I’ve been receiving a lot of e-mails asking me where I got the Cartoon Network New Generations Study which I wrote about in an earlier entry. It’s a good thing that Noemi uploaded the entire presentation in PDF format for everyone’s reading and analysis. I’m re-embedding it here for your convenience. To summarize the study, kids and teens are definitely going digital. It’s a totally different generation now and to ignore the changes would just be marketing heresy. 2009 Filipino Kids Lifestyle , Cartoons Network Survey Hope you find this useful! I sure did. Feel...

Google recently released their 2009 Year-End Zeitgeist report which pretty much sums up all the top Google search terms for Filipinos in 2009. This report was released shortly after Yahoo! also shared their top search terms in their Year in Review report. Other than keywords that you can focus your SEO magic on, the reports also show various insights into the behaviors of Filipino internet users. In the Yahoo! report, we discussed how Filipinos tend to go to the net to really research on things that intrigue them. For the Google report, we see that Filipinos use search engines as a means to actually...

Yahoo recently released a report which shares the various top searches done on their engine for 2009. Some of the results are very predictable but some results completely took me by surprise. The searches also gives you insights on what the Filipino online user behavior is about. For example, some of the top searches are about politicians, issues on politicians, or current events. Imagine this, Shalani Soledad is in the top 10. To those who don’t know her, she’s the girlfriend of Senator Noynoy Aquino. Another popular search term was “Mar and Korina”, which was probably...

I’ve been using Google Wave for the past few weeks and I think I’ve experienced enough of it to come up with a balanced and fair review of Google’s new product. As a quick summary though, Google Wave is a collaborative online tool which combines features of e-mail, online messengers, and social networks. To quote one of the developers, Google Wave is what e-mail should be if it was developed today. Initial Impressions First, let me just share that I was initially bored to death with it. Simply because I had no one else to “wave” with. There was no tool at the start...

In a study done by Synovate commissioned by the Cartoon Network, Filipino kids 7 – 14 years old are spending more time online compared to playing console games, listening to music, and reading non-school books. Internet usage is second only to watching TV. If you think about it, this was kinda expected due to the increasing number of internet cafes all over the country combined with the aggressive marketing and roll-out of broadband service providers. What I find interesting in this particular chart is that console and handheld games are not as popular as people would like to think. This...

According to a recent study by Dynamic Logic the main problem with low performing online ads is not because of targeting or placements, it’s mostly because of the actual creatives. The Millward Brown company analyzed more than 170,000 online ads in their database and they discovered that the following factors weighed more in determining the success of a campaign: persistent branding, strong calls to action, and even human faces. These three factors have a strong influence on the consumer for brand awareness, purchase intent, and ad recall. Here’s an excerpt from the article that you...

Viral Marketing rarely happens by accident. As Malcolm Gladwell would say, it has to reach a tipping point first before it gets picked up eventually spreads like wildfire. The same concept applies for Viral Blogging – or the publishing content that gets passed on by different people across various mediums. Note that there is no sure formula for hitting a home run with Viral Blogging however the tips here that I’ll share will definitely help you increase traffic. In this post I’ll identify what are the important components for Viral Blogging and then share with you case studies...

One of the pitfalls of online marketing is that a lot of people don’t really understand how to gauge the performance of their websites. There are several schools of thought at play here. For some, they put a lot of value in the page hits or the number of unique visitors that their website gets. Others, on the other hand, would rather focus on their RSS or E-mail subscribers. If you’re an e-commerce based site, then you’re probably monitoring your sales. However, one critical issue that a lot of bloggers and marketers often forget about is the reader churn. Ask yourself this question...

I came across this very interesting article on Inquirer.Net. According to this news item, a study made by global market research firm Synovate, heavy internet users are actually big spenders. In fact, the study goes on to explain that these users are most likely to purchase premimum gadgets, cars, and even invest in financial instruments. So what does this all mean? Let me share some insights after the break.

Getting constant traffic is the lifeblood of your website or blog. We’ve all heard about how Search Engine Optimization does wonders but the problem with SEO is that it takes time and effort to work on. You might also have to spend on a Google AdWords campaign to make it more effective. There’s also the saying “Content is King”. However, you can’t really rely just on what you write for your blog or website to get decent traffic. You have to market your site to the right people so that you can get quality traffic. This short article will tackle 7 free and effective...

One of the problems of traditional advertising is breaking through the clutter so that your marketing message can actually reach your consumer. When there were only 4-5 billboards along Guadalupe, they worked wonders. Now that we have a collage of images, people have the tendency to just ignore all of them unless what you put on the billboard can really grab attention. The same applies to your website. If you have so many elements flashing it in, then there’s a big chance that the website visitor will miss whatever it is you want him or her to click. Based on a lot studies published on books,...

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has been the buzzword among bloggers and internet marketers for the longest time. Slowly, SEO has crept over to the mainstream and a lot of agencies, programmers, and website designers are also now in on the bandwagon. In this post, I’ll attempt to give you guys a crash course on SEO. This is not at all exhaustive, and you can probably find a lot of other good resources available online. This is really more of a summary of what I know about SEO, and how I’ve used it to drive traffic to my websites, blogs, and clients. This is free advice for everyone, check...

I recently had lunch with a good friend who works for a FMCG Company. He’s a product manager and I can really describe him as a hardcore technical marketer. We had a discussion about building micro sites to push brands online and he was explaining to me how happy he was with the success of one of the projects that he spearheaded. He said that the agency sent them back metrics saying that the micro site was a success because of the hits and unique visits it got over the 3 months of the campaign. When I asked him for the actual numbers, I was really dumbfounded. I could not believe what I just...

Pastor Dennis recently gave me a book written by my favorite author, Seth Godin. The Big Red Fez: How To Make Any Web Site Better, is one of the best internet marketing books I’ve ever read. It’s simple, direct-to-the-point, and readable in less than an hour. Seth Godin raises a very important issue about building websites – who’s vision is it that is followed for the site? Is it the “engineer” or the programmer? Or is your person from Marketing taking the lead and playing an active role in the site building? The answer to this question will make or break the...

I’ve been putting a lot of thought on how bloggers and marketers can both tap Social Media (Networks, Microblogging, etc.) to drive more readers to their sites. Initially, I was able to list more than 15 ways on how to do this but for now I’ll zero in on 3 methods otherwise I’ll end up writing a book. This is based from my learnings in promoting New Media Philippines through Facebook. I still have a lot to learn with the other tools so feel free to jump in, leave a comment, and share more tips.

I had the pleasure of attending the first day of the 2nd Social Networking and eBusiness Conference (through Level Up). One of the more interesting points raised by several speakers was for companies and marketers to actually use social media as the front page of your business. After giving it some thought, it really does make sense to do just that. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t make a website of your own, but you shouldn’t just ignore the power of

This is in response to Noemi’s latest post about what Marketing/PR Executives should expect from bloggers. I’ve been thinking about this for a long time now, and I think I have enough examples and put enough thought into this to publish it on this blog. Companies who want to tap bloggers should be aware of the different kinds of bloggers. Not all bloggers can influence your target market, and not all of them can have the same level of interaction with their readers.

I’ve been thinking about this for quite sometime now. I’ve actually been giving away free consultancy to a few friends who will be launching their digital marketing campaigns soon. One is a SME in the food industry and the other group is a couple of good friends who want to come up with their own blogs. I can’t give everything away for free, but I can definitely do a few case studies every now and then. If you’re a Filipino young professional, businessman, recording artist, band, or just a plain Joe who needs help in digital marketing, then you’ve come to the right...

With the 2010 elections in the horizon, a lot of politicians have been coming up with their own strategies on how to tap the internet as another channel to reach voters. In Facebook alone, we see profiles of Senator Manny Villar, Senator Roxas, Senator Chiz Escudero, and a whole lot more of politicians who have higher ambitions in 2010. When I was still the New Media Consultant for Senator Mar Roxas, one of the key things that I stressed to his team was to not be a traditional politician when promoting oneself in the internet, especially through social

When I meet other businessmen and marketing managers of small and medium enterprises (SME’s), I’m sometimes disappointed when I hear that they’re not tapping into the internet to market and grow their businesses. If your business caters to a particular niche that has representation online through communities or social networks, then don’t hesitate to invest. Here are 3 reasons why I think SME’s should invest some of their advertising and promotions budget in