Social Media « Social Networking and New Markets

Who is shopping for services in India AND China online?

December 17, 2010 11 Comments

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You must have noticed thru the two years of Advantage social / Advantage zyaada/ Advantage Brands our use of content systems from the blogverse has been incidental and for rebuilding social capital

Google in fact does realise that and does not list our analyses in blog pages, listing it in the main search results pages..one of the popular ones with both bing and google and Facebook being “Bank results season” others of course almost all business topics with Advantages.us before and after it. Twitterone has survived too. the purpose of the catcalls – to look for the needle in the haystack, the paying proposition…thence the title of this piece. Though bloggyish, this post also will not be a narrative of my travails and tribulations much so because that would at best be a paying blog/blogger and i am trying to harness the social web and the global financial markets with a bigger idea. I am of course catching the most picky topics so many brands have done exactly the things i liked or “asked” them to do and so did many sports rise in the social world so most of my readers do have an instant opportunity to become instant competitors when they come across the right words to launch their inner demon ( the good guy, the achiever) from the millions on offer. But the thornier question is to find the way to profits and greenbacks while creating and preserving profits and brands for you without resorting to the flailing tactics of the hitherto Wall Street champion, WSJ or even the Pearson media property the FT.

The digital media of iPad, Kindle or the web properties of Facebook and Twitter are closer to the utopia but even these cannot claim to have it good in that cradle of human consumption for the next two decades. Oreos and Mac and Cheese might still have a better chance than the digital business models in getting paying customers here in Asia. And there in, lies my pain..

For others who have the funding and the people to back the ideas, they might consider the following as essential requirements in selling services on this side of the sunshine line:

1. A value proposition that does not need anything more than a bare visit to the property to prove its worth. India and China consumers and corporate customers are very much concerned with the intuitive buy in and not reams of proposals and analysis

2. An ability to continuously deliver a paying surprise. Services products especially need to withstand the torment of time and patience and produce winners like clockwork, like your sports stars we’d rather buy a daily Venus Williams than a once an Olympics Agassi..

3. Find a paying club to back you. Individuals and Credit Card customers are unlikely to buy more than groceries or laptops, offices, resident associations and even midwives clubs are more likely to buy subscriptions, consulting services or even taxi services. ( fleets just have to charge lesser than a taxi to sign up, and they’ve hardly done anything else anywhere else in the globe)

The caveats are many and stay the same much because of entrants like the WSJ and Apple:

!. Most global services/ design brands end up looking at a premium/luxury niche alone in these markets – Great for profits but still not likely to tap even 5% of the Consumption club in these countries across the new towns, the boom towns and the always forever towns

2. Do a little soul-searching when you do your staffing..Most global services brands make more than a few costly hiring mistakes when they come in the open door and it is difficult to overturn these later..typically a lot of European brands could attest to such an experience ( and Kraft of course )

3. Go on a media binge – it pays. IT’s ok in the caveats, really. That is the lesson early advantage seekers may have learnt already. This market rewards public presence tremendously. Get good PR and make it work continuously. Buy more advertising, just to sell the name for a few first months and then for the services ideally. The caveat – these markets can be very suspicious of a name they have just heard and reward the competitor who irrespective of product or service quality is louder and more lucrative for the distributors

4. last but not the least, despite the lower likelihood of unemployment, the number of free hangers-on who will never write a word for or against you or actually analyse their own pronouncements before making them will stay in the high millions for every trusted advisor you sign here. WOM – what’s that?

Bing upgrades draw upon Facebook, other partners (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
Google Will Respond to “valid Requests” for Data From India (pcworld.com)
Google Zeitgeist: What Did India Actually Search? (globalthoughtz.com)

Filed under Cricket, Digital Media, Facebook, Financial Services, Lifestyle Brands, Marketing, Social Media, Sports Tagged with Advertising, Bing, China, Facebook, Google, India, Wall Street

Going Social is not about virality | Advantage social

November 23, 2010 Leave a comment

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It gives one a nice smart winning feeling just talking about one of those age-old rivalries in Marketing esp after the touch and go ( mostly go, no touch with reality) viral attempts by big time brands like Amex and News Corp ( see Advantage Brands on the ugly viral mash )

We have earlier asked brands to concentrate on he social media focal point wholesomely as well, as most of our discerning readership would have in myriad statuses and local discussions always a nice point to be made). Lo and behold the ones that count have engaged in battle from the brands namely Pepsi and Coke have finally been competing head to head on rival social media platforms/ agents i.e. Foursquare hosting Pepsi promotions for Gym rats badges and the now popular SCVNGR hosting Coke challenges Zynga and Facebook would be happy to add such brand rivalries esp. if between the soapy suds of Unilever/Dove and P&G or Oprah( i know we have seen the last of her) and Conan or Jay Leno and Conan or when Honda’s competitors grasp the chance to get on with it on Facebook as the auto brands revv up for a fight.

And yes, this is another strict warning to those of our colleagues still producing viral videos..Get a life, dude! (nope, that is not just swagger and flimsy, it is the real positioning statement Social media has made against the Viral mash that has dominated the notorious internet till date)

Location-Based Cola Wars: Pepsi, Coke, Foursquare and SCVNGR (readwriteweb.com)
Afraid of Social Media? (and Other PR Blog Jots) (mediabullseye.com)
Texas Hold’em Poker – Apps Using Social Media Brilliantly (thoughtpick.com)
New Research Benchmarks Best Practices in Social Media Marketing (prweb.com)
Wooga: Virality is Dead, Long Live Engagement (insidesocialgames.com)

Filed under Social Media Tagged with Brand, Coca-Cola, Facebook, Jay Leno, Pepsi, SCVNGR, Social Media, Zynga

And you thought facebook was the problem? | Advantage zyaada

November 18, 2010 Leave a comment

BTW, Yahoo Marketers, we really hate the misuse of property in your Chevy showcase currently on..read on for Marketing research’s confessions and confabulations

For techie bashers though i guess the problem here is some arcane and ancient mariner support technologies like script and php that have created this problem for years in mapping software as well..but really new age new troubles and new innovations have never been reduced to as absurd as these:

Thanks to Advertising Age for the “scoop”

Nielsen disclosed today that its online measurement system has been under-counting unique visitors to the top 1,000 sites on the web by an average of 5%, the latest in a series of problems for the company.

Read Nielsen’s note to clients.

Adage: Nielsen can't count on facebook

In a note to clients today, the company said that social gaming sites were most affected by the latest glitch. The note did not say how long the under-counting had gone on; last week the company said problems had impacted metrics over the past three months, but sources told Ad Age that Nielsen knew about them far earlier.

Last week Nielsen disclosed it had been seriously underestimating the amount of time people spend on the web because its system was choking on long web addresses — those with than 2,000 characters — which have become increasingly common during visits to social networking sites like Facebook.

That was the single biggest factor in causing Nielsen to underestimate the amount of time people spend on the web by 22%. In better news today, Nielsen said it had successfully tested a fix for that problem and that the fix would be implemented for November data

Other known tech snarls are also around script, with Flash ads that spread like on reuters.com, carrying impactful brand messaging and activation mails or social media pushes that resembles the polar bears frostiness in welcoming thought ( like Coke )but then we could just get too tired thinking much about all these mere passing faults as facebook messaging rewrites email

Nielsen Points To System ‘Flaw’ For Under-Reporting Time Spent On Websites (paidcontent.org)
Nielsen Owns Up To More Counting Errors (observer.com)

Filed under Social Media Tagged with Facebook, Nielsen

That’s the way to go, Wash Po | Advantage social

September 6, 2010 1 Comment

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Metrics are the one thing that can keep your dream alive. Esp if you are a newspaper in the face of an onslaught of new technology and waning interest in old tales..

Sounding upbeat on analytics definitely makes us a miniscule minority, but then if you read thru this NY Times copy, you can see what is behind the enthusiasm to read those boring graphs and irritating red dots. After all, getting to instantly correct something in your approach is a tangible win and gets results too.

Looking to the public for insight on how to cover a topic is never comfortable for newsrooms, which have the deeply held belief that readers come to a newspaper not only for its information but also for its editorial judgment. But many newsrooms now seem to be re-examining that idea and embracing, albeit cautiously, a more democratic approach to serving up the news, particularly online.

“How can you say you don’t care what your customers think?” asked Alan Murray, who oversees online news at The Wall Street Journal. “We care a lot about what our readers think. But our readers also care a lot about our editorial judgment. So we’re always trying to balance the two.”

Editors at The Journal, like those at other large newspapers, follow the Web traffic metrics closely. The paper’s top editors begin their morning news meetings with a rundown of data points, including the most popular search terms on WSJ.com, which articles are generating the most traffic and what posts are generating buzz on Twitter.

At The Washington Post, a television screen with an array of data — the number of unique visitors towashingtonpost.com, how many articles those visitors view and where on the Web those visitors came from — is on display for the entire newsroom. A red or green marker designates each data point, indicating whether the Web site’s goal for the month on that particular metric has been met. About 120 people in The Post’s newsroom get an e-mail each day laying out how the Web site performed in the closely watched metrics — 46 in all.

Feb 7 WaPo Front Page: Stimulus Bill Compromis...

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TBD director not satisfied with how Washington Post used its video feed during Discovery hostage standoff (thenextweb.com)
WaPo poll: Don’t get cocky, GOP! (hotair.com)
WaPO Secret America, site up (warintel.blogspot.com)

Filed under Social Media Tagged with Media, Newspapers, Social Networking, United States, Wall Street Journal, WaPo, Wash Po, Washington Post

Virgin: The hits keep coming | Advantage Brands

September 5, 2010 Leave a comment

Virgin’s maverick brand has not been getting any help from its failure to launch in the contiguous United States across the pond or a virtual no-show in the F1 calendar by the deep blue and deep behind Virgin F1 team. Now its Virgin Atlantic Airline is overcoming last year’s “Red Hot” $8 million in advertising with a new premium advertising campaign with almost double the tab as FT reports in face of higher losses, smaller routes and a lot of job cuts at the Airline. Virgin is also likely to face increasing competition in an industry that suffered $9 bn in losses in 2009 with BA and Iberia also merging together. The campaign likely builds on the brand’s comeback in business travel.

The airline’s 25th anniversary campaign did not help it much but the company attributes that to the recession

Virgin Atlantic Airways is to nearly double its advertising spending this year on a global campaign due to start just weeks after the airline reported the worst losses in its 26-year history.

In a further sign of recovery that some advertisers are seeing around the world, the carrier founded by Sir Richard Branson will on Wednesday launch a £10m ($15m) campaign, its first global marketing effort.

Virgin Atlantic’s new campaign will focus on 13 of the airline’s most important markets, including the US, the Caribbean, India, China, Dubai and Australia.

The details of the campaign are for all to see in visual and print:

(campaign) The creative aims to capture the glamour, style and comfort of flying Virgin Atlantic Upper Class and the little touches of ‘Je ne sais quoi’ that set it apart.

The campaign first launched in the US at the end of May and is in the process of being rolled out across 32 key destination markets for the Sir Richard Branson-controlled airline.

Virgin's Flights of Fancy for the Premium 'je ne sais quoi' - This time in economic pink

Filed under Social Media

Facebook Places? Nah! just try the games | Advantage social

August 23, 2010 2 Comments

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This is where Bloomberg caught it

Honda Motor Corp.’s campaign for its new CR-Z car features the hybrid vehicle in some colorful roadside billboards that can’t be seen from a freeway.

The ads are on display in Facebook Inc.’s virtual game “Car Town,” as Honda advertises on the social-network site for the first time today. The game, which allows users to collect and customize cars, has 3.1 million users. It was released on Facebook two weeks ago by Cie Games Inc.

Brands are turning to social networks to reach an audience with leisure time on its hands and the patience to sit through branded messages. Walt Disney Co., Electronic Arts Inc. and Google Inc. have all bought games makers in recent months to benefit from millions of users signing up to play.

Honda joins the august company of Starbucks, Pepsi, P&G and not to forget Coke’s brilliant virality as brand spends on social media increased by two times their 2009 budgets and the resultant Facebook executives are trying hard to keep all the gaming revenues on board as well apart from being one happy property for all brands seeking to reinventing their digital self. Most social brand offshoots are a distinct stream of thought and social conscious hoping to merge into their brands mainstream value for a ‘new me’ that is more persistent. Meanwhile even in conservative markets interactive product placement times and budgets are also likely to jump from $3.6 billion in the US and $600 million in Europe. (Europe has new laws on Product placement as designated by the common market execs).

Facebook’s ‘Car Town’ Reaps Honda Ad Spending in Shift to Games (businessweek.com)
Facebook Places and Other Location Based Billing Services (chasingeyes.com)
Social Gaming a Great Opportunity for Brands, Says Reality Digital (rushprnews.com)
Honda boosts profits through virtual Facebook game (computing.co.uk)

Filed under Digital Media, Facebook, Lifestyle Brands, Marketing, Social Media Tagged with Brands, Business, Facebook, Product placement

Making social media a focal point for your brand | Advantage social

August 7, 2010 Leave a comment

How brand spend is shooting the moon for Facebook

We just finished connecting the dots on how the facebook’s like button is catching up as any brand’s main character. Having defended and hoped for FB and Twitter to make 30% of global budgets for brands, it was great to hear

One year of display ads and social apps, and Facebook’s commercial graph is skyrocketing. Here’s the Warc push posting FB COO Sheryl’s take as planning season gets underway for 2011

According to Sheryl Sandberg, the company’s chief operating officer, the outlay of several key clients has expanded at least ten times over during the last 12 months, and often doubled this rate of growth.

“Two years ago the big brands were experimenting with us. They started buying with us a year ago. Now, they’re going big,” she said.

“A movie studio last year that did three movies with us; this year, if they’re releasing 12 movies, they’ll do ten of them with us. A company that did one product launch with us; this year, they’re going to do half of their product launches.”

The cost of purchasing inventory has remained largely static, despite the fact Facebook’s audience stands at more than 500m netizens, Sandberg added.

Prices may rise as the site enhances its “value” to marketers, having leapfrogged Yahoo in terms of the number of display ads served the US, leading the sector on a share of 16% in Q1 2010, according to comScore.

The Chase campaign on Facebook. the like button shows 3 million subscribers!

Coca Cola, Adidas and JP Morgan Chase have been publishing the paper for Facebook budgets for their brands.

Meanwhile, Unilever has also found an exclusive outlet for its brand spend innovation getting large inventories on the iPad platform for its bouquet and spending $300million in a multi modal deal with Time Warner, covering Online, print and TV. Sounds juicy, right! yup that’s the one led by the Mad Men spoof

Filed under Marketing, Social Media Tagged with Brands, Chase, Community giving, Dove, Facebook, HP Alliance, non-profits, Social Media, Unilever