New Media Philippines » Marketing Tips

Seth Godin talks about Curiosity

Carlo Ople — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 12:13:30 +0000

This video was shared by Randell Tiongson on Facebook. It’s a brilliant interview of one of my favorite authors and marketers, Seth Godin. In this video he talks about “curiosity” and how eventually the safest thing you can do are the risky things and the riskiest thing you can do is be safe. When Seth talks about things like this he comes across as very credible because he walks his talk.

Anyway, here’s the video. I hope you guys learn something from it and get inspired to be more curious.

Branding beyond the Sale

Colin Chan — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 07:40:55 +0000

I recently came across this Facebook page called After 5 Creative. It’s a Sydney-based (I’m assuming from their info) group that crowd sources creative people to work/bid on projects outside the 9-5 day job, hence After 5.

However, instead being a purely Craig’s List clone, the guys at After 5 Creative post creative material and case studies to simply spread creative inspiration (I don’t think there are any active briefs on the site as of now). I’m already guessing that the site’s purpose is really just to have a hub where creative people can converge and share ideas, past work and case studies and maybe later on share some profit too.

Currently there are a couple of creative ads that are showcased on the site. I’ll touch up on two:

i-AD.
The first is AXA Belgium’s iPhone App. AXA Belgium created an iPhone application that helps AXA policy holders get quick assistance in the event that they get into a road accident.

Given the very unique usage of the App, particularly for an Insurance company, the advertising agency behind the campaign (Duval Guillaume, Antwerp) decided that they have to be equally creative and unique in presenting this to the public. Hence they developed the first i-Ad: an integration of the iPhone and traditional advertising medium. Check the link out:

GIGANTIC PLAYGROUND
This one is just pure fun! I mean, seriously, imagine walking across Ayala Avenue then discovering a gigantic larger-than-life Play Space that encourages everyone and anyone to just take a breather and have fun. No purchasing requirements, no special attire needed, just play. Kudos to DDB-Sydney for this.

Watch the video by clicking this link.

THOUGHTS
From a creative standpoint, it’s refreshing to see companies invest in campaigns solely to strengthen their brand value that does not necessarily reflect in direct sales. There is so much more to branding than just sales. It’s the relationship between the consumers (or prosumers…for proactive consumers) and the brand and its value; just like what McDonalds did. It didn’t ask people to purchase burgers or any food product, but the promotion involved people, sparked interest and had them experience the playground creating the foundation for a stronger relationship between brand and man.

More and more these days it’s hard to see companies invest more in long-term-relationship-building fun (fun being the operative word) campaigns (particularly in small-scale companies and start-ups). In an economic pinch, the old school logical route of business which is “let’s make the sale then let’s worry about customer retention later” is quickly becoming passé. In fact, with this unsustainable practice we see more and more startups close doors before they reach the prime of their business lives. So why not take a risk like the big-wigs do, and add a little smile to the people that matter most: your customers.

Interesting Internet Statistics

Carlo Ople — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 21:09:57 +0000

This link was posted on Facebook via Junnette Abrera. It’s basically an infographic of internet statistics that I found really interesting, educational, and entertaining. While these stats are mostly from the United States, you can’t help but marvel at how fast the world has changed because of the internet. The stats the caught my attention the most were the 7 hours spent monthly by users on Facebook (highest) and 80% of all e-mail being spam! Anyway, check it all out after the break.

Via: Online Schools

Some thoughts:

- 26.3% only use internet on their phones. This isn’t a bad thing. It means that there’s much more room for growth! The mobile internet industry will definitely boom as more high-tech phones become more affordable.

- Filipinos are 2 hours shy of the average monthly hours spent on Facebook. We’re at 5 hours while those in the US spend 7 hours.

- 95% of music downloaded in the US is pirated. Here in the Philippines it’s probably 99.9%, hahaha!

- In the US 2/3 of searches come from Google. Last time I checked Yahoo still has a significant part of the market share here in the Philippines. They have a pretty aggressive marketing, sales, and social media team based locally so I won’t be surprised if they grow that market share even more in the coming months/years.

What do you guys think of the stats above?

Cartoon Network New Generations Study (Full PDF)

Carlo Ople — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:10:43 +0000

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 free to pass this around.

Top Google Search Terms in 2009

Carlo Ople — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:06:58 +0000

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 reach their favorite sites, even if they already know the URLs. Talk about lazy! Hahaha!

Here are the top search terms as per a published report on the GMA website:

Top queries in the Philippines in 2009
1. Friendster
2. Youtube
3. Facebook
4. Yahoo
5. Yahoo Mail
6. Google
7. Cebu Pacific
8. Friendster layouts
9. Gmail
10. Philippine Airlines

Fastest-rising queries in the Philippines in 2009
1. Facebook
2. Maricar Reyes
3. Kim Bum
4. Zest Air
5. “Love Story” lyrics
6. Lady Gaga
7. Hayden Kho Jr.
8. Twitter
9. Michael Jackson
10. Pacquiao vs Hatton

Fastest-rising politicians searched for on Google News
1. Aquino III
2. Panfilo Lacson
3. Escudero
4. Ralph Recto
5. Mar Roxas
6. Villar
7. Gilbert Teodoro
8. Joseph Estrada
9. Willie Revillame
10. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo

The personalities that gave a face to 2009
1. Hayden Kho
2. Francis Magalona
3. Cory Aquino
4. Ted Failon
5. Carla Abellana
6. Noynoy Aquino
7. Princess Velasco
8. Bebe Gandanghari
9. Boyet Fajardo
10. Jacque Bermejo

Issues and controversies that made the headlines in 2009
1. A(H1N1) Philippines
2. Typhoon Emong
3. Ted Failon Case
4. Typhoon Ketsana
5. Typhoon Parma
6. Amiel Alcantara
7. Chip Tsao
8. Daniel Smith
9. Superferry 9
10. Reproductive Health Bill

Up-and-coming and most popular celebrity searches
1. Carla Abellana
2. Bebe Gandanghari
3. Sandara Park
4. Coco Martin
5. Aling Dionisia
6. Katrina Halili
7. Maricar Reyes model
8. Angel Locsin
9. Denise Laurel
10. Katherine Luna

For the other terms, just hop on over to the original news report.

Isn’t it amazing that 7 out of the top 10 queries are all popular websites that Filipinos already know the URL by heart? It’s bordering on ridiculous but oh well, haha!