Asian e-Marketing October 2010 by MediaBUZZ Pte Ltd

October 2010

Online Marketing & Performance Strategies

Wave 5: The Biggest Social Media Study Ever, Page 4

Spectrum Worldwide Places Emphasis on Social Media for OCBC Cycle Singapore 2011, Page 33

Securely Enabling Twitter, Page 19

EDITORIAL:

O N L I N E

V E R S I O N

Dear Reader, When talking about online marketing today, you can’t get around social marketing, which already appears to be both mainstream and omnipresent. Social marketing performance strategies however are not yet clearly defined, which is the reason why I included a few articles on this topic in this issue. To get some insights, read for instance Wave 5: The Biggest Social Media Study Ever, or find out how Spectrum Worldwide places emphasis on social media to achieve further growth for next year’s OCBC Cycle Singapore 2011 event, or how to securely enable Twitter and much more. Isn’t it crucial to know how to measure and analyze the efforts that are put into the growth of your social presence? I honestly think it should be a top priority for all companies that plan to start a social media campaign. I hope this issue has something for everybody. Best regards,

Daniela La Marca Editor-in-Chief Asian eMarketing

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

Exclusive Sponsor of this Issue

OCTOBER 2010

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

ONLINE MARKETING & PERFORMANCE STRATEGIES (Part 2) :

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

COMPANIES & CAMPAIGNS

Wave 5: The Biggest Social Media Study Ever

Microsoft Truly Accelerates the “Beauty of the Web”

CMOs Wake-up Call to Keep-up with Digital Innovations

Gen Ys are Driving the Change in Workplaces

Spectrum Worldwide Places Emphasis on Social Media for OCBC Cycle Singapore 2011

Mobile Web Advertising: One-to-One Dialogue at its Best

Friendster Launches Music and Games Portals in Asia

Google’s New Trademark Policy Damages Brand Owners and Provokes Rising Advertising Costs and Counterfeits

LEGISLATION

Privacy Concerns: Self-regulation or What?

The PC is Dead, Long Live Windows Phone 7

Twitter Senior Executive Reshuffle Shows it is Serious about Making Money

BUZZWORD

Post-click Marketing

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

APPOINTMENTS

Online Marketing and Web 2.0

Securely Enabling Twitter

IMPRINT

Google Instant’s ‘blue arrow’ Could Steal Clicks from Natural Results and Affect SEO

Sociability Can Be a Magic Bullet

Affiliate Marketing Needs an Improved Tracking-System

TECHNOLOGIES & PRODUCTS

Yahoo! Search Marketing Enhances Business Competitiveness

PayPal Expands Its Privacy, Prevention and Protection Commitment

BlackBerry PlayBook Sets New Benchmark in Tablet Performance

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Wave 5: The Biggest Social Media Study Ever When talking about online marketing we clearly have to deal with social marketing, which has already broken through to the mainstream.

has been compiled using Singapore data, it has in many ways global relevance and gives a good impression of the quality of the report.

The phenomenon started to get attention in the past few years and nowadays seems simply unstoppable. Companies have started to integrate their social media activities into broader marketing initiatives, learned how to scale their efforts, and demonstrated return on engagement. That’s quite an achievement, taking into consideration that it is not easy to create and maintain a genuine face and voice for a brand.

Myth #1: Social networking sites are only for connecting with friends

In 2006, the global marketing communications agency UM, released a report on the scale and impact of social media, called ‘Global Impact of Social Media’ and reframed and expanded it in the following years. What started of as a ripple (Wave 1) in 2006 has really grown (Wave 5) into the “biggest” social media study in the world in 2010, with 37,600 respondents from 54 countries. The agency has just unveiled the findings of their “world’s largest and longest-running examinations of the impact of social media on today’s global marketplace” last week and the gathered data seems to be a real information goldmine for brands attempting to foster connections with their target groups. Clinton Simpson, Managing Director, UM Singapore said: “The survey title ‘The Socialisation of Brands’ sums up the current landscape perfectly. There is a huge benefit to brands that engage with consumers in the social space, but the challenge is to identify the type of social experience consumers actually want. Wave 5 demonstrates that a deep understanding of these consumer needs is the key to creating compelling and successful social media programs.” The full Wave 5 survey is a massive report and therefore at this point I only present the ‘10 Myths about Social Media in Singapore’. Although the list of 10 myths

Social networking sites are a one stop venue for self expression, entertainment, and content or knowledge sharing. In other words: a social network is not just connecting with friends anymore - it’s much more beyond that. UM expects social networks to become a kind of aggregator with even more built-in functionalities that are employed by digital media users as a gaming portal, meeting place with friends, and a sharing point of views, pictures, videos, or opinions with others. Myth #2: Social networking sites are only for young people The moment we say social network we almost always imagine young people going to their Facebook profile, doing their updates and simply some chatting. According to Wave 5, however, that probably has still been true a year back, but transcends across all age groups now. In fact the age group of the 45-54 year olds, for instance, is the fastest growing in terms of penetration of social networks. Myth #3: Blogs are dying Nielsen Media Research confirmed that traffic is dipping when it comes to blogs, but what UM surveyed is that there is actually more of a shift taking place from personal and general topics to specialized blogs. The endless talking of individuals about themselves and general topics has lost its glitter, which shouldn’t be generalized for blogging in general. The success formula is ‘relevance’.

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Myth #4: Brand websites are losing relevance Globally, there is a bit of a dip in terms of numbers of people visiting brand websites, and the reasons are probably more or less the same as with blogs. Therefore UM’s findings are even more interesting, proving that attraction is still pretty high at 80% in Singapore. Still eight out of 10 people are visiting brand websites, which is phenomenal, but what’s more interesting is that three -quarters of them are finding brand websites to be an influential source of advertising. Myth # 5: Social media is just a fad … the bubble shall burst That’s a fair comment, but what UM found out is actually the sheer opposite, namely that a sweeping majority of users is still upbeat about it, with eight out of 10 saying they will continue visiting social networks to keep in contact with family or friends, or to manage their social networking page, or to visit an online message board or forum. So what we call “fad” is actually here to stay and to grow even more - some functions may die over the course of time, but new ones will also come up, therefore social networks surely won’t die. Myth # 6: Singaporeans don’t want brands in social networks Often people use their own personal opinions to make generalizations across media in general, which seems to be the case here. Wave 5 found out that consumers don’t really have a problem with having brands in the social network space. Almost half of all digital media users have joined an online brand community and what’s interesting about this is that about four in 10 have actually endorsed a brand, or became affiliated to, or even advocated a brand. These figures are very similar on the global level contrary to the popular belief of agencies.

Brands just have to figure out how to add value – then people will willingly seeking brand communities and share their experiences with friends. Myth #7: Singaporeans only connect with known brands on social networks In fact almost half the respondents said they had discovered new brands through social networks, as many as ¾ of them found a recommendation of a friend more influential, and a good majority liked personalized ads on social networks. The point here is that people really discover new brands through social networks. Myth # 8: There is a “Formula” for all brands on social networks It’s not quite as simple: for different categories and different products there are rather different solutions and motivations. All have some common aspects of course, such as sharing, but every now and then you will find that there are polarizing differences. Keeping an eye on being relevant is crucial in social media, as well as going away with the erroneous belief that what works for one brand in one category is going to work across the board. To give you an example: what works for an FMCG brand on Facebook cannot be exactly replicated for an automobile brand, so you will have to tweak the way you design the page or the way you allow consumers or people to attract. Myth # 9: Buzz happens when brands go “social” Wave 5 found out that brands want to play up more buzz, but are not really interested in garnering more buzz. Depending on which category a product or service belongs to, there will be more or less efforts needed to generate that buzz. This means you may have to go that extra mile

or those extra steps to ensure that people are buzzing about you. For luxury products for instance, Gucci or Chanel, consumers typically look at the brand, which they put on a pedestal. In that case you have to go the extra mile and submit content to the social spaces, whereas if you are just releasing a movie, you are just opening a bay and you can allow pure user generated content. Myth # 10: Social media’s impact is superficial Social media doesn’t necessarily have to be superficial, you can make it sound credible, which is of course always the marketers’ or the brands’ efforts. Interestingly, Wave 5 surveyed that half of the people are influenced by what they read and discovered further that people seem to be willing to believe what they find. Such people usually have a favorite blog that they track or read for certain pieces of information. Another finding of UM has been that 35% of people are inclined to think more positively about companies that have a blog. Do keep in mind that everything is subjective, so you definitely need to build-up credibility first. A very interesting point taken from the whole study is that almost half of the internet universe already has joined some sort of brand community, which proves that there are clearly brand benefits, such as driving loyalty, sharing news or updates, or spreading general brand awareness. What’s needed is just a good understanding of the nature of social media demand, which is the key for its usage. So if you are looking for a holistic and social media point of view, take your chance and get in touch with those who seem to have more information than anyone else on the global picture of social media (http:// www.umww.com/wave5) in all of its forms. By Daniela La Marca

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Online Media Consumption and Distribution Shifting in Southeast Asia â&#x20AC;&#x153;In today's digitally driven world, best in class companies cannot afford any level of discord between CMO and CIO offices. In fact, the CMO and CIO should be closely aligned allies, challenging the organization to look to deliver customer relevance as a key route to increased revenueâ&#x20AC;?, says Donovan Neale-May of the CMO Council. Yet, their report The CMO-CIO Alignment Imperative: Driving Revenue through Customer Relevance, released in co-operation with Accenture, revealed the opposite situation. From June to September 2010 they surveyed that more than 320 global marketing executives and 300 global IT and information systems executives to understand the challenges they both face in meeting market trends, challenges and expectations that influence their working together.

The study found that marketing and IT do not believe they are highly effective partners and are often struggling to achieve common goals. Moreover, they feel ill prepared to capitalize on the opportunities new digital marketing technologies and channels have to offer. While marketers believe that customer insight and intelligence are critical to competitive advantage, they are finding it difficult to gain IT support for better integration and mining of disparate customer data that is often isolated and under-utilized across organizational silos. Respondents noted that in the absence of top-down engagement in the digital reinvention of marketing, there is a noticeable disconnect between IT and marketing executives about who they believe is leading the digital strategy for their company. More than half (58 percent) of IT executives said they were championing, spearheading or shaping the digital agenda at their company, whereas less than one-fifth (19 percent) of

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

the marketers said that the digital agendas at their companies were being shaped by IT executives. Instead, 69 percent of marketers said they were the ones in the driver's seat. In fact, very few marketing and IT executives surveyed for the report believe their companies are prepared to exploit the new digital channels, despite their shared conviction that technology now underpins and shapes the entire customer experience. Nearly one-third of marketers and IT executives alike said they are either having difficulty integrating critical analytics capabilities or believe they are not integrated at all. Interestingly, a large majority of marketing executives (78 percent) and IT executives (68 percent) said that digital marketing is important to their organizations. Yet, only onethird of marketers (35 percent) and one-fifth of IT executives (20 percent) said their companies are "heavily committed and invested" in digital marketing - although both groups agree that delivering more timely and relevant transactional,

behavioral and customer insight data is at the top of the list. Insufficient funding (cited by 59 percent of marketers) and a lack of understanding of the opportunity by senior management (cited by 46 percent of IT executives) are viewed as the primary constraints for those who were unprepared to capitalize on the opportunities. Tim Breene, senior managing director of strategic initiatives at Accenture and chief executive of Accenture Interactive, considers the outcome of the survey as â&#x20AC;&#x153;a wakeup call to savvy CMOs and CIOs, who are looking for the next frontier of successâ&#x20AC;? namely becoming a fully empowered digital enterprise, capable of forging and maintaining continuous, relevant relationships with its customers. "Marketing is struggling to keep pace as new technologies that address functional, operational and go -to-market efficiencies and engagements are introduced, often circumventing IT in order to quickly deploy solutions that are not integrated into enterprise structures and sys-

tems," said Donovan Neale-May, Executive Director of the CMO Council. "This desire to embrace the latest marketing innovations leaves IT in the position of having to fix, patch or repair point-solutions that have little impact on IT strategic goals and can detract from senior management's up-time and security directives." Timing, resources and support are also key constraints to a more collaborative, fluid and profitable ITmarketing relationship, as both marketing and IT executives admit to following different schedules, priorities and paths to implementation.

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Gen Ys are Driving the Change in Workplaces Gen Ys are changing the way in which Singaporean companies communicate and share information, reveals a new survey from PGi (Premiere Global). Three in four Singaporean workers (75%) point to the fact that Gen Ys are at the heart of this change, with the introduction of more online business tools such as social networking, video conferencing and web confer-

encing and instant messaging. The survey, commissioned by PGi in June 2010, asked a total of 1,000 full-time office workers in Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia about the current state of their workplace â&#x20AC;&#x201C; such as which generation is driving change, and what specific changes they see taking place now and in the future.

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

When asked about the types of tools Gen Y’s have helped to introduce into the workplace, instant messaging (such as MSN and Yahoo!) topped the list for most Singaporeans, with 75 percent saying that it is now being used as a business tool. Thanks to Gen Ys, 64 percent agreed that it is now acceptable for social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn to be used in office environment. 58 percent also said that Gen Ys had helped to introduce video and web conferencing to the office environment. Joanne Rigby, Asia-Pacific marketing director at PGi, said, “It’s positive to see that companies in Singapore are realising the benefits of adopting online tools such as Facebook and instant messaging for their business communications, something that only a few years ago may have been frowned upon. It’s clear that Gen Ys are helping to drive this adoption, and organisations are not only listening to the younger generation, but recognise the opportunities and benefits these tools can offer”.

The workplace generation gap

What is the future of the workplace?

Although there is an abundance of positive change, the survey identified a potential ‘workplace generation gap’ – defined as a lack of awareness of how different generations of employees prefer to work. This could be a key stumbling block in further adoption of online tools. Of the 61 percent who agreed that there is a generational divide in their office, 76 percent felt that it could undermine the use of online tools.

In terms of how the workplace will need to adapt in the future as the next generation of employees enters the workforce, the concept of flexible working resonated strongly amongst Singaporean workers. ‘Flexible working hours’ (70 percent) and ‘greater training requirements’ (66 percent) were the two highest priorities when workers were asked how their workplaces should adapt.

“Whilst it’s good to see businesses catering to the needs of younger employees, it’s important to not forget the Baby Boomers in the company who didn’t grow up with technologies such as webinars, web conferencing and wikis,” Joanne notes. “The key lies in having appropriate training and support so that all employees can feel encouraged and use online business tools for their day-to-day work,” Joanne advises.

The good news is that Singaporean businesses appear to be on the right track when talking about evolving the workplace to cater to a younger generation of employees. Nearly 80 percent felt that they were already in that process or will soon be. “As an increasing number of Gen Ys and indeed Gen Z’s enter the workforce, it will certainly be interesting to see how we measure up in the next few years,” Joanne concludes. By Premiere Global Services, Inc. (PGi)

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Mobile Web Advertising: One-to-One Dialogue at its Best Perhaps one of the most talked about initiatives in the mobile marketing space is mobile advertising. The mobile device presents a unique opportunity for marketers to engage and interact with consumers like never before. Given this channel's uniqueness and ability to create the long sought-after one-to-one dialogue with consumers, the expected reach and effect of mobile advertising is, and will continue to be, significant. Although mobile advertising is being tested in all mobile media areas, including mobile Web, mobile video and TV, and mobile downloads and messaging, the most predominant form is currently mobile Web. Regional Mobile Internet Trends Asia continues to dominate the mobile Web as smartphone usage and content innovation increases. The region boasts of some of the most technologically advanced mobile markets in the world and the growing populations and low PC penetrations in Asiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s developing countries further adds to its potential.

Chinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mobile Internet users are expected to more than double within five years. Thailand has been forecasted as the first country to have more mobile Internet users than Web users. Mobile social networking has become a key driver of mobile Internet usage in Malaysia. In India, the number of mobile Internet users is expected to cross 260 million in 2015. Information search and e-mail are seen to be the most used mobile Internet functions in Taiwan. As developing nations in Asia continue to embrace mobile, consumers and providers continue to adopt the medium, mobile Web is now set to overtake traditional Web usage. This further opens up innovation opportunities for marketers as they can introduce more mobile services and offer greater quality content. Mobile Web also allows marketers to offer more targeted, permission-based advertising in turn resolving the issue of spam caused by the more commonly adopted SMSbased marketing campaigns. Mobile Web Campaigns â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Measurement & Adoption Mobile Web (or WAP) enables a subscriber to access the Internet through mobile-optimized sites from a mobile device.

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Mobile Web provides access to a variety of news, information, and entertainment sites, much like what subscribers find in the wired world. For publishers, the mobile Web environment provides an opportunity for brands to extend their reach to consumers through a highly targeted personal device. There are many applications consumers can use via the mobile Web. But how, as a brand, do you participate in and measure success from a WAP-based ad campaign? Measuring a mobile Web campaign's effectiveness is done in a similar way to measuring an Internet campaign's success. Key terms to know include:

•

Impression: Successful viewing of an ad. For example, when a subscriber browses a data product (WAP, video, downloadable, or even MMS), ads appear within the content. Ads are sent to the user's screen by an ad server that reacts to "calls" from the mobile content provider. An ad impression is recorded each time an ad is called and subsequently displayed on the user's screen. Click rate: User interaction (highlights and clicks) with the ad (banner, text link, interstitial). Brands can then measure the participation in a campaign through consumer action, whether it's a clickable banner, click to call, or something else. CTR: A click on an ad that takes the consumer to a jump page for more information or to take advantage of an offer. A jump page enables consumers to get more information on the product/service being marketed and creates an opportunity for the consumer to interact with the brand. CPM: A measure used by Internet marketers to price ad banners. Sites that sell advertising

•

will guarantee an advertiser a certain number of impressions (number of times an ad banner is downloaded and presumably seen by visitors), then set a rate based on that guarantee times the CPM rate. Redemption: The number or percentage of consumers who actually take advantage of a particular offer. Most often, redemption is tied to mobile couponing applications.

How do you buy mobile Web advertising? It's similar to buying advertising on the Internet. Mobile Web banner impressions can be purchased by CPM and can be bought either from publishers who maintain their own mobile Web sites or through a mobile ad network. Contrary to many published comments on mobile advertising, there's inventory available. What's unique about mobile advertising is that due to devices' varied sizes, mobile Web banners are optimized to fit the handset the ad is viewed on. Publishers often request multiple mobile Web banner sizes to ensure multiple devices can be supported. Once you've bought mobile Web inventory, what types of campaigns can be run? Options marketers can deploy/include: click to call, landing page information, e-mail capture, and the ability to send text, picture, audio, or video directly from the device. They can include mobile coupons, banner ads with location information, ads with e-mail registration capabilities, and so on. The options are limitless. The good thing about the mobile Web is it's so much like online that brands and consumers find it easy to make the connection. The simplicity of mobile Web will also help to drive overall adoption. What types of campaigns can be deployed using mobile Web and mobile Web advertising? Here are a few recent examples of mobile Web campaigns:

The Hyperfactory & Adidas Hong Kong Background: The +10 Global Challenge saw footballers from around the world forming their own ‘star’ teams of everyday footballers, recruited from the streets in order to compete against each other. The high profile footballers featured included England stars David Beckham, Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole, French players Djibril Cisse and Zinédine Zidane, and German Michael Ballack to name a few. The +10 campaign was linked to the launch of the limited edition ‘+F50 Tunit’ football shoe. In Hong Kong, where there was no local celebrity footballer to front the promotion, activities centred on two local personalities, local pop singer Edmond Leung and Sammy, a popular DJ from Commercial Radio 2, who needed to select their teams from an eager public for a playoff. The objective of the proposed campaign was to create a fully branded mobile Internet experience for fans which promoted both the +10 challenge and the +F50 Tunit shoe by encouraging football fans to sign up for the +10 challenge using the mobile channel. Solution: The Hyperfactory, in partnership with interactive agency, Rice5, created an exclusive fully branded WAP site to support the campaign. The made-for-mobile features contained on the site included the MTV-produced videos of the adidas football stars finding their players and playing the game, videos and information about the local +10 Challenge, 3D animation of the Tunit shoe and exclusive wallpaper downloads.

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

The local information was specifically tailored to the user. Having selected their preferred position on the team, the user was shown the appropriate recruitment video. The user then chose which team to play for, and in what position, and entered their name, e-mail address and phone number. The most frequent visitors received adidas merchandise such as key chains and mascots. Registrants for the actual event were entered into a prize draw to win a pair of the limited edition Tunit shoes and all those chosen to participate in the game received football jerseys. The winning team also received a cash prize. Results: The site was in operation for three weeks and in this time, the site received well over 83,000 visits from more than 24,500 unique users. AdMob & Sony PlayStation Background: For the launch of their game, Resistance 2, Sony PlayStation worked with the agency

Deutsch to create a mobile campaign to engage their audience of males in the 18-24 age group. PlayStation had an integrated media strategy to promote the game and added mobile to their advertising strategy during the final planning stages. PlayStation decided to try mobile for the first time because they could reach their audience at a larger scale with an engaging, highly measurable, and costeffective campaign. Solution: AdMob ran a highly targeted campaign featuring banners and text link ads for the mobile Web. In addition to selecting a demographic site bundle to reach the target, AdMob layered on device level targeting including traffic from the wireless Internet enabled PlayStation Portable (PSP). When users clicked through to the mobile site, they found a robust suite of pages with content related to the game. In addition to being able to watch a video preview of the game, users could read the story of the game and answer trivia questions based on the story to unlock additional content such as wallpaper downloads.

Results:

• • • • • • • •

Total page views: >238,000 Total homepage views: 170,000 Total video views: 27,000 Total gallery views: 28,000 Total story page views: 6,000 Locked content: 19,000 Free wallpapers: 7,000 Wallpaper downloads: 5,000

Mobile advertising is only one of many options available to marketers interested in implementing mobile in cross-media initiatives. Mobile provides the opportunity to not only repurpose existing content for the mobile device but also to create new channel content. There's always the option to refine a campaign after it's been deployed. I encourage marketers to get involved and add mobile to cross-media initiatives. Start today! By Rohit Dadwal, Managing Director, Mobile Marketing Association, Asia Pacific

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Google’s New Trademark Policy Damages Brand Owners and Provokes Rising Advertising Costs and Counterfeits Google announced a month ago that it would be rolling out a new trademark policy in the UK to replicate that of the US. Matthew Whiteway, Client Services Director at Greenlight, a specialist search and social marketing consulting and technology firm, says this will have severe implications for advertisers, user experience and brand owners. According to Whiteway, not only do brand owners now risk losing sales to unauthorized sellers and counterfeiters, they will see spiraling costs in their pay per click (PPC) campaigns. According to him, a well known brand has already seen its brand cost per click (CPC) increase 104% in one day alone, as a result of the sheer number of unauthorized and counterfeit sellers now bidding and using its trademarked terms in its ad copy. Previously, Google had amended its trademark policy allowing any advertiser to “bid” on a company’s trademarked terms. Whilst some advertisers initially saw this as an opportunity to pinch traffic from competitors, in reality, due to Quality Score implications, very few bid aggressively on competitor terms. Google’s new trademark policy, however, now goes one step further. It allows advertisers to actually display the trade-

marked keyword in their ad copy (providing they are a reseller, provider of components or for informational purposes). The rationale behind this change in policy is a little unclear, but Google appears to be distancing itself from any form of trademark owner complaints, stating it is simply a “provider of space for advertisements” and that any trademark complainants should be made directly with the advertiser. Whilst advertisers have had the ability to “bid” on trademarked branded terms for some time, the fact they have not been allowed to display trademarked terms in ad copy in the past has resulted in low click through rates (CTR’s) and low sales numbers, therefore making it an unprofitable strategy. With Google’s new policy, however, almost any advertiser can claim to be the official brand and therefore expect to see increased CTR’s as well as a positive shift in the number of sales. These changes in the advertiser’s results are likely to mean more aggressive bidding on previously unprofitable trademarked terms, thus resulting in increased CPC charges for many of the brand owners. So, whatever the rationale for Google doing this, one thing is for sure, Google and counterfeiters will benefit from this change, but most probably nobody else - least of all the brand owners themselves.

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

The PC is Dead, Long Live Windows Phone 7 The PC has been innovating and dominating the IT world these past 20 years, but now it’s time appears to be over. The new driving force is a smaller counterpart – the Smartphone - as Microsoft has seemed to confirm with Windows Phone 7. Despite Microsoft’s big efforts, Apple iOS and Google Android are now the new platforms for innovation, with the mobile phone replacing the PC as the must have tool for information workers. Indeed, the mobile "apps" business is now the place to be for software development companies, and Microsoft has yet to make any real or significant impact in this market. Plans for the launch of their mobile device are already in the making, which intend to shake up the Smartphone market with a big bang.

Right now, Microsoft is just sharing some insights into their ad campaign for Windows Phone 7 that aims to make some space for them in the increasingly crowded Smartphone market. Interestingly, to get attention, Microsoft is taking a different approach than their competitors. Instead of focusing on how much time users can spend downloading apps or playing around with games and settings on their phones, Microsoft is planning to highlight the reverse scenario. They want to convince their potential customers by showing them that they can spend less time trying to find the information they want on their Windows Phone 7 devices, and get back to their “real life” more quickly. Because of the Live Tiles user interface on the phones, Windows Phone 7 users will be able to get information faster and without having to intervene manually as much as they do with other Smartphones.

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Phone 7 for Microsoft, its device and operator partners, and for the ecosystem market in general. As such, the commercial launch of Windows Phone 7 devices by OEMs and carriers looks set to mark the most important watershed in the Smartphone market since the launch of Apple’s first iPhone.

The campaign’s idea is to glorify less the technology for technology’s sake but to focus instead more on the needs in life for regular users, not “enthusiasts”. According to Tony Cripps principal analyst of Ovum, there’s a lot at stake on the launch of Windows

“If Windows Phone 7 devices sell in large numbers, Microsoft will rightfully be able to congratulate itself for starting with a clean sheet of paper in its efforts to return to the Smartphone top table - a strategy launched by CEO Steve Ballmer in early 2009”, he states. “If it fails to claw back market share lost to iPhone and Android, then Windows Phone 7 may well mark the point at which Microsoft turns its back on Smartphones forever: targeting its mobile resources at creating compelling services and attracting advertising may prove a better option than beginning again with another mobile operating system, in that instance”, he adds.

Apparently, Windows Phone 7 positioned Microsoft on the edge of a Smartphone renaissance. Its allimportant user experience seems to have brought some genuinely new thinking to the Smartphone industry and after the launch we will see how well it does. “Microsoft has clearly also borrowed a lot from Apple’s Smartphone toolbox by tying the device and its user experience to some tempting content and application propositions, especially the longawaited tie up with its impressive Xbox Live service. This should mark out Windows Phone 7 devices as favourites for committed gamers, although there’s also plenty here for media hungry and web savvy users. If Microsoft does fail to make the headway we’d expect with Windows Phone 7, it may decide that it’s not worth the time, expense and uncertainty of heading back to the drawing board again", Ovum’s principal analysts believes. By Daniela La Marca

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Twitter Senior Executive Reshuffle Shows it is Serious about Making Money When a CEO steps down it is typically because a company has taken a nose dive in performance and has lost its strategic direction, but for Twitter and outgoing CEO Evan Williams this is not the case. The decision to hand over the CEO reins to current COO Dick Costolo is a sign of just how determined Twitter is to push through its transformation from start -up to ‘grown up’ business, underpinned by a sustainable business model.

“Providing the transition goes smoothly, this will be a positive re-organization where Twitter’s senior management are pro-actively directing their skills to where they best serve the company. By doing so they are putting the monetization ambitions of Twitter, rather than their own egos, first and foremost. By Eden Zoller, principal analyst, Ovum

Twitter has around 165 million users but knows big numbers alone are not enough and recently made its first foray into an advertising proposition controlled by the company in the form of Promoted Tweets. It is critical that the company makes its advertising proposition stand up and flourish, which is where Google veteran Costolo fits in. Evan Williams is not disappearing but will instead focus on what he and the team thinks he is best placed to address, namely product development.

Find out more by clicking the image

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Online Marketing and Web 2.0 The adoption of broadband Internet connections has revolutionized the World Wide Web within a few years, going from static banners and pop-ups to an interactive platform of moving images. At the same time it transforms the user from a passive viewer and consumer to an interactive producer and distributor of digital content, which demands a target group-oriented mix of online advertising from marketers. It was Tim O'Reilly, the American publisher and writer, who coined the term "Web 2.0" in 2005 with an influential and trend-setting article. The basic principle of this development is not based on a new technology, but on a change of use and perception of the Internet. "User-generated content" is the keyword and basis of the Web 2.0 concept, where the user is both transmitter and receiver as well as responsible for website content. For blogs, wikis, Web diaries, photo/ video platforms, and communities - in short all the new "social networks", which sprang up like mushrooms in the past five years - started their incredible triumphal procession, such as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr or Wikipedia, to name a few of the stars that represent the Web 2.0 principle perfectly. Social Media Marketing was born by enabling companies to start a direct dialogue with their potential customers.

For those who master the rules of the game successfully, social networks can provide significant benefits. Nevertheless, caution is advised, because not the one who shouts the loudest or most frequently gets the best attention, but he who proves his skills in having a good dialogue sustained over a longer period of time. To put it in a nutshell: in past years, no media, no communication, and no form of advertising has developed such a momentum and dynamism as online advertising â&#x20AC;&#x201C; but no other segment of the advertising market is at the same time subject to such rapid change. The challenge for companies is to apply creative solutions combined with the right strategic online marketing mix to get permanently and successfully involved in the Web 2.0. In addition to this recently developed new trend in online marketing, search engine marketing and optimization is and remains a central issue, as well as usability, for e-mail marketing, and web analytics. All are necessary for a successful web presence and therefore do look forward and be prepared to read more on these topics in upcoming issues of Asian eMarketing. By Daniela La Marca

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Securely Enabling Twitter Twitter is a popular micro-blogging tool that enables users to communicate to an audience of “followers” using a combination of characters, images and URLs (tiny URLS) – all of which must fit into a 140 character limit. Like e-mail, IM from years ago, and more recently, social networking, end-users are rapidly making Twitter an integral part of the corporate application infrastructure. The benefit of using Twitter is it enables users to interact bi-directionally with a wide audience. Marketing can “tweet” about the latest press release or success story; engineers can solicit answers to a perplexing question; and corporate bloggers can tweet about the latest blog post. There are, however, several challenges that the rapid adoption of Twitter has introduced. Many Malaysian organizations are unaware of who is using Twitter and for what purpose - and as is the case with social networking applications, policies governing specific usage are non-existent. Finally, users tend to be too trusting blindly downloading images or accessing shortened, and effectively obfuscated, URLs which can introduce malware into their network.

As Twitter use explodes, IT is tasked with keeping the network secure while enabling the use of Twitter. Blindly blocking is an inappropriate response because it may be detrimental to organizational productivity and may force users to find alternative means using Twitter (proxies, circumvention tools, etc). Blindly allowing it is also an inappropriate response because it may result in a propagation of threats, as well as potential data leakage. Enterprises should follow a systematic process to develop, enable and enforce policies that allow the use of Twitter in a secure manner. 1. Find out who’s using Twitter There are many cases where a “corporate” Twitter account may have already been established by marketing or sales, so it is critical that IT determines if these accounts exist, who is using them and what are the associated business objectives – if for no other reason than to be prepared from a public exposure perspective. By meeting with the business groups and discussing the common company goals, IT can use this step to move past the image of “always saying no” towards the role of being a key business enabler.

The Challenge: Love It or Hate It 2. Develop a corporate Twitter policy Love it or hate it, Twitter use is increasing within the enterprise. According to the Application Usage and Risk Report (Q3,2009), Twitter was found in 89% of participating organizations, more than doubling the 35% found in the Application Usage and Risk Report (Q1, 2009). More interestingly, the sessions consumed per organization by Twitter users increased 252%, indicating more frequent periods of use, while bandwidth consumed jumped 775% to 184 MB per organization. Even if image transfer is taken into account, this increased usage is significant, given that Twitter communications are limited to a mere 140 characters.

Once visibility into Twitter usage patterns is determined, enterprises should engage in discussions around what should and should not be said or posted about the company, the competition and the appropriate language. In some cases, determining who may and may not post may be an appropriate first step to take. Educating users on the security risks associated with Twitter is another important facet to encourage usage for business purposes. With a “click first, think later” mentality, Twitter users tend to place too much trust in what is being posted, introducing malware while placing personal and corporate data security at risk.

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

3. Use Technology to Monitor and Enforce Policy The outcome of each of these discussions should be documented with an explanation of how IT will apply security policies to enable the secure use of Twitter within enterprise environments. Documenting and enforcing a policy around Twitter can help enterprises improve communications, productivity, and their bottom line while boosting employee morale. Apply Policy Control over Usage, Block Threats Next-generation firewalls allow enterprises to take a very systematic approach to enabling the secure use of Twitter by determining usage patterns, establishing and enforcing corporate policies that enable business objectives in a secure manner.

• Identify Who is Using Twitter: The first step in safely enabling the use of Twitter is to identify which employees are reading Twitter (reading Tweets) and which are posting to Twitter (Tweeting). Palo Alto Networks identifies Twitter at the service level, which means that even if a desktop client such as TweetDeck, Twhirl or Twitterfeed is in use, the Twitter traffic is identified.

• Define and Enforce Appropriate Usage Policies: After determining who is reading Tweets and who is Tweeting, (via integration with Active Directory, LDAP, eDirectory), administrators can apply appropriate usage policies that support the organization’s goals and objectives.

The ability to delineate between Twitter use overall and Tweeting (Twitter posting), means that userbased policies for reading vs. posting can be deployed as a means of enabling the business, allowing some personal use (where appropriate), while protecting the enterprise from security or business risks. The policy control options go beyond the traditional allow or deny:

∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗

Allow or deny Allow but scan Allow based on schedule Decrypt and inspect Allow and apply traffic shaping Allow for certain users or groups

• Protect the Network From Attacks Propagated Across Twitter: The increased use in social networking applications such as Twitter combined with their relentless barrage of messages have created a very fertile environment for cyber criminals. Studies show that social media sites are 10 times more effective at delivering malware than previous methods of e-mail delivery. The reasons are obvious - users trust each other implicitly and it is easy to entice a user to “click here” by including a reference to an article, or an image via a URL. In the case of Twitter, URLs are shortened to maximize the 140 character limit and as such, it is now even easier to propagate malware because the URL is shortened and indecipherable. Once the Twitter usage policy has been created, an equally detailed threat prevention policy can be enabled to detect and block a wide range of threats including spyware, Trojans, viruses, and application vulnerabilities.

Monitor Twitter Traffic for Unauthorized Posting: As part of the balancing act between personal and professional use, enterprises must also evaluate how best to implement policies that are designed to limit unauthorized posting of confidential information. With data filtering capabilities, administrators can apply policies to detect the posting of confidential data patterns such as project code names, executive names, or e-mails with varied response options dependent on policy. Summary The explosive use of Twitter has many enterprises responding in one of two ways; blindly blocking, which may result in lost productivity and business opportunities or blindly allowing, which can expose the business to unnecessary business and data security risks. The recommended approach to managing Twitter use is for IT departments to work with their business groups to determine key business requirements and how they can enable the secure use of Twitter without hindering workflow. With next-generation firewalls, the IT department can achieve the best of both worlds by enabling usage while protecting users and the company from a wide range of business and data security risks. By Eric Chong, Regional Marketing Director of Palo Alto Networks, Asia Pacific

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Google Instant’s ‘blue arrow’ Could Steal Clicks from Natural Results and Affect SEO Owen Browne, Senior PPC Analyst of the search specialist and technology firm Greenlight, observed that Google has introduced keyboard navigation into its Google Instant search results. The first result in the search engine results pages (SERPs) now has a blue arrow next to it. The user can move up and down the listings with the arrow keys on their keyboard and press enter to get to the result they want. Greenlight’s expert points out that if this remains permanent, it could actually prove to be yet another Google feature that would be an obstacle to search marketers. In the case of paid search, it almost endorses the first result, potentially stealing clicks away from natural results.

When a search query is highly competitive, the first result will more than likely be a paid search ad, increasing the chance that someone will click on the paid listings. Could this start a bidding war for the top positions in the paid results market? Advertisers may see click through rates tumble to lower positions, especially in the right hand side of paid results, where the arrow needs to be moved several times before it reaches the ad. Subsequently the need to appear higher will be enhanced, and advertisers will bid more to place themselves in the coveted top positions.

As Matthew Whiteway, Greenlight’s client services director, highlights in his post about the Impact of Google Instant on PPC, new Google features often raise more questions than answers for search marketers. Google will likely argue the blue arrow navigation makes search faster and easier; using your keyboard to help you explore instant search results, without the need for a mouse or a touchpad. The ability to scroll down using your arrow keys could mean you check a wider range of listings. It’s hard, however, to ignore that this feature draws further attention to the first search result on the page. Users will not necessarily know that the blue arrow can be moved, and the arrow almost endorses the first result; one of the best calls to action an advertiser could wish for.

This feature, along with additions such as ad site links and product extensions into paid ads, further highlights paid listings to users, potentially taking the clicks away from natural results, and earning Google more money for every click. The initial effect might be limited. Like a lot of new Google features this could be a short lived test, users also need to be logged in and have Google Instant switched on. However if it remains, this could lead to some marked changes in the paid and natural search landscape.

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Sociability Can Be a Magic Bullet The magic formula to get the attention of your target customers should not only be to purely inform them factually, but to also tell them stories.

requirements of your prospective and interested customers. Only then can you be perceived and recommended as a trustworthy company.

Your brand should both be tangible and provoke an emotion, as people not only think with their heads, but have feelings, too. You must develop empathy by identifying the needs of your audience. When communicating, it's not just about the pure exchange of information, but a give and take among communication partners, which means that you should listen carefully to what your audiences have to say. They have their very own opinions and represent them confidently in public. They use the functionalities on your Website, their own blog, social media platforms, or assessment tools. If you want online users to talk about your brand, you have to hand them details, which are valuable and interesting enough to be discussed and can quickly achieve strong viral effects. Always make sure that you know exactly who reports what about your brand. If you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have an eye on the flow of information and steer it carefully, the viral activity could run out of control and cause negative effects. This vitally depends on your initiative and how you want to stage your brand expertly.

Five rules for a brand to keep in touch with their customers

If you display your brand online, show presence in social networks and demand feedback, your prospects will turn to you and be quite outspoken with their questions - which is actually what you want. Nowhere do you have a better opportunity to prove that than on the Internet to your prospects, if you have a customer and service-oriented attitude. You are the direct contact for the questions of your target audience, so take advantage of this opportunity and be open, transparent and welcoming. Being approachable allows a companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s target audience to relate to the brand and this is therefore a good way for the company to position itself. You must, therefore, show the willingness to deal with the

On the Internet, a brand lives on the willingness of users to voluntarily engage with their messages. At best they even share the messages, if the brand is appealing and regularly provides them news updates. You should, therefore, consider the following rules for your digital brand management: 1. Inform regularly and based on facts The published information should be relevant, interesting and up-to-date. Only those who have something to say should have a voice. 2. Listen first, before you start talking He, who has something to tell, should first and foremost listen to his audience, as this guarantees that a sympathetic and empathetic communication can take place. 3. Have a conversation with your audience An open dialogue with customers and prospects will support a customer- and service-oriented communications policy. 4. Get recommended The Internet is a great way to spread information quickly and effectively with added value. Consider social networks as a valuable support. 5. Stay alert Continuous monitoring and reporting are necessary measures to check online activities and to sustain and, if need be, fix the digital brand image. By Daniela La Marca

BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

Affiliate Marketing Needs an Improved Tracking-System There is no end to the discussion on fraud in affiliate marketing, as affiliate networks and agencies are allegedly not fully devoted to resolving affiliate-fraud related issues, due to the fact that both parties are in line for remuneration for their participation in a shared venture. Frankly speaking, affiliate-fraud is just a small aspect of this broad area of discussion, which encompasses trustworthy tracking techniques that monitor all marketing channels. A full-service agency offers comprehensive management that ideally includes as many aspects as possible, ensuring that each element, be it newsletter marketing, advertising, affiliate marketing, SEM or SEO is treated as an integral part of a company’s marketing campaign. As studies have shown, 50 percent of consumers see more than one form of advertisement leading up to the purchase of a particular product. For example, a consumer sees a product in a marketing newsletter, later he sees a banner for the same product on a website, and then he “googles” the name of that product and finally comes into contact with the producer through a forum established by an affiliate-marketer. In this case only the last action that led to a dialogue between consumer and producer would receive a commission, which raises the question: What about the steps in between, before the final purchase occurs? Well, it may not be fair but the truth is that these steps are disregarded, because present tracking systems only look at the last transaction in the chain of events. Sadly, we cannot yet carry out a full evaluation of integrated online marketing and this problem and its complex impact is becoming increasingly pertinent. Performance reports are usually given out on a regular basis to customers, based on “last cookie sales” to ensure that credit is given where credit is due. Advertisements that help lead to, but are not the final purchase page, require an enhanced and more comprehensive tracking system. If every marketing element were handled by a single agency, tracking could be run from a centralized system and would identify exactly what led the customer to a purchase. Affiliate marketing, however, is difficult to integrate due to the network tracking system that works on its own and usually operates parallel to and/or is paired with the agency’s marketing tracking system.

It is possible to integrate both systems by compiling the performance data of the two, but it still doesn’t solve the problem, as the tracking systems are in general not connected to each other. With over 50 percent of affiliate advertising buyers having advertising contacts and therefore cookies from different tracking systems on their computers a sale can be conducted twice, which results in duplicates. To stay in line with the campaign logic "last cookie wins", all affiliate sales which have not been in last place of the dialogue, would have to be cancelled. The order of advertising media contacts is not shown on the tracking systems, and in consequence, neither the filtering nor the subsequent cancellation of affiliate sales. High purchase intention cancellation rates hinder the merchant-affiliate relationship enormously and create a dilemma for agencies that offer integrated marketing for their customers. Their only interest is providing errorfree data, leaving out the individual marketing steps that lead up to a purchase. A simplified solution already exists: all internet advertising facets that are related to an affiliate-network should be monitored by a second main tracking system. The traffic loggers of both congruent systems on the selling website are programmed into a so called “floodlight tag”, which recognizes the affiliate advertisements as well as the online merchant, marking only the traffic logger that is responsible for the last advertisement hit, thereby avoiding duplicates. This solution sounds too good to be true and indeed, the process has one major disadvantage: the integration of the added tracking system for affiliate advertiser accrues additional costs, that are calculated through how many clicks occur on the associated advertising material. In short, this means that, the more traffic affiliates attract, the higher the additional advertising costs, which can rack up to monthly costs in the thousands of dollars. Such incidents challenge the performance of affiliate marketers and agencies, who therefore try to minimize the damage by partnering with affiliates that attract many but often frugal customers. Still, those that guarantee a healthy “click to buy” relationship will always be the crowned champions in the business. By Daniela La Marca

TECHNOLOGIES & PRODUCTS

Yahoo! Search Marketing Enhances Business Competitiveness While the digital marketing world may be gradually maturing over time, it is still particularly dynamic in the field of search marketing and this makes it an exciting area of the market to be involved in, says Margaret Chang, who as General Manager of Search Marketing for Yahoo! Southeast Asia knows what she is talking about. Margaret dedicates her focus not only on MNCs but also on the millions of SMEs in Asia's key regional markets, helping them to stand out against the globally intense competition. Her advice for SMEs is pretty simple: take products and services to where the target audiences are - on the Internet - to be more effective. The increasingly wired and connected regional and global populace can become a SME's best friend in today’s competitive times, bringing them potential customers who are spending more time online in innovative and attention-grabbing ways, while leveling the playing field against larger global competitors. Margaret’s main interest and passion is to equip companies with the unique and industry-leading capabilities of Yahoo! Search Marketing (YSM), by making use of Yahoo!'s gathered insights, techniques and tools to reach the right online target audiences. This industry campaigner of 12 years started her career in 1999 by joining Overture, the data search marketing company that was acquired in 2003, for $1.64 billion, by its biggest customer Yahoo!.

Right after the buyout, Margaret started to grow Yahoo!’s search marketing mission in Taiwan and has recently moved to Singapore to take up her new challenge in building up YSM in the Southeast Asian markets. Overture's original services provided only a list of search results, ordered according to the bid amounts paid by the respective advertisers. Yahoo!'s Search Marketing's latest iteration was released early in 2007 and replaced the old formula - which was kept secret. We actually talked a lot about the secret formula during our interview at Yahoo! SEA’s new office in Singapore’s banking district, and most probably I will tell you a little bit more about it in one of my future articles. Fact is that Yahoo!’s formula is basically: Bid * Quality Score = Ad Rank (more similar to the one of Google AdWords) Quality score in this case is based on the ad's CTR (click-through-rate), the relevance of the ad to the creative (known as "Quality Index"), and the 'quality' of the landing page the ad is sending the user to. Yahoo! Search Marketing meanwhile provides features such as Geo-targeting, Ad Testing, Campaign Budgeting, as well as Campaign scheduling.

TECHNOLOGIES & PRODUCTS

“We all use search engines when we have a need to find something and don’t know where to go. Then you simply go online to search and the search engine will return a list of all the natural search results. Further, we have the search marketing ads on the top of the Website, but if that is exactly what’s searched for basically depends of the end user’s point of view”, she explains. Search engines are indeed vitally important for the retrieval of online information, whereas there are several options to make use of certain marketing formulas: Pay-per-click options work in a distinctive way and are largely provided by search engines, advertising networks and even websites or blogs. As soon as a consumer clicks on a particular link, and thus visits the website of the advertiser, the marketer has to pay. In case of pay per click search engines, the advertisers usually put their stake on certain key words, which they expect the user to insert in the search engine in order to accumulate some sort of information. The ads that appear are instantly corresponding to the entry of the keywords and such ads are referred to as 'sponsored ads' or 'sponsored links'.

Yahoo! Search Marketing ranks among the top three pay per click search engines operating in the World Wide Web at present and it is believed that its most prominent feature caters to about 80% of all Internet users - known as Sponsored Search. Many SMEs around the region have started to use Yahoo! Search Marketing which has soon become a cornerstone in their marketing strategy. JobsCentral, for instance, shows best what impact it can have on a business with its tremendous 900% growth in revenue from 2006 to 2008. Their internet-based recruitment business employed Search Engine Marketing to drive interested customers to its website, as well as to exercise geographic targeting and testing out different ads, while receiving detailed performance reports. What JobsCentral liked about Yahoo! Search Marketing was, that it gives online users an active role in searching for what they want; that it offers a good return on investment dollars, as their cost per jobseeker acquisition fell by more than 300% when compared to traditional media, and that search campaigns run online 24x7. Margaret mentioned even more case studies that she is proud of:

PropertyGuru.com.sg, Singapore’s leading on-line property site. Its online marketing campaign generated a 15% page view increase and a 17% increase in website traffic, raising awareness and interest in its services. Online travel site asiatravel.com saw traffic rise by more than 50% after embarking on an online marketing campaign, resulting in an increase in gross sales and profits from hotel bookings. Finally, for Japanese fashion site jshoppers.com, revenue in Singapore rose 30% and online memberships jumped 50% as a result of its online marketing efforts. As each Website has different indicators of success, every site should continuously measure its specific goals to improve performance, Margaret points out. She and her team are passionate about lending a helping hand in any search marketing activity planned and therefore we will continue this interview in the next issue of Asian e-Marketing, giving you more insights into her expertise and knowledge. By Daniela La Marca

TECHNOLOGIES & PRODUCTS

PayPal Expands Its Privacy, Prevention and Protection Commitment PayPal announced recently that it will expand its consumer protections for shoppers just in time for the busy holiday shopping season.

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Beginning November 1, 2010, shoppers across the Asia Pacific region will have enhanced buyer protection when they make purchases at any of the millions of merchants worldwide that accept PayP a l . In June 2010, PayPal announced that its Buyer Protection policy would protect shoppers across the Asia Pacific region when they do not receive the item they purchased using PayPal. Beginning November 1st, the enhanced PayPal Buyer Protection policy will also protect shoppers across the Asia Pacific region if they receive an item that is significantly different than that described by the PayPal merchant.

PayPal is an eBay company that enables global ecommerce. Their service allows members to send money without sharing financial information, with the flexibility to pay using their account balances, bank accounts, and credit cards in various markets. "PayPal is committed to giving consumers a safer online shopping experience through privacy, prevention and protection. Ultimately, we want consumers to be as comfortable with shopping online as if they had purchased the item in a real store, thus our expanded Buyer Protection Policy is another step in that direction," said Nimish Dwivedi, Regional Head of Marketing, PayPal Asia Pacific.

"When shoppers use PayPal this holiday shopping season and beyond, they will have greater peace of mind knowing that we are offering even more protection if something goes wrong." Nimish added, "Merchants who accept PayPal will benefit, too, as they know the more trust consumers have with online shopping, the more consumers will buy, especially from overseas and unfamiliar websites that provide great deals or offer items not available locally." In addition to its Buyer Protection policy, the company provides safeguards that are built into its global online payment platform:

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PayPal never shares a buyer's financial information with sellers, privacy is built into the service. PayPal provides zero liability for eligible unauthorized transactions on PayPal accounts. PayPal has one of the most sophisticated anti-fraud models in the payments industry, with an expertise of billions of processed transactions in the past 11 years.

With more than 87 million active accounts in 190 markets, and 24 currencies around the world, the company is proud that their technology often detects and stops fraudulent activity the moment it occurs and often before it ever reaches their customers.

TECHNOLOGIES & PRODUCTS

BlackBerry PlayBook Sets New Benchmark In Tablet Performance Research In Motion (RIM) recently unveiled its new professional-grade BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and BlackBerry Tablet OS, arousing the growing tablet market’s curiosity.

The BlackBerry PlayBook closes that gap and brings the real, full web experience to mobile users while also opening new and more exciting opportunities for developers and content publishers.

“RIM set out to engineer the best professional-grade tablet in the industry with cutting-edge hardware features and one of the world's most robust and flexible operating systems,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at Research In Motion. “The BlackBerry PlayBook solidly hits the mark with industry leading power, true multitasking, uncompromised web browsing and high performance multimedia.”

It includes dual HD cameras for video capture and video conferencing that can both record HD video at the same time, and an HDMI-out port for presenting one's creations on external displays and offers rich stereo sound and a media player as well.

Its ultra thin design, measuring less than half an inch thick and weighing less than a pound, with a 7” high resolution display, provides a unique mix of utility, performance and portability, that leaves nothing to be desired. Its groundbreaking performance is jointly fuelled by a 1 GHz dual-core processor and the new BlackBerry Tablet OS which supports true symmetric multiprocessing. Together, the abundant processing power and highly sophisticated OS enable the BlackBerry PlayBook to provide users with true multitasking and a highly-responsive and fluid touch screen experience for apps and content services. With support for Adobe® Flash® Player 10.1, Adobe® Mobile AIR® and HTML-5, the BlackBerry PlayBook provides customers with an uncompromised, highfidelity web experience and offers them the ability to enjoy all of the sites, games and media on the web. For more than a decade, the mobile industry has worked to bridge the gap between the “real web” and mobile devices through various apps and technologies and, in fact, a significant number of mobile apps today still simply serve as a proxy for web content that already exists on the web.

For those who carry a BlackBerry Smartphone, it will also be possible to pair their tablet and Smartphone using a secure Bluetooth® connection, which means they can interchangeably opt for the tablet or Smartphone display without worrying about syncing or duplicating data. The BlackBerry PlayBook is enterprise ready and compatible (out-of-the-box). It takes care of security and manageability issues that arise when corporate data is stored on yet another device, as it is built upon the QNX® Neutrino® microkernel architecture, one of the most reliable, secure and robust operating system architectures in the world. The Neutrino based microkernel architecture in the BlackBerry Tablet OS delivers exceptional performance, high scalability, Common Criteria EAL 4+ security, and support for industry standard tools that are already familiar to hundreds of thousands of developers. The OS is fully POSIX compliant enabling easy portability of C-based code, supports Open GL for 2D and 3D graphics intensive applications like gaming, and will run applications built in Adobe Mobile AIR as well as the new BlackBerry® WebWorks™ app and will therefore support Java enabling developers to easily bring their existing BlackBerry 6 Java applications to the BlackBerry Tablet OS environment. The BlackBerry Tablet OS SDK is released and developers can register for early access at www.blackberry.com/developers/tabletos

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Microsoft Truly Accelerates the “Beauty of the Web” Just month ago announced the the Just two months ago Microsoft Microsoft Corp. announced worldwide beta availability 9 - its worldwide availability ofofInternet its newExplorer Web browser new web Internet browserExplorer that takes full advantage of Windows Windows 9 that takes full advantage of 7. Around7.the same time I had the chance to meet Mr. Windows Richard that Dunmall, Advertising Around time IVice got President, a chance Microsoft to meet Mr. Richard Greater Asia and Americas, during Spikes Asia Dunmall, VicePacific President, Microsoft Advertising Greater in Singapore, who was indeed an interesting and Asia Pacific and Americas, during SPIKES Asia 2010 knowledgeable interviewee. Richard’s role is to work Advertising festival in Singapore, who has been indeed with advertisers publishers tointerviewee. build stronger conan interesting andand knowledgeable Richard’s sumer engagement in the digital space across the rerole is to work with advertisers and publishers to build gion in Asia Pacific, Canada and Latin America. Before stronger consumer engagement in the digital space moving to Asia in October 2008, Richard was the Senacross the region in Asia Pacific, Canada and Latin ior Vice President and Managing Director, EMEA for America. Before relocating to Asia in October 2008, Microsoft Advertiser and Publisher Solutions Group, Richard was the Senior Vice President and Managing incorporating Atlas, DRIVEpm, Massive and ScreenDirector, Tonic. EMEA for Microsoft Advertiser and Publisher Solutions Group, incorporating Atlas, DRIVEpm, Massive and ScreenTonic.

Prior to its acquisition by Microsoft, he had joined the then aQuantive owned technology and media network business in April 2006 and was responsible for expanding operations across Europe, Middle East and Africa, as well as continuing to grow its already present businesses in the UK. He has also worked on the agency side, as CEO for MindShare Interaction UK, for WPP’s Global Digital Media Investment Management Leadership team, and as CEO of mOne UK, a digital and direct marketing offering set up by MindShare and Ogilvy. Richard started his career in traditional publishing, predominately at VNU Business Publications, and learned his job on the go and has brought this rich experience to the digital industry. Rather than focusing on the then hot topic of IE9, I tried to glean some insights into Microsoft’s plans and activities in Asia Pacific. So read on to find out what Richard had to say.

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What are Microsoft Advertisingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s big business opportunities and challenges in Asia Pacific? Starting with the opportunities here in Asia, first of all there are a number of mobile first markets that can lead the way on the monetization of the mobile device. Mobile has been the new thing for years but it has not yet reached the tipping point to seize the opportunity to create an accessible market to lead the way. There are many markets in the region which are mobile first markets where a whole generation of consumers has no other internet experience except through mobile devices, for which this level of technology has only been around the past two to three years. Our strategy is to penetrate the market space with the Windows 7 Phone, as we feel that we are back on track as far as the mobile space is concerned, both from a consumer product perspective, as well as the advertising perspective. Through our broad range of contacts in all areas of the business we are able to connect technology and media. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s crucial, as the office of the CMO is increasingly at the crossroads between traditional and digital marketing, struggling to interconnect with the CFO, the CEO and the CIO. Thus, we are looking for platforms and tools we can build, that help create CMO dashboards or analytics that expose data which allow the making of better decisions in real time. Our clients increasingly ask us to provide the context to what is learnt about social, about search, about content, and about product development. Lastly, on the opportunity side, we see a shift in the way that media is procured. A Website used to be bought the same way you buy a magazine. However, you can see now increasingly, that monetization has to be made by more personalized content, which is especially exciting as it is still all fairly new in Asia.

The flip side, going into the challenges, we face is finding talent and uplifting our sales teams that understand and have the ability to convey whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s needed and know how to do it. Next is the agency community and overcoming the obstacle of how to shift their perception to go from traditional, which has worked well for many years, to digital whose success is not yet proven. Lastly we have to simplify how we as a company talk about ourselves. Our structures and areas of operation are so complex, that it is sometimes overwhelming to our customers when we try to convey it. What kind of digital advertising offers can clients expect from you? Most clients still think about us as MSN, which is fine. Our ad business has been built around MSN for the past 10-12 years. But in the meantime, through launches and acquisitions, our media portfolio expanded. Just think about X-Box, mobile, Windows Live, search, or addressable TV. Three things have been getting consumers and advertisers alike excited recently: 1. Bing, which by now, we believe, offers better functionality than our phenomenal search competitor; 2. Windows 7 Phone, which comes with a Bing button, can play XBox games, can link with all MS Office products, which no other mobile can; and 3. Kinect for X-Box, which now has a natural user interface, by moving without touching, as well as voice recognition. This takes it from a young male customer base to the whole age range and can also be used for advertising. You can watch your movies with the X-Box, without a remote, just by your voice.

Richard Dunmall Do you think mobile is the way to go, the small screen will replace the big one, or will the PC survive? I think that mobile interaction is the most exciting, but we have to think about it agnostically: What do you do when you are on the phone, what do you use the mobile PC or even gaming consoles and TVs for? Marketers now have to span their advertising stories across all these devices to be most effective, and not just say, this is a mobile campaign, this is an online campaign. Mobile devices have had a tough time, as expectations were high. Smart phone technologies have now advanced enough to make the experience a more holistic one - size of the screen, the ability to touch - that you will really see this explode to a new level. What kind of trends do you see in the online advertising arena here in Asia? At a high level we would see less advertising and more experiences. Next comes multi-screen, where all different media work together, TV, online, mobile, gaming console, etc.

COMPANIES & CAMPAIGNS

A lot of digital advertising in APAC has been quite simplistic in the way that it is performance-based, which actually applies globally. But the question is how to get the brands interested in understanding what the Internet can do? Microsoft is the largest player in this arena, also in APAC, and is able to cover all these different technologies. That is the success factor, as clients and agencies nowadays want to do more partnerships with less people, consolidating their activities with one player and then going deeper. What do you personally think of social media as a marketing platform? What’s the real value of user generated content? Please share your perspectives on this. For me, social media is less of a destination, but more of a connection between different media. We have been in this arena for quite some time - Instant Messenger, Hotmail are all in the social space. Right now, Facebook is leading in this field, but it could look different in five years time. We feel like we are in this space and part of it. If you look at the Windows 7 Phone, it has all the Facebook feeds on the home page and likewise in Win-

dows Live assets you can pull your photos, blogs, and instant messaging conversations all into one space. What we are being asked to look at is to think more and more about paid media, owned media, and earned media. In that space social media still has to develop a lot, so it’s still pretty early days. Measuring the effectiveness of social media is a hot topic, where influence and engagement are seen in general as the core metrics. How does Microsoft advertising evaluate social media? I think performance measurement is a much bigger industry issue than just social. I think we are one of many big players trying to figure out how we make it more accessible, how we judge success, and not just across social, but across mobile, across display, across search, across TV. Frankly, if you think about traditional media, the conventional measurement is to use 1,000 people panels. It is not that it is in doubt, as it has been accepted over 50 years and many companies make huge advertising decisions based on this.

However, that doesn’t mean they are right! So how can we learn from that? How can we translate that into the digital media? How can we get to a point that we can really articulate how we can interact with our audience in a way that is familiar for people who have been working in the industry for a long time? We do all sorts for branding studies with partners like Comscore and Nielsen, but it is actually a bigger challenge than just Microsoft. It is an agency challenge, a media owner challenge, it is a client challenge to have a unified view on the subject. I think that Richard is spot on; he has truly hit the bull’s-eye. Marketers still seem to feel uncomfortable with digital media and still need to be convinced of the enormous benefits, advantages and enhanced ROI it can deliver, which is, I guess, in the interest of all of us. So let’s consistently point out to them that it is important to embrace the openness and transparency of the Internet, which is not only the future of advertising and marketing but also the most cost effective use of advertising and marketing spend – simply the way to do business in the future. By Daniela La Marca

COMPANIES & CAMPAIGNS

Spectrum Worldwide Places Emphasis on Social Media for OCBC Cycle Singapore 2011

The third annual OCBC Cycle Singapore will take place from 4 to 6 March 2011, and will feature a professional night race for the first time. The sky is the limit for Chris Robb, Managing Director of Spectrum Worldwide, who sets the targets higher by expecting an increase of 30% for the next year with at least 12,000 participants. To achieve these goals, part of his marketing strategy is to make use of social media channels, like Twitter and Facebook, which directly interface with the event website, as well as other groups. With an impressive track record of 16 years in the Asia Pacific region, Spectrum Worldwide, the event management and experiential marketing company has often brought clients’ brands to life and positioned them well by creating opportunities to showcase values in a memorable and compelling way. Encouraging an active and healthy lifestyle across all ages and fitness levels through cycling remains the key message the event intends to spread. The fact that this event targets all age groups - from children’s tricycle races to competitive racing, all the way to social cycling that targets older age groups – demands a great deal of organizational and creative skills. Mastering challenges is Chris Robb’s passion, as seen again in the case of OCBC Cycle Singapore, where he intends to impress and convince the masses to be part of the movement. I had a chance to have a brief talk with Spectrum Worldwide’s charismatic leader last week, during their media invite and asked him some questions about his annual large-scale project.

How do you expect social media will increase support for your event? “Our new OCBC Cycle Singapore website is linked to social media like Facebook and Twitter via widget buttons on our website. This feature allows our visitors to easily share articles or content on the site that they like. The “viral effect” goes both ways – website visitors go to our Facebook and Twitter pages, and in turn, we increase traffic to our website from our social media properties. We know that it will be hard to monitor the actual increase in participation directly attributable to these media, but I expect about 5-10% of the targeted growth to come from social media.” What resources have you devoted to your social media strategy? “In order to optimize the usage of these channels, a dedicated team of three will be responsible to monitor, steer and promote this medium. This year we have hired dedicated resources to monitor an array of social media sites and blogs. We are using Facebook and Twitter to engage in healthy dialogue with the public – we gather feedback, respond, and provide solutions.” How will you create engagement in OCBC Cycle Singapore’s social media campaign? “Social media and online marketing are a natural fit for mass sporting events like OCBC Cycle Singapore. We will drive awareness and increase participation by delivering exclusive content, run fun competitions on a platform that everybody is comfortable with, and eventually drive traffic back to the website. The intersection of sports and social media is an area that has gathered momentum over the past few years and we need to maintain a close line of communication between us, the participants, potential participants and fans.

COMPANIES & CAMPAIGNS

Social media is a perfect vehicle for this type of customer contact and as speed does matter immediacy is a must. Social media, when managed well, can provide just that.” What else is planned for next year’s event? “OCBC Cycle Singapore 2011 will host, for the first time, a live music festival - the Rock and Ride Festival - that will feature local musicians and bands during the first two event days. In addition, the OCBC Cycle Singapore Professional Criterium 2011 will take place not only under floodlights, but also in cooler temperatures, along a new 1.7km route around the F1 Pit Building, allowing spectators to get closer to the action. It will be one of the first televised night cycling races to be staged in Asia Pacific and will feature an exciting line up of 65 top professionals from around the world including members of the OCBC Cycling Team.

Exciting developments are also forthcoming for other rider categories in this mass participation cycling festival, as 20-25% of the route for The Nissan Challenge (40km) and The Super Challenge (60km) are totally new, and give riders the opportunity to cycle on a more scenic route through the city. Similarly, the previous 50km distance set for The Super Challenge will be extended to 60km in response to participants’ request for a longer cycling experience on closed roads. Cyclists looking for a less strenuous workout will continue to be served by the Community Ride (20km).” How has recruiting support been for such an event? “OCBC, returning title sponsor, has committed to continue support the event for two years to 2012. In addition, for the first time, Tan Chong Motors will sponsor the popular 40 km ride, which has been renamed ‘The Nissan Challenge’. OCBC Cycle Singapore is also supported by the Singapore Sports Council (SSC) and the Singapore Amateur Cycling Association (SACA).

OCBC Cycle Singapore 2011, as in previous years, recognises the need to give back to the community. The National Cancer Centre Research Foundation (NCCRF) and the Singapore Children’s Society (SCS) are again the chosen charities, and we hope to double the amount of funds raised in 2010 to $100,000. With the exciting addition of the night time Professional Criterium, as well as the new routes for the ‘Nissan Challenge’ and ‘Super Challenge’, there is no doubt that 2011 will see the best OCBC Cycle Singapore event ever. As the event is growing in popularity throughout the region, and we had a large cross-section of nationalities represented last year, we are continuing to explore ways that we can further promote the event regionally and enhance its status as the most popular ride in the region.” By Roger Stadler For videos and pictures on the event, please see here YouTube and Flickr or go to the Website.

Chris Robb, (far right)

COMPANIES & CAMPAIGNS

Friendster Launches Music and Games Portals in Asia Friendster, one of the leading social networking sites for young Asians, announced that it is launching social media portals for music and social gaming fans in Asia. The portals are the latest ventures from Friendster which was acquired in December 2009 by MOL Global (www.molglobal.net), one of Asia’s leading online payment companies.z “As a social networking site, Friendster has tremendous experience to make the Friendster Music and Friendster Games as socially connected portals for developers, artists and their fans. Friendster has a strong physical presence in Asia and now that it is part of MOL Global, we see huge opportunities to partner with developers and independent musicians to aid them in new ways of delivering and monetising their content to their fans,” said Ganesh Kumar Bangah, Friendster’s CEO and Group CEO for MOL Global.

Friendster Music (music.friendster.com) looks to champion independent music from around the region, aiding the discovery of zzzzzzzznew music and catered towards the Asian consumer by providing content and information that are useful and relevant to this region. The music portal provides the latest information on music news, updates and concerts happening around the region, featuring new music from independent artists as well as running online contests for free giveaways of merchandise, concert tickets and more. Friendster Music will also feature artist profiles of upand-coming, as well as established, artists from around the region and allow these artists to build their own communities. Plans are underway to feature music blogs and reviews as well as ringtone downloads. Friendster is already in discussion with several record labels to feature their content on the portal.

COMPANIES & CAMPAIGNS

Friendster Music is currently available, in beta version only, for Malaysia. However, with the aim to become a regional platform for music, there are many plans already in the making. As social games become increasingly popular among online users, Friendster recently launched a new gaming portal.

Friendster Games (friendster.com/ games) is designed to deliver easier-to-access, entertaining, locally flavoured and highly immersive MMO (massively multiplayer online) web games to Friendster users. Currently, the portal features new games such as BoomZ, War2, 3Kingdom, Sushido and Lady Popular played right within the browser.

Friendster is currently building partnerships with content developers, driving marketing activities of the portal across Asia and leveraging on MOLâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s strong distribution channels and monetization services. Intended as a beta service, the new music and games portals will pave the way for social gaming and virtual goods to be the central part of Friendsterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s future.

In past years, no media, no communication, and no form of advertising has developed such a momentum and dynamism as online advertising â&#x20AC;&#x201C; but no other segment of the advertising market is at the same time subject to such rapid change.

LEGISLATION

Privacy Concerns: Self-regulation or What? Global online advertising spending will reach $61.8 billion by the end of this year, a 2% increase from 2009, according to eMarketer, predicting further that it will grow at an 11.9% compound annual rate and that the Internet's share of total global ad spending will reach 17.2% by 2014. Such impressive numbers raise concerns and the question whether eMarketer has also considered restrictive legislation in their calculations. Worries over Internet privacy are being hotly debated right now, especially in the US, where lawmakers have given strong signals that they will act to protect online consumersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; privacy. It could be that consumer data privacy legislation will be debated in both chambers of Congress early next year and this means that websites would have to get opt-in permission from consumers before sharing consumer data with third parties. Any such new rules would harm the online advertising industry enormously, but they would especially undermine the basis of the Internet as we know it in terms of free content and companies being able to monetize it.

The Direct Marketing Association would most probably support self-regulation efforts, but actually the big question here is if the initiative would have a real impact at all. As online marketing becomes progressively sophisticated, closing one door usually means that another one opens. So, it can be expected that in the coming years, new technology and innovation will empower marketers and advertisers to access even more details about computer usersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; online activities. Just look at the new Web code HTML 5, for instance, that promises to usher in a new era of Internet browsing within the next few years. It will enable users to view multimedia content without downloading extra software, to check e-mail offline, or support finding a favorite restaurant or shop on a Smartphone. The reason why it is hotly debated right now is not because of the many benefits it provides, but for the reason that HTML 5 discloses privacy issues.

LEGISLATION

Although, the additional features will most probably be extremely attractive for most of its users and resolve all their doubt of “cookies with a very long memory”, others will be more cautious as the new Web language and its additional features present more tracking opportunities. The technology uses a process in which large amounts of data can be collected and stored on the user’s hard drive while online, which enables advertisers and others to see weeks or even months of personal data. That could include a user’s location, time zone, photographs, text from blogs, shopping cart contents, e-mails and a history of the Web pages they have visited.

Some companies in the US have already been accused of violating users’ privacy by tracking their online activities even after they took steps to prevent that, which gives us a hint of what could come. Considering all the free content and services that consumers now enjoy because of advertising revenue, it is imperative that any new laws are carefully tailored. Promoting self-regulation is probably the better solution to keep sensitive consumer data private while giving web marketers access to their target consumers. Make use of your right to self-defense and control your online privacy by adjusting the settings of your Web browser. The most common ones, such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Safari have different privacy settings and will most probably improve them over the course of time, so that removing data created by the new Web language will be easier and more efficient, if required.

According to experts, the privacy settings shouldn’t be too tough as it could prevent popular Websites from working properly. It should be possible, however, to eliminate all tracking capabilities at once, if needed. Software developers and representatives of the World Wide Web argue that as technology advances, consumers have to balance its speed and features against their ability to control their privacy. It can be terrifying to know that information about who you are and what you're doing continually floats around in cyber space, only to be picked apart by outside parties for their own benefit. Privacy will therefore always be an issue, especially since targeted, behavioral ads can identify our interests and even our general location. The simple fact is that you can’t embrace freefor-all services and content and at the same time shield yourself completely from the curiosity of others – you will have to pay a price. By Daniela La Marca

LEGISLATION

Promoting selfregulation is probably the better solution to keep sensitive consumer data private while giving web marketers access to their target consumers.

BUZZWORD

Post-click Marketing Post-click marketing is emerging as a recognized practice that aims at improving sales and marketing results by focusing on website visitors when they respond to online marketing activities such as pay per click advertising, HTML e-mails, and paid searches with the objective on increasing conversion rates. Post-click marketing relies on specific software and services that go beyond the information collected by popular web analytic tools such as Google Analytics. For example, they distinguish themselves in their ability to supplement IP addresses with data from third-party sources, enabling marketing managers to view the name of the company visiting their website, their location, and the industry they are in. There are many ways in which this information gathered about website visitors can be used. Marketers might wish to use the information to detect if they are attracting their desired target audience to their landing pages, or to personalize the content based on the visitor’s language or location. Inside Sales tend to use it for lead generation purposes, writing e-mails to e-mail contacts they can find for the visiting organization. Post-click marketing solutions appeal on many fronts as they offer a kind of best practices and useful techniques to improve a user’s landing experience when they respond to online marketing such as e-mail, paid search, and direct mail campaigns, with the objective to the increase conversion rates of the most qualified respondents while increasing real-time marketing knowledge. Successful post-click marketing campaigns can be characterized e.g. by the following techniques:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Conversion paths Message matching Segmenting Qualification Conversion Testing Analysis

1. Post-click marketing is built around the concept of conversion paths. Respondents begin by clicking on a paid search keyword, a banner ad, or e-mail link. They land on a starting page from which they make a one-click choice about who they are and what they’re looking for. Subsequent pages on the conversion path give respondents a series of simple choices, stepping

them along through a short sequence of targeted messages, based on the choices they’ve made, toward conversion. An effective path might have two steps or eight, with multiple branches for each category of respondent. Each step is custom-tailored to deliver the right fulfillment to the right respondent. Since conversion path messages are matched to the message of the originating click, each campaign may have multiple conversion paths authored to speak directly to the audience for each paid search keyword, banner ad, or email marketing link. Conversion paths consist of the initial segmentation page, a number of subsegmentation pages (depending on how many are necessary for you to group and categorize your field of prospects), an offer page, and a fulfillment page. Why conversion paths are valuable: Post-click marketing enables you to collect information in real time as users move along the conversion path, which can be used to qualify respondents and assign them a score based on their relative importance to you. By collecting data with each self-identifying respondent click, post-click marketing enables you to gain valuable insights about respondents who don’t convert, even those who may abandon halfway through the path. 2. Post-click marketing matches the message to the click. Conversion paths fulfill the promise of the originating click, delivering each respondent to a targeted message and fulfillment based on the message in which they originally expressed interest. At each step along the path, every message from the initial segmentation page through conversion features the same content and tone as the banner ad or e-mail message that directed respondents to that path, confirming a match between what you offer and what respondents want. Why message matching is valuable: With message matching, post-click marketing reaffirms respondents’ choices, paying off their investment in the click and ultimately yielding a more qualified lead. That’s good for your response rate, and good for your brand.

Buzzword

3. Respondents, even those arriving from the same traffic source, are not all the same. They often click through based on a very small “hook” of information, such as a banner ad or search keyword, which leads to many diverse audiences arriving at each conversion path. Post-click marketing provides the tools to segment these audiences into manageable, discrete groups. Through a simple series of clicks, respondents selfselect the experience of your message that is most tailored to their interests. Every piece of information that is collected from respondents can then be used to segment them at any point along a path. In some cases, this might be the result of landing on a particular page (or some other form of automatic segment identification), but more often it will be the result of a choice by the respondent - a click, a download, filling out a form. These self-identifying actions by the respondent provide key intelligence that gives you the ability to understand which audience segments are abandoning and which are converting, which leads to understanding which sources of traffic yield better respondents and better conversions. Why segmenting is valuable: Segmenting respondents within conversion paths benefits you and them. Path content that’s custom-tailored to each audience delivers the best experience of your brand, and builds trust that you are responding to their unique needs. Segmenting also enables you to determine the different audiences arriving from each traffic source and the degree to which the path qualifies and converts them, ultimately enabling you to adjust the path or traffic source in a way that will maximize your results. 4. The post-click marketing qualification score provides a way to assess the relative attractiveness of respondents and conversions from a particular path. In post-click marketing, a qualifying score is automatically calculated as a respondent navigates through a path.

When a respondent first lands on a path, his qualifying score starts at 0. Scoring can be affected when the respondents take any action on the path, such as downloading a file or clicking through to another page, or automatically, based on the originating domain, day of the week, or other relevant criteria. Qualifying scores are extremely flexible. You decide how many points are possible on each given path—different paths may have very different ranges—and how those points are distributed across each action on that path. Therefore, the meaning of a particular score is entirely dependent on its context. Why qualification is valuable: Particularly when you’re acquiring respondents on a pay-per-click basis, the quality of respondents from each traffic source becomes a crucial metric. This is a valuable way to quantify the effectiveness of traffic sources as well as paths. 5. The final step of a post-click marketing path is conversion, usually signified by submission of a form that enables you to capture a lead (but technically a conversion can be anything). A path may have more than one way in which a respondent can be converted - reaching the last page in a path, downloading a particular document - and in post-click marketing, this can be easily configured on a path-by-path basis. Conversion rate is the marketing term for the percentage of respondents who “complete” a path out of the total number of respondents who first land on that path. Conversion rate is traditionally the most common metric by which to judge campaigns, but it’s important to also note the actual number of respondents. A 4% conversion rate on a traffic source that only generated 100 click-throughs is not necessarily equivalent to a 4% conversion rate on a traffic source that generated 10,000 click-throughs: it’s the difference between 4 leads and 400. Similarly, qualifying score makes a big difference: 400 mediocre conversions are not the same as 400 qualified leads.

Why conversion is valuable: Qualified leads are not clicks, but people who have expressed an interest in your offer. Post-click marketing acknowledges that cost-per-click isn’t the best metric for gauging the success of a campaign. If your mission is to generate qualified leads, the relevant metric is cost-perconversion. 6. Testing is the cornerstone of post-click marketing and a disciplined way to gauge the effectiveness of a campaign. Depending on the campaign, the traffic source, the media in which the traffic source was placed or the segments of the respondents, a very different type of path may prove best. With post-click marketing’s real-time analysis tools, conversion paths can be tested and immediately improved to yield ever-more significant results. Why testing is valuable: Post-click marketing gives you the ability to easily experiment with substantially different paths, and over time recognize patterns of what works best in a variety of circumstances. You’re able to leverage and expand your organizational learning about effective pathbased marketing - tailored to your markets.

Buzzword

7. Analysis: Creating, testing and optimizing. The company that came up with â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Seven Principles of Post-Click Marketingâ&#x20AC;?, ion interactive, provides with its LiveBall cloud-based landing page software presented above, a set of ready-to-go tools that address the fundamental question: which respondent segments, arriving from which traffic sources, are converted most effectively by which paths? Why analysis is valuable: Knowledge about your most valuable traffic sources and most qualified leads enables you to make the right media buys, capture the right audience and convert the best leads with the right fulfillment - in short, to optimize your entire online direct marketing chain, not just the individual components.

With pressure to generate more leads with smaller budgets, postclick marketing is likely to grow in usage. If used properly, it can provide marketing executives with powerful insights and be helpful in engaging visitors who normally go totally unidentified by sales and marketing. Source: Wikipedia

APPOINTMENTS

Palo Alto Networks appointed Song Tang Yih as its Vice President of Sales for Asia Pacific including Australia and New Zealand. Song brings strong leadership skills and two decades of solid industry experience to this position. Prior to joining Palo Alto Networks, Song spent eight years in F5 Networks, a leading Application Delivery Network technology company, and had a short stint at OWW Capital, a private equity investment company that focuses on IT, logistics, healthcare, and financial services. He has held several senior management roles in sales, marketing, channel operations and business management at IBM Singapore and Lotus Development Corp. Song holds a Bachelor of Science degree from National University of Singapore.

Extreme Networks, Inc. announced the appointment of Thanee Chavasirikultolas Country Manager for Thailand. Thanee, helming Extreme’s first office in Thailand since May 2010, will be responsible for overseeing and implementing Extreme’s strategy to expand its footprint and drive greater market share in existing and new market segments. He will also build a team of proven professionals to support and execute go-to-market strategies and enhance Extreme’s presence in Thailand. He will be reporting directly to Nicky Choo, Extreme Networks’ Regional Director in South East Asia. Prior to joining Extreme Networks, Thanee held senior management positions in global technology and networking companies including Enterasys Network, Siemens Enterprise Communication Group, Lucent Technologies and Madge Networks. During his 19 years in business he has developed excellent relationships with a very wide network of decision makers in many verticals including telecommunications, government, finance and energy. He has a proven track record in securing new major accounts and developing effective partnership infrastructure. Thanee has a Bachelors Degree in Electrical Engineering from King Mongkut Institute of Technology Ladkrabang (KMITL), a Masters Degree in Computer Science from Chulalongkorn University and also a Masters of Business Administration from Thammasat University. Today, he also contributes in academia as a member of the Board of Alumni in the Faculty of Engineering in KMITL.

Ovum is proud to welcome back Elaine Chow as a Senior Consultant with the Ovum Asia-Pacific consulting team. Elaine will be based in their Hong Kong office. Elaine brings with her 10 years of international experience in providing strategic advice to operators, vendors, regulators and governments in Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East on all aspects of telecoms regulations, policy and commercial strategy. Elaine’s areas of expertise include access and interconnection, cost modelling, competition, NGN/NGA, pricing and opex management strategies. Elaine was previously a consultant at Ovum’s Melbourne office and now rejoins Ovum from Ernst & Young Hong Kong’s Telecoms Business Advisory team, where she focussed on the Greater China and South East Asia regions. Elaine was also with Pricewaterhouse Coopers’ Telecoms Strategy team based out of London, and at Maxis Communications, Malaysia, where she specialised in telecoms regulations.

APPOINTMENTS

The Mobile Marketing Association announced the appointment of Greg Stuart as President and CEO. Mr. Stuart was President and CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) from 2001 through 2007. During his tenure that organization’s revenue grew more than 500 percent, its membership by ten times and Internet Advertising spend grew from USD$6 billion to more than USD$17 billion annually. Over the past three years, Mr. Stuart has served as advisor, director and angel investor to more than a dozen venture-backed companies worldwide. In addition to his industry leading status in advertising and digital media, his operating expertise includes leading cross-functional teams in product development, go-to-market strategy, company positioning, business development/ deal making, marketing, and scalable revenue generation with a record of success in both rapid growth businesses and turnarounds. Mr. Stuart will be based in New York and will oversee MMA’s global operations and enhance MMA’s effectiveness at the global, regional and national levels in order to reach its goal of making mobile an indispensible part of the marketing mix. His immediate focus will be to work with members to dramatically increase marketing spend on mobile while helping brands and agencies to be more successful; and to support media as well as technology companies and carriers to develop and prosper within the mobile marketing ecosystem.

Independent marketing agency iris has appointed digital heavyweight David Brown to head up its expanded digital operation. Brown, who joined recently from XM Asia, is known for co-founding Sydney boutique agency Soap Creative and has worked for other leading agencies including Euro RSCG. He will report to the agency’s managing director Craig Mapleston. Brown, who has led the strategic and creative vision for digital campaigns for major global brands including Diageo, Dell, Barclay, Sony, Nokia, adidas, Peugeot, Virgin Atlantic, MSN and Orange, will spearhead iris’ strong digital offering. He will advise agency clients on maximising online opportunities as part of integrated or standalone campaigns. His work has been recognized by organizations such as New York Festivals, Cannes and the NMA’s. David has also been on judging panels for the Creative Circle Awards, AWWWARD, EPICA’s and the 2010 Cannes Cyber Lions.

In addition, iris has also appointed Ponnusamy Appu, who joined from OgilvyOne as Senior Developer, alongside a team of three new front and backend developers. Appu, who has been involved in the creation of highprofile digital projects such as Yahoo’s Purple Hunt website and Singtel’s Football Frenzy web portal, will be charged with leading iris’ team of interactive developers.

APPOINTMENTS

FocusVision, a global provider of live video transmission, analysis and archive solutions for the qualitative market research industry today announced its opening of FocusVision Asia located in Singapore, along with the appointment of Patricia Poo to the position of Regional Director, Asia. Most recently, Patricia was the Associate Partner, Southeast Asia and Taiwan at The Gallup Organization, a leading research-based consulting firm, where she spearheaded the acquisition of many new clients in the region.

Telenor Connexion opens new office in Japan strengthening its presence in the Asia/Pacific region. The company has already established itself as a leading global M2M provider in the region working with a number of prominent Japanese customers and several automotive OEMâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s. The office, located in Tokyo, is managed by Ola Olsson, Country Manager for Japan and Korea. Mr. Olsson has more than 10 years of experience in various sales functions within the Telenor Group and at Vodafone and will work closely with customers and partners in Japan and Korea to strengthen existing relationships and identify new business opportunities. Telenor Connexion is wholly owned by Telenor Group, which serves more than 60 million mobile subscribers in Asia.

Mobile Advertising Network InMobi appointed Rice Communications for regional support in Asia for its communications requirements in the region, including key markets such as India and Australia, for the next twelve months.

IMPRINT

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

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Circulation & IT Manager: Mike Khoo Sales & Marketing: Carla Bertuzzi Articles contributed by: Eric Chong Rohit Dadwal Roger Stadler Eden Zoller

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