If your customers are no longer using Facebook, it is time to find out where they are now. Q9: Google+ also offers mobile features like Huddle, which supports group texting for up to 100 people at once on any device that uses SMS. Facebook currently doesn't have anything comparable to this and Instant Upload lets people send any photo they capture from their Android device directly to Google+. Do you think Mobile for Google+ could trigger a marketing focus shift to rely more on social media, with traditional marketing

Anol Bhattacharya channels taking on a supporting role? Anol: Mobile social networking is growing in leaps and bounds - of that there is no doubt. With a burgeoning number of smartphone users, this market has a huge potential for greater growth and innovation. To be really successful, however, both Google+ and Facebook need to focus very strongly on it - and they may come up short on that count. I don’t think Huddle is a big threat to Facebook, as it can be an annoyance too. Q10: In terms of social and digital interactive media, are there any emerging trends or technology that we should be looking out for? Anol: I am looking forward to the era of consolidation and it has already started - like Facebook incorporating Skype or converting my Gmail account to a social CRM powerhouse, with a simple plug-in like Rapportive. The possibilities are endless. Thank you Anol! ♦ By Daniela La Marca

TECHNOLOGIES & PRODUCTS

TV Genius Harnesses Power of Twitter to Measure Viewer Engagement with Content TV Genius recently launched its advanced measurement and analysis system for Twitter activity around television, further improving the relevance of content discovery among viewers. The new service utilizes TV Genius’ award-winning Content Discovery Platform to measure engagement through the social network, providing live feedback and statistics that enable broadcasters and content owners to understand more about how audiences are reacting to programming and which episodes are most talked about. “There is no doubt that Twitter is complementing the TV viewing experience and our own research has shown that new media is increasingly having a direct effect on content discovery as people tune into what their friends and connections are giving their opinions on,” said Tom Weiss, CEO, TV Genius. “TV viewing figures tell us a lot about which shows are most popular, but they do not give any indication towards people’s opinions and levels of engagement. If they are tweeting about a show, we know they are engaged and that it is relevant to them and not just running in the background. Our new analytics service enables operators or content owners to learn more about their programming and make strategic decisions based on the knowledge they receive”, he added.

TV Genius’ Twitter analytics shows the top twenty shows that were tweeted about in the UK each night. Each top show can be clicked on, which reveals realtime tweets about the show, an episode summary, and a graph presenting how many tweets that show has received over time. While the service currently monitors UK activity, it can be deployed anywhere across the globe, providing powerful information for TV executives, operators, and producers by presenting a new way to discover popular TV content. On the other hand, the social TV features will also encourage viewers to find new content and become more engaged, making TV a more social experience. Using TV Genius’ Twitter analysis tools, operators and content owners can quickly and easily implement social TV solutions on connected devices, tablets, mobile phones, and set top boxes to:

• • • • •

Serve social TV recommendations based on friend activity and the social graph Alert viewers in real-time when a TV show creates buzz on Twitter Drive uptake of Video on Demand content Create an interactive social TV guide based on what viewers are tweeting about in their region Tap into real-time social TV data to create bespoke solutions.

TECHNOLOGIES & PRODUCTS

Let’s not forget that TV Genius is already powering the personalized recommendation feature of the ITV Player app for ITV, the UK’s biggest public service commercial broadcaster on Facebook.

Let’s just recall a Research Now study, sponsored by TV Genius in September 2010, showing that while traditional media remain dominant over consumer decision making, newer media are also having an emerging influence, especially among the younger generation of ‘Digital Natives’. ♦

COMPANIES & CAMPAIGNS

Exceptional In All Ranks Asian e-Marketing had the honor of interviewing Mr. Nirvik Singh, Chairman & CEO of Grey Group Asia Pacific, a 22-year veteran of the Grey Group, who in the prime of his life can already look back on a remarkable business career. Exceptional Creative The highly ambitious creative is helming Grey Groups communications network with more than 2,000 employees in the region that serves a top client roster including many of the world’s best known companies including Procter & Gamble, KFC, Ferrero and Volkswagen, to name just a few. Nirvik was appointed to lead Grey Kolkata just at the age of 26, and by 33 he became the head of Grey India, transforming it into a high-profile, profitable organization. Grey India has since been awarded Agency of the Year five times, while Nirvik has been honored as one of 25 young rising stars in India by Business Today, as well as Agency Head of the Year by Media magazine in Asia. Nirvik has also received India’s Bharat Nirman Award for outstanding individual achievements and distinguished services. He was promoted to COO of Grey South Asia in 1997, during which he expanded the agency’s footprint to cover Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh. With further responsibility of Grey’s Southeast Asian operations in 2005, Nirvik spearheaded the agency’s growth in Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, as well as launched the network’s Vietnam office. Taking on the additional role of CEO of G2 Asia Pacific in 2007, Nirvik has made significant strides in building the network’s activation marketing capabilities through the premier acquisitions of Star Echo in China and Rams in India. He took up his present position in January 2009 and has steadily worked on Grey Group Asia Pacific’s image of being recognized for its superior thought leadership, creativity, effectiveness and integrated communications solutions. Asked what he is personally most proud of when looking back on what he achieved so far, Nirvik said: “I am proud to see that a lot of our client relationships have turned into friendships over the years and that a lot of

different agencies are headed by people who trained with us in different markets. I am very proud of the progress we have made collectively as an organization to where we are today and of the fact that I think we tried to keep pace with changing technology and have been managing to do, so far, quite well.” Exceptional full service agency Describing themselves as a full service agency for the 21st Century, Grey Global Group, a unit of communications conglomerate WPP Group, operates branded independent business units in many disciplines including advertising, direct marketing, public relations, public affairs, brand development, customer relationship management, sales promotion, and interactive marketing through its subsidiaries. Nirvik commented: “We praise ourselves on being an integrated communications company, but I think the fact that we operate as one is something that we can be most proud of”. He added: “It is important to have a spread of services that we can offer our clients that mirror the changes that are taking place in a consumer’s life. That’s why we acquired Greater China’s leading retail design and shopper marketing consultancy DPI, Asia’s leading interactive and digital media marketing agency Yolk, as well as Star Echo in China and Rams in India. We want to offer integrated services and make sure we are at every touch point of the consumer in this increasingly complex and fragmented world we are living in.”

COMPANIES & CAMPAIGNS

Nirvik Singh Exceptional trains of thought on:

Media vs. creative agency

Data and clicks

“The fact that people still believe our business operates in silos is something I disagree with. I think the digital space demands immediacy simply due to its nature of business, providing real time results and responses. In such an environment media and creative agencies have to work together at the end of the day, as marketers are going to look for real time solutions. Gone are the days when a creative agency would do a piece of creative and then give it to the media agency. Today media and creative agencies have to come together to produce such as campaigns as the following to illustrate what I have in mind.”

Asked how Grey Group effectively identifies and reaches targeted audiences on a local, regional and global scale for their clients and having social media in mind, which means gaining data in real time, Nirvik explained that data is nowadays just getting more and more refined when looking at its evolution over the course of time. Nirvik explained: “Data that has been available can be for instance demographically with a certain socioeconomic classification or behavior in a particular way, but from there data got boiled down further to create direct marketing, which then led to CRM and is available today intuitively, because of the way the consumer behaves online.” “However, far more important than just having data is data analytics that predicts the future and how consumers are likely to behave”, Nirvik revealed. Having a predictive model of behavior, based on empirical evidence, is data that is needed in the future, but that should be provided by another subsidiary of WWP, as Grey stands for being “famously effective” and he therefore wants to concentrate on providing famous work that is very effective for his clients.

Social Networking Talking about social media’s impact on his business, Nirvik highlighted that if Facebook were a country, then it would be the fifth largest in the world, not to mention the huge amount of time people spend there. “The way marketing has changed is very simple”, Nirvik said, and then added: “Social media allows word of mouth to move very quickly, to follow your friends, to figure out advice from your friends and what you should be buying or not buying, it allows comments of what other people see and what they bought and what their experience has been. So our business, which I used to describe as a broadcast business where the marketing was to broadcast to a group of consumers with very few feedback mechanisms, has changed completely. For the first time a group of people are deciding as a group whether they want to buy or not buy a product, whether they like or not like the service. Also for the first time, you have real time response mechanisms for the market, so you are having a two way conversation as opposed to a one way conversation, getting feedback instantly. Our business has changed completely and I expect social media to slip more and more into the center of our business in terms of how opinions are formed.”

Case study: Transport Accident Commission (Video) According to Nirvik the question is not the run between creative

agency or media agency, explaining that “if somebody had to make a bold statement about the future, it would belong to somebody who said I can manage a community and create a community agency”, referring in that way back to social media. He sees no big difference to the old advertising principles or communication, taking into consideration that at the end of the day it’s still all about getting deep consumer insights. Agencies that understand what motivates specific social networking groups and know how they operate will be the agencies of the future or how Nirvik calls them “community agencies”.

Nirvik knows that it would be wrong to write off traditional media, but he is convinced that the addressable and measurable new media will continue to grow in significance, as will the traditional below-the-line disciplines of marketing services. He confirmed that Grey Group’s formula of success is the fact that their clients don’t deal with them for advertising purposes only, but for advertising below the line marketing. While their ability to form partnerships based on experts and talents within the WWP group itself is of course a big advantage, too. ♦ By Daniela La Marca

COMPANIES & CAMPAIGNS

Ēclat for CommunicAsia and BroadcastAsia in 2011 More than 56,000 industry visitors, delegates, conference speakers, media and exhibit staff from around the world attended CommunicAsia2011 and BroadcastAsia2011 last month, according to the organizer, Singapore Exhibition Services (SES). “This year the strong line-up of companies on the show floors and distinguished speakers at the conferences and workshops reinforced the position of CommunicAsia and BroadcastAsia as the premier Asian launch pad and networking ground for the international business market”, said Mr. Stephen Tan, SES Chief Executive, who is convinced that their endeavor to evolve the content, offerings and format of CommunicAsia and BroadcastAsia was and is winning over exhibitors and visitors to participate in their shows every year. Global innovations debuted at CommunicAsia2011 The significance of Nokia’s return to CommunicAsia after a decade-long absence was marked by the launch of their new N9 smartphone, as well as a showcase of the company’s latest suite of mobile devices and services.

sia2011, and companies such as NTT DoCoMo excited the crowd with their Augmented Reality mobile applications that allow two or more people to view the same virtual objects in real-time. Over one hundred of the world’s satellite players such as AsiaSat, C2Sat, GE Sat, Intelsat and Tata Communications showcased their wares and services to keen visitors, and national ICT capabilities were showcased at 26 group pavilions. Other exhibitor highlights included ST Electronics’ (InfoComm Systems) oTTo-Go Telematics Service Hub and Smart Travel Information System which delivers realtime traffic information to drivers and vehicle owners; as well as Nokia Siemens Networks’ demonstration of LiquidRadio, a cloud-based base station architecture that enables operators to easily direct mobile broadband capacity where it is needed most. Setting the stage for revolutionary displays at BroadcastAsia2011

Also making its debut was the Huawei MediaPad, the world’s first 7-inch IPS touch-screen tablet, which will run on Google’s Android 3.2 operating system.

The spotlight was on 3D, hybrid broadcast broadband TV (HbbTV) and DVB-T2. Visitors witnessed first-hand the latest solutions from companies such as AV8 Media, Dalet, Grass Valley, Harris, Harmonic, Media Village, Playbox, Polecam, Sony and more.

Mobile application developers such as Nokia, Falcon Interactive, Myriad, Stream Media, VeriFone and Mobiquest made their presence felt at CommunicA-

On the first day of BroadcastAsia2011, Pixel Power announced sales to both SingTel and Radio Television Malaysia (RTM).

COMPANIES & CAMPAIGNS

The company installed 10 LogoVision, a dedicated branding and graphics layout device designed for 24-hour operation in a transmission environment for SingTel’s IPTV service Mio TV, and supplied RTM with five high-specification Clarity 3000 units, including 3D, clips and audio capabilities. Launches at the show also included AV8 Media’s lightweight and affordable Genus Hurricane Camera 3D rig for Stereoscopic 3D production; and Polecam which premiered two major additions to their product range with the Polecam Starter Pack rig and the GoalCam/ StadiumCam compact sports OB support system. At the inaugural Cinematography/ Film/Production Zone, industry players such as BlackMagic Designs, Canon, Cine Equipment, The Media Village and Quantel showcased their latest inventions and technology upgrades in 3D, HD, motion/film production and postproduction software that maximizes production efficiency without compromising on quality.

Advancing the industry’s shared future More than 250 industry luminaries addressed pertinent issues and challenges affecting the broadcasting, media and ICT industries at the Communic-Asia2011 Summit, BroadcastAsia2011 International Conference and Creative Content Production Conference. These knowledge-sharing opportunities provided delegates with invaluable opportunities to network with indus-

try experts and thought leaders from across Asia and the rest of the world. “The success of the event is a direct outcome from the strength of our exhibitors, and the unparalleled quality of networking and discussions at the conferences and workshops,” said Mr. Stephen Tan. “We are pleased with this year’s event turnout and with the positive responses it generated and are looking forward to planning for the next editions.” ♦

COMPANIES & CAMPAIGNS

Winners of the 5th Annual Asian Publishing Awards Ten winners and 16 excellence awardees from eleven categories were celebrated during the 5th Asian Publishing Awards (APA) in Bangkok on July 8, 2011.

Effective Digital Publishing

The event was held as part of the culmination of the Asian Publishing Convention (APC), the Premier Learning Conference and Expo for Publishing Managers in Asia, that saw 248 delegates attend from 17 countries and hosted by The Magazine Association of Thailand (TMAT).

Excellence Award: CommonWealth Magazine Group “Do Active Green Living and Eliminate CO2 from Taiwan!” (Taiwan)

The Asian Publishing Awards is Asia’s premier Awards program that recognizes best publishing practices in Asia. It incorporates the Asian Magazine Management Awards, Asian Book Publishing Awards, and the Asian Corporate Communications Awards, which attracted 63 entries from 29 companies representing nine countries.

Best

Use

UGC

(User-Generated

Content)

Winner: Alphabet Media Pte. Ltd. “GovNet” (Singapore) Excellence Awardees: CommonWealth Magazine Group, “Do Active Green Living and Eliminate CO2 from Taiwan!” (Taiwan) and Singapore Press Holdings Limited “Singapore Blog Awards 2010” (Singapore) Best Use of Screen Tablet Platform

The award winners and excellence awardees in their respective categories are:

Winner: ABS-CBN Publishing, Inc. “Metro Magazine iPad Edition” (Philippines)

ASIAN MAGAZINE MANAGEMENT AWARDS

Excellence Award: Trends Media Group “Special Issue of Trends Cosmopolitan for iPad” (China) and MediaCorp Pte. Ltd. “Style: magazine iPad application” (Singapore)

Multimedia Consumer Research Excellence Award: Alphabet Media “FutureGov Research” (Singapore)

Pte.

Ltd.,

Best Use of Social Networks

Advertising Delivery Winner: Alphabet Media Pte. Ltd., “Channel Sponsorship” (Singapore) Excellence Award: Singapore Press “Singapore Blog Awards 2010” (Singapore)

Holdings,

Innovative Business Models Winner: CommonWealth Publishing Group, “An Indepth Guide to Shanghai World Expo” (Taiwan) Excellence Award: Hinge Inquirer Publications, “Targeted Multimedia Platform (TMP)” (Philippines)

Winner: Adobo Magazine, “Adobo Magazine Adobo Digital” (Philippines)

Winner: U Magazine, HKET “Pursuing Social Power: U Magazine Facebook fanpage” (Hong Kong) Excellence Award: Alphabet Media Pte. “FutureGov Asia Pacific Magazine” (Singapore)

Ltd.

Best Use of Design, Layout and Presentation Winner: MediaCorp Pte. Ltd. “ELLE Spring/Summer 2011 Trends booklet, March 2011” (Singapore) Excellence Award: Technology Review India “(1) PHOTO ESSAY (2) DEMO” (India)

COMPANIES & CAMPAIGNS

NICATIONS AWARDS Innovative Corporate Communications in a Multimedia World Winner: Hong Bao Media (Holdings) Pte. Ltd. “Cable & Wireless Worldwide Low Latency Networks” (Singapore) Excellence Awards: Manila Water Company, Inc. “The Path of Pat Tubig: Water and Wastewater Trail Program” (Philippines) and Sirimedia Co., Ltd. “Andaman 365° Application on iPad in App Store” (Thailand)

ASIAN BOOK PUBLISHING AWARDS Best use of multimedia marketing by a book publisher Winner: Commonwealth Publishing Company “You Can Make a Difference, Too” (Taiwan) Excellence Awards: One Media Group Limited “Sammi Cheng – eBOOK” (Hong Kong) and HarperCollins Publishers India “The "Who is Johnny?" Campaign” (India) Best book/Best writer on Asian Socio-Economic or Media scene Winner: Paiboon Publishing “The Interpreter’s Journal” (Thailand) Excellence Awards: Katha “Chouboli and Other Stories” (India) and Maverick House Publishers “A Secret History of the Bangkok Hilton by Chavoret Jaruboon and Pornchai Sereemongkonpol” (Thailand) ASIAN CORPORATE COMMU-

The first Asian Fashion Photography Awards were also presented by SmarttPapers Aviation to the Winner Chuan Looi of Malaysia. Excellence Awards went to Chiang-Liang Hsiao of Taiwan and Bona Soertito of Indonesia. ASIAN LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD A Lifetime Achievement Award was also given to Dr. Thanachai Theerapatvong for having been at the forefront of Thailand’s publishing industry for decades as a mover and shaker. Since his founding of The Nation Company, currently known as Nation Multimedia Group Limited, in 1976, Dr. Thanachai overcame numerous business obstacles and gained broad recognition from the publishing sector in both Thailand and abroad. In addition to his busy career life as Chairman of Nation Multimedia Group, Nation Egmont Edutainment Company and Yomiuri Information Company, Dr. Thanachai has contributed greatly to the development of the publishing world, education and society and is also currently the Honorary Chairman of Media Expertise International (Thailand). With the Lifetime Achievement Award, the organizers, sponsors and partners applauded Dr. Thanachai for his outstanding contribution in building a publishing conglomerate with print newspapers in English and Thai, magazines, radio and television. ♦ By Daniela La Marca

The Asian Publishing Awards is Asiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s premier Awards program that recognizes best publishing practices in Asia. .

LEGISLATION

One of Three New Cyber Security Facilities Set up for More Protection in Singapore The first of three facilities that will bring an extra measure of security for internet users around the globe was inaugurated in Singapore last month. Packet Clearing House (PCH) and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) joined the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, saying the new facility will provide secure digital signatures for country-code top level domains of dozens of countries. The three new facilities, located in Singapore; Zurich, Switzerland (still under construction) and San Jose, California, provide cryptographic security using the recently deployed Domain Name System Security (DNSSEC) protocol. Internet users in each country that adopts the new service will be assured of the authenticity of the websites they visit and the email addresses they use. Since its standardization by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the DNSSEC protocol has been adopted by many top-level domains (TLDs) to form a secure chain of trust within the internet's domain name system.

This year, several major TLDs, including .de, the German country-code top-level domain, as well as .com and .net have already secured their own domains by generating cryptographic keys which are used in the DNSSEC system to electronically “sign” the domains, authenticating them to internet users who access the web sites, email, and other internet resources the signed domains contain. Although people browsing the internet often take it for granted that the sites they visit are created and operated by their purported owners, it is possible for criminals with knowledge of the internet’s addressing system to create counterfeit websites that look like the real thing but capture users’ private information. DNSSEC guards against this cyber threat. PCH’s DNSSEC facilities will allow many additional countries to immediately gain the benefits of DNSSEC protection for their country code TLDs without needing to build and maintain their own million-dollar security facilities, so cryptographic master keys were recently created for Tanzania, Uganda, Afghanistan, and ten other countries that have already chosen to use the system.

LEGISLATION

The new signing facilities are part of a comprehensive drive to adopt the DNSSEC protocol, spearheaded by ICANN with its signing of the root of the domain name system last June, increasing internet security worldwide.

that wants it, at no cost,” said Packet Clearing House’s Research Director, Bill Woodcock. “DNSSEC was an obvious next step for our global anycast DNS service network, since we already provide service to more than eighty countries.”

“One of ICANN’s core missions is to enhance the security and stability of the internet’s Domain Name System. This new DNSSEC facility in Singapore helps us do just that,” said Rod Beckstrom, President and Chief Executive Officer of ICANN. “The bottom line is that this center and the two others like it will give billions of internet users the confidence to know that they have ended up at the web site they intended to reach, reducing the risk that they have been misdirected to a different site by cyber criminals.”

Mr. Leong Keng Thai, Deputy Chief -Executive and Director-General of Telecoms & Post, IDA, said, “We are honored that PCH, with the support of ICANN, has decided to host the Asia node of the DNSSEC platform here in Singapore. The facility will assist other countries to secure their DNS, and its location here further affirms Singapore as a secure and trusted hub."

“Businesspeople, governments, and regular internet users have been demanding secure domain names for more than ten years, and I’m really happy to have finally built a system that delivers that, and delivers it globally, to any country

Director of the National University of Singapore Computer Centre Tommy Hor, said "NUS, which is the birthplace of internet services in Singapore, is proud to be part of the trans-national, multi-agency effort behind this critical cyber infrastructure. By hosting the DNSSEC facility on campus, NUS will contribute our expertise and work closely with our partners in ensur-

ing a better, more trustworthy and productive internet infrastructure for users in Singapore, the region and beyond." PCH’s DNSSEC service is unique in several ways as it employs the same degree of physical, network, and procedural security as ICANN uses to sign the root of the domain name system, meeting all of the same rigorous standards; all components were selected for low power consumption and the system as a whole will be both carbon and energy-neutral upon completion. It is entirely free of cost for countrycode top level domains and its goal is as much knowledge-transfer and regional self-sufficiency as immediate implementation, while all of its procedures and software follow best practices and are published open-source, using a Creative Commons license that ensures that all can benefit from them equally.♦ Source: ICANN

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Businesspeople, governments, and regular internet users have been demanding secure domain names for more than ten years, and Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m really happy to have finally built a system that delivers that, and delivers it globally, to any country that wants it, at no costâ&#x20AC;? ~ Bill Woodcock

BUZZWORD

Marketing Performance Measurement (MPM) Marketing performance measurement (MPM) is a term used by marketing professionals to describe the analysis and improvement of the efficiency and effectiveness of marketing. This is accomplished by focusing on the alignment of marketing activities, strategies, and metrics with business goals. It involves the creation of a metrics framework to monitor marketing performance and then develop and utilize marketing dashboards to manage marketing performance. MPM focuses on measuring, managing, and analyzing marketing performance to maximize effectiveness and optimize the ROI of marketing. Three elements play a critical role in managing marketing performance - data, analytics, and metrics: Data and analytics One of the core methodologies to measure marketing effectiveness is the collection of appropriate data, which means accuracy and gathering the right kind of data is crucial followed by a thorough analysis to make sense of the collected data. By meticulously analyzing the data, organizations can gather actionable business insights to improve their marketing effectiveness and marketing efficiency, as for instance, driving the marketing ROI and making faster as well as better business decisions. One common use of these analytics is optimizing marketing spending by using marketing mix modeling (MMM), which is often used to optimize advertising mix and promotional tactics with respect to sales revenue or profit. The techniques were developed by econometricians and were first applied to consumer packaged goods, since manufacturers of those goods had access to good data on sales and marketing support. The concepts and tools of these models date back over 30 years, but in the recent times MMM has found acceptance as a trustworthy marketing tool among the major consumer marketing companies. With the increased usage of the internet, social networking sites, mobile advertising, and text messaging, interest in them is increasing.

Metrics and management Measurement and metrics enable marketing professionals to justify budgets based on returns and to drive organizational growth and innovation. As a result, marketers use these metrics and performance measurements as a way to prove value and demonstrate the contribution of marketing to the organization. Popular metrics used in analysis include activity-based metrics that involves numerical counting and reporting. For example, tracking downloads, Web site visitors, attendees at various events are types of activity-based metrics. However, they seldom link marketing to business outcomes. Instead, business outcomes such as market share, customer value, and new product adoption offer a better correlation. MPM focuses on measuring the aggregated effectiveness and efficiency of the marketing organization. Some common categories of these specific metrics include marketing's impact on share of preference, rate of customer acquisition, average order value, rate of new product and service adoptions, growth in customer buying frequency, volume and share of business, net advocacy and loyalty, rate of growth compared to competition and the market, margin, and customer engagement. In addition, MPM is used to measure the monitoring of operational efficiency and external performance.

Operations performance metrics is a term used when organizations manage marketing functions as a business. Organizations committed to implementing MPM may create positions such as marketing operations director and marketing finance director. Program-topeople ratios, awareness-to-demand ratios, the cost vs lead, the cost vs sale, and conversation rates are the typical data collected and analyzed. Operational performance metrics, however, primarily provide the organization with a way to rationalize marketing investments, but do not correlate marketing to business strategy and business performance. MPM focuses tightly on these operating measures to help marketers view how efficiently resources of the organization such as people, facilities, and capital are being used. External performance measures aligned with business outcomes assess things such as the value an organization provides to customers or the performance of an organization relative to its competitors. By using a top-down approach, marketers develop metrics and specific performance targets known as key performance indicators (KPI). First business decisions are made to define the scope. To create metrics and KPIs, marketeers involved in MPM try to first brainstorm the business outcome that they are trying to impact.

This is followed by asking the opposite questions that need to be answered to determine if the questions have an impact on this outcome, and the necessary supporting data required to answer these questions. After determining what data is needed, marketeers need to search for this data, and determine the decisions and actions that must be enforced as a result of this data mining. Dashboard Professionals involved in MPM implementation use a dashboard to report marketing performance. The dashboard is where all data and metrics are collated and presented as useful information for the organization. Marketing professionals create these dashboards from metrics and KPIs. Organizations can then use this information to proceed with their marketing. In essence, a dashboard is a multi-layered performance management tool that enables organizations to measure, monitor and manage business activity by using both financial and non-financial measures. The dashboard provides analysis into the progress of the organization toward achieving each defined objective.

A good dashboard consists of three layers:

An ideal dashboard should show the progress of marketing, help assess productive areas, and help in the decision making, besides providing an indication on the value of marketing. â&#x2122;Ś Source: Wikipedia

APPOINTMENTS

Sybase, Inc., an SAP company and industry leader in enterprise and mobile software, announced that the company has appointed John J. Sims as President of its mobile services business Sybase 365. John will focus on extending the global leadership of Sybase 365 in messaging and mobile commerce services. From 2001 to 2010, John served as CEO of 724 Solutions, Inc., a company that engages in the design, development, marketing and support of mobile internet/mobile broadband products for use by mobile network operators worldwide. John J Sims

He was also co-founder, CEO and President of TANTAU Software, Inc., a global provider of high volume, secure, mobile eCommerce solutions to enterprises. Prior to co-founding TANTAU, John served as COO of SCC Communications, a telecommunications support service company. He has also held several management positions at Tandem Computers, a developer of fault tolerant computer systems, and various financial and general management positions at Burroughs Corporation, a manufacturer of computer and related equipment. Sims will replace Marty J. Beard, who is leaving Sybase to pursue other endeavors. ♦

Mediabrands appoints Marcelo Alba as Regional Communications Planning Director, Asia Pacific.Based in Singapore,Marcelo will work closely with existing clients across the region providing insights as well as guidance on strategy and planning. Marcelo joins Mediabrands from UM San Francisco, where he served as Communications Planning Director since 2009. In this role, Marcelo employed custom research technologies that helped understand how people make decisions about technology, as well as how different media outlets affect these decisions. His findings helped to influence targeting, creative development, media buying and custom media integrations. Prior to UM, Marcelo was a Creative Strategist at Rock River Music and before Rock River, he was an Account Planner at T.A.G. / McCann-Erickson and started his career as a Junior Account Planner at Publicis& Hal Riney. Throughout his career, Marcelo has won several accolades, including a Grand Prix at the 2008 Cannes for Integrated Campaign as well as Web Film.

Marcelo Alba

In his new role at Mediabrands, Marcelo will report directly to Natalie Pidgeon, Head of Strategy, Mediabrands Asia Pacific.♦

Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) from South and East Asia met in Singapore on July 21 for a series of peer-level strategic dialogues organized by the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council,discussing marketing transformation challenges, cross-border data integration, and developing. The meeting will bewas hosted by Mr.Vivek Kumar, the CMO Council's Asia Pacific Advisory Board Chairman. "An important area of discussion at the gathering was the dynamic market opportunities in Asia's rapidly evolving micro enterprise sector," noted Donovan Neale-May, the CMO Council's executive director who will be traveling to Singapore from Silicon Valley, where the Council is based.♦

APPOINTMENTS

WATATAWA, the Singapore-based stakeholder engagement consultancy, has added more top talent to its regional leadership team in Asia. Elaine Chan is joining WATATAWA in Hong Kong as associate partner, who has been formerly senior vice-president at Financial Dynamics. Ms. Chan was previously at the South China Morning Post, including as business news and features editor and China business editor, and with Bloomberg as bureau chief in Shanghai. In Singapore, Lynn Lee will be joining the WATATAWA team on September 1. Lynn has spent the past eight years with The Straits Times, most recently as its Indonesia bureau chief. Ms. Chan and Ms. Lee have added to WATATAWA’s considerable consulting firepower on the heels of the recent arrivals of Financial Times veteran John Burton as the firm’s SeoulElaine Chan based regional head of media strategy, former BursonMarsteller Singapore market leader . Allison Lim as an associate partner and former Financial Dynamics Singapore head Laurel Teo, also as an associate partner. The founding partners at WATATAWA also include Simon Pangrazio, who had succeeded Bill Rylance as Asia-Pacific CEO of Burson-Marsteller, and Bryan Matthews who ran B-M’s Korea operation for many years.

Lynn Lee

WATATAWA draws its name from “Walk the Talk, Talk the Walk”. The firm currently works with clients in the Singapore, Hong Kong and Indonesian markets.♦

Mark D. McLaughlin joins Palo Alto Networks as President and CEO. McLaughlin will commence his new role later this month following his departure as president and CEO of VeriSign. Upon joining, McLaughlin will also become a member of the Board of Directors at Palo Alto Networks. At the same time, the network security company released several financial metrics, including that it has achieved a bookings run rate well above the US$200 million mark and that its cash flow from operations has been positive for five consecutive quarters. Within its recent fiscal year ended July 31, Palo Alto Networks doubled its employee count. To accommodate this growth, Palo Alto Networks recently moved into a larger headquarters located in Santa Clara at 3300 Olcott Street. Palo Alto Networks continues to aggressively hire engineering, sales, marketing, product management, services and support professionals in the Bay Area and worldwide, and has over 300 planned openings within this new fiscal year.♦

Network Box PRC officially announced that it is opening a new Sales Office, complete with both state-of-the-art Training and Demonstration facilities, in the port city of Jiangmen, China. This new sales office will help serve Network Box clients in the Guangdong province of southern China. Additional Network Box Sales Offices, as well as Security Operations Centers, are planned for both China, and other parts of Asia, and will be announced at later dates.♦

Network Box’s new PRC office

APPOINTMENTS

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

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