Of course we have heard – ‘Mobile is the future’. But the question is Where? How ? Why?
Line, Whatsapp, We Chat and Kakao Talk are the most prominent apps in the region.
But If you had the power to decide, where would you put your money?

Here is the quick rule of thumb to know which platform to be on. Do note that this analysis is just done on the basis of # of users and market capitalisation metrics (as of today):

1) China, Malaysia: We Chat
2) Japan and Thailand: Line
3) South Korea: Kakao Talk

Now, if you ask me where I where I would put money, I’d say, We Chat.

The reason is simple: When you put money in an ecosystem, people don’t leave. We Chat has been succeeding in creating a powerful ecosystem with virtual wallet integration.

In the region, We Chat gave users the opportunity to give Hong Bao (red envelopes) to their relatives through the app. The campaign was a huge success with over 5 million users giving gift envelopes with different amounts of money to their relatives.

We Chat is also looking at providing capabilities to pay for ‘taxis’ or go ‘dutch’ in restaurants. In spite of We Chat facing increasing scrutiny from banking regulators over their use of virtual wallets and payment apps, I believe that introducing money into the ecosystem will ensure that users don’t switch to other competing apps.

And of course, like all messaging apps, it is inevitable that we will be there because all our friends are there too!

Without a doubt, you don’t want to pay your friend 6 dollars and 45 cents in Cash when all your friends split the cost of the meal on We Chat.

I am biased towards videos, but this print ad really made me stop and think.

Today, all of us have started to use digital sketch pads to draw, doodle and squiggle. However, this smart ad reminds all of us where these design icon originated from – Simple pencil and paper.

This ad is pure genius. Afterall, this is where it all begins…

Some time back, face book users were not allowed to like or share photos to be able to enter a contest. But now, that has changed.

On August 27th 2013, Facebook announced that they changed the terms of the pages to make it easier for all sizes of businesses to run contests and promotions on their timelines. (Yaay!)

Finally now small businesses can:
1) Collect entries by having users post on the page or comment/ like a page post
2) Collect entries by having users message the page
3) Utilize likes as a voting mechanism

Here is a quick summarized list of what you can and cannot do:

What You Can Do:
1) Require people to like a post and/or comment on a post to be entered
2) Require that someone post something directly on your timeline to enter (could be a text post or a photo)
3) Use likes as a voting method (either liking a post or photo on your timeline)
4) Require that someone message your page to enter
5) Announce the winner of the contest on your page
6) Require that to win the prize, entrants come back to your page to see who has won the contest
7) Use a Like button plugin on a website as a voting mechanism
8) Use an app plugin to post an entry to your contest directly on your page
9) Run your contest through a Facebook app

What You Can’t Do:
1) Require that people share a post or photo to be entered
2) Require someone to post something on their own personal timeline or a friend’s timeline to enter
3) Require people to tag themselves in a photo to either vote or enter
4) Have anyone who likes your page be entered to win (contest does not take place on the timeline)

Hopefully, this table makes it quite easy to understand the new terms and conditions for face book contests. Personally, I am glad that we are back to simply liking and sharing photos and posts. Face book apps are complicated and costly. Apps are something that only big businesses (with big budgets) can use. For the rest of us, (thankfully) the sun is still shining @Facebook.com :)

The Ramzan (Ramadan) month of fasting is observed by muslims around the world.

Fasting during this period is regarded as one of the five pillars of Islam.

The hands create the outline for the bottle of the coke also signifies the position of the hands while reading the holy Quran.

Through this simple yet meaningful ad, Coke cherishes all the people attached to its brand.

Here is a list of 5 most important facebook jargon everyone should understand in order to use facebook insights:

1) “Reach”: Whenever facebook says “303 people saw your post”. It simply means that the organic reach of the post is 303.
It is important to note that not all your fans will see a particular post published on their newsfeed.

2) Engaged Users: Engagement is the number of people who clicked anywhere in your post. Engagement is important since it helps you understand if the content you are posting is interesting to your facebook audience.
Again, note that simply looking at the raw engagement statistics is not enough to see what posts are most engaging. The best way to analyse engagement is to calculate the engagement % =( engaged users/ reached users ) * 100

3) Talking about this: People “talking about this” are story tellers i.e. they create stories out of your posts. What are stories? Well, simple. If someone likes, shares or comments they are generating stories through your post.

4) Click through rate: This measures the number of people who have clicked on your post to view a larger version of your photo, a link on your content or watched a video. The CTR really measures how many people are interested enough to pay attention to your content.

5) Negative Feedback: This aims to measure any negative action a user takes for instance – hiding a specific post, hiding all future posts, unliking the page or even reporting it as spam.

We have seen so many “I Love *something*” campaigns. Most of them get monotonous and dry.

However, this “I love Heinz” campaign was surely a great hit! The idea is so simple – Share why you love Heinz and you win a pack of 12 Heinz Ketchup bottles with personalized talking labels.

The Social Media Team created a “Heinz Hall of Fame”. The perfect time tested ketchup mix for a campaign to go viral – get your family and friends to like your photo and the top 10 will win the personalized ketchup bottles.

I am personally a believer in the power of Social Media and the true engagement value that it creates. Just such a simple idea creates so much of a buzz. At the end of the day, it is so important to get people talking. And of course, what better way than to bond over food? :)

We have seen so many “I Love *something*” campaigns. Most of them get monotonous and dry.

However, this “I love Heinz” campaign was surely a great hit! The idea is so simple – Share why you love Heinz and you win a pack of 12 Heinz Ketchup bottles with personalized talking labels.

The Social Media Team created a “Heinz Hall of Fame”. The perfect time tested ketchup mix for a campaign to go viral – get your family and friends to like your photo and the top 10 will win the personalized ketchup bottles.

I am personally a believer in the power of Social Media and the true engagement value that it creates. Just such a simple idea creates so much of a buzz. At the end of the day, it is so important to get people talking. And of course, what better way than to bond over food? :)

Just recently i posted “#Sg Haze at Marketing’s best”. Of course, this Mc Donald’s ad was up but i didn’t think it was particularly funny or fascinating (read: it was not mooketing blog worthy)

The very same Ad in the newspaper has drawn much criticism from the people of Singapore asserting that the ad campaign is really done in bad humor.

Here is a glimpse of their saving face PR speech: “We share the concerns of Singaporeans and were equally surprised to see PSI levels hit record highs overnight. The ad in question was designed and placed when conditions were not as severe, and we agree that in this current context the advertisement is inappropriate. We apologise.”

An interesting lesson i learnt from Guerilla Marketing Remix by Jay Conrad Levinson is that an ad can be funny once or twice or even three times but the tenth time, its simply annoying. Therefore, don’t make something funny for the sake of being funny.

Humor is a double edged sword. This ad doesn’t amplify Mac Donald’s core marketing message (unlike True Fitness). To me, this ad lacked both – Humor and Taste. (Quite literally so).

With all the negative buzz going around about the haze in Singapore, everyone wants to be indoors. But we all need to exercise and jogging outdoors isn’t an option.

Here is a brilliant campaign where the PSI Index determines the number of free passes to the Gym.

I am almost convinced that marketers are like hedge fund managers. We make the most out of every situation. no matter what :)