THE SINGAPORE - mis.org.sg€¦ · THE SINGAPORE MCI (P) 034/06/2016 Content is the King l ^ interview with dr Jagdish sheth (dr PhiliP Kotler Called him a ‘renaissanCe thinKer’)

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Content is King.Content Creation is the Crown.

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BreaKing down the oBsession with Content marKeting

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JAN - MAR 2015MCI (P) 034/06/2016THE SINGAPORE

Content

is the

Kingstill

^

interview with dr Jagdish sheth(dr PhiliP Kotler Called him a

‘renaissanCe thinKer’)p8

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THE SINGAPORE marketer / Jan - Mar 2015

Dear Readers,Maybe you went out with friends for party, went to church, spent

time with your family, or kept it low key… These are ALL great ways to ring in the New Year. All that really matters is that you are happy. It matters that you have a Happy New Year. It matters that you make the most out of what you want for 2014 and you do everything to accomplish your goals.

To enrich your first month of the New Year, we have packed this issue with tips and trends and plenty of insights from the experts in the field of Content Marketing. Many companies are getting a sense of the importance of ‘Content’ especially with the rise of social and digital media and its impact on consumers’ behaviour. Bill Gates coined the phrase “content is king” in 1996, when he said, “One of the exciting things about the Internet is that anyone with a PC and a modem can publish whatever content they can create. It allows material to be duplicated at low cost, no matter the size of the audience.” Companies who are resistant to change will turn into laggards and eventually lose out to their competitors, be it in terms of cost effectiveness or customer buy-in.

A consistent use of relevant content runs like a thread through all marketing activities. Good content is essential everywhere so using it in a smart way is critical too. Mark Laudi will shed some lights on troubleshooting your Content Marketing initiatives and Asuthosh Nair will be sharing some pointers on tackling B2B Content Marketing. These are just to name a few.

In this issue, we are also very honoured to have a chance to Interview Professor Jagdish N. Sheth, an internationally recognised thought leader who has been called by Philip Kotler as a “renaissance thinker. In the Interview, Prof Sheth gave his take if China products could overcome its “Image Issue in Product Quality” in the near future to emerge the marketing leader. If you are keen to find out, don’t miss this feature!

Last but not least, I want to personally say thank you to everyone for your support towards The Singapore Marketer (TSM). I am looking forward to an amazing 2015. MIS has many excited new initiatives and events lined up for you, so get ready for some incredible fun and enriching time with us. For the next issue of TSM, we are doing something different, so stay tuned!

Happy 2015! We wish everyone many happy returns in the New Year!

EditorAmy Bey [email protected]

Contributing WritersLyn Kwek, Mark Laudi, Angela Chai, Andrew Chow, Melvin Goh, Ronald Lye, Tim Davies, Paul Lim and Asuthosh Nair

MIS EXECUTIVE COUNCILPresidentRoger Wang

1st Vice PresidentBhavik Bhatt

2nd Vice PresidentLee Kwok Weng

Honorary SecretaryDean Shams

Assistant Honorary SecretaryDr Ramesh Tarani

Honorary TreasurerPaul Lim

Asst Honorary TreasurerLydia Neo

Council MembersLeonard ZuzarteMichael Tan

Production, Advertising & CirculationJoreen Yee [email protected]

Design & LayoutKelvin Wang

PublisherMarketing Institute of Singapore410 North Bridge Road Singapore 188726Tel: (65) 6411 1620 Fax: (65) 6338 8695Email: [email protected]: www.mis.org.sg

The Singapore Marketer is a quarterly magazine published by Marketing Institute of Singapore. Printed in Singapore by Stamford Press Pte Ltd. 209 Kallang Bahru, Singapore 339344. Tel: (65) 6294 7227 MCI (P) 034/06/2016. Subscription is available upon request; please contact Joreen Yee at [email protected]. To contribute articles, please write to [email protected].

The views expressed in The Singapore Marketer do not necessarily represent those of the Marketing Institute of Singapore. No responsibility is accepted by the Institute or its staff for the accuracy of any statement, opinion, or advice contained in the text or advertisements, and readers are advised to rely on their judgment or enquiries, and to consult their own advisers in making any decisions which would affect their interest. All materials appearing in The Singapore Marketer is copyright. No part of the publication may be reproduced without prior written permission of the Marketing Institute of Singapore. The Marketing Institute of Singapore welcomes contributions and letters. These might be edited for clarity or length. Articles, letters and requests to reproduce articles appearing in The Singapore Marketer should be sent to the Editor, Marketing Institute of Singapore, 410 North Bridge Road, Singapore 188726.

Editor’s NotE

Amy BeyEditor

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WHAT’S UP!

CONTENT PAGE

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COvER STORyBreaking down the obsessionwith content marketing

FOCUSTroubleshooting yourContent Marketing initiatives

FEATUREIt’s the Thought that Counts!

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GURU TALKContent is King.Content Creation is the Crown.

BUSINESS SCHOOLOwning your content in“Content Marketing”- A case study on Oyster Bay Wines

DIGITAL DIGESTMobile: The Missing Piece to Your Content Marketing Strategy

32 LEARNING SITEStay Ahead Of The Competition

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LEARNING SITELocalising great content: Don’t get lost in translation

40 MARKETER@WORKInterview with Graeme Somerville-Ryan

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BUSINESS SCHOOLThe Lazy Entrepreneur’s Secret To Getting More Leads Than You Can Handle… Without Needing To Hustle, Bustle And Grind Unnecessarily!

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A MARKETER’S STORyInterview withProfessor Jagdish N. Sheth

SPOTTED50

Q&A (FEATURED MEMBER)Interview with Paul Lim47

By Lyn KweK

Breaking down the obsession withContent Marketing

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COvER STORy

Content marketing is the undisputed buzzword in every marketer’s mind right now. In fact, similar to the term Cloud Computing, Content Marketing is not something revolutionary. All along, content has been the foundation of all marketing work but traditionally, its focus has been internal facing

and the underlying principle of content creation has always been “What do WE want to tell customers?”In recent years with the proliferation of devices, emergence of social networks and the increased

customer sophistication, the tables have been turned to become customer focused. The term “Content Marketing” came alive after taking on a whole new meaning. Content marketing now becomes customer focused centering around “What do the CUSTOMERS want to know?”

This psychological game of trying to understand customers starts to intrigue the minds of many marketers which lead to a deeper chain of questions, giving a whole new spin and depth to the meaning of Content Marketing.

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SEEING THROUGH TWO LENSESIf we do a deep dive and break down this big

buzz word, it really comes down to a combination of addressing it from 2 perspectives - an internal view and an external view: content marketing through the customers lens and our own lens.

1. Content Marketing through the Customers’ Lens

Knowledge - We all crave for knowledge, we want to read things that are of value to us, enrich our lives, our thoughts or even make us sound intelligent in our conversations. The dilemma is often that while we are hungry for information, we are often confronted with too much information that is irrelevant which ultimately turns us off or cause us to become sceptical.

Every time we develop a piece of content, we need to be able to answer the following 3 questions:1. What is the message that we want the

customer to take away from this piece of content?

2. Will this be something that the customers want to know?

3. Do the customers already know this? The answers to the above are especially crucial

if you intend to gate the content and only allow access in exchange for customer information. The last thing you want is for the customer to feel short changed. When sales try to follow up, they will get feedback that this prospect is neither interested

nor qualified at all. This is because the fundamental issue is that the customer is already turned off by what they read. The content absolutely has to be of value to the customers!

The other consideration to think about is the average lifespan of a piece of content. Increasingly in many companies there has been a concept of keeping a content inventory list that keeps track of all the content that was developed, its format and its lifespan. This helps to provide a very clear structure of content management and also to avoid duplications.

variety - This is a huge diverse pillar which can be several topics in itself. Variety can be discussed in two areas: variety in how the content is being presented, E.g. infographics, whitepaper, e-book or bite sized social posts. The other aspect of variety is the variety of the delivery channels.

This often adds a complex dimension to nurturing programmes where marketers need to decide an appropriate content fit to the buyers’ journey stage based on the buyer’s persona. The importance of making informed decisions gives rise to concepts such as Big Data and data-driven marketing. Unfortunately there is often no single source of truth which marketers can rely on to make these decisions and a combination of market research from multiple sources and performance tracking are used to continually optimise nurturing programs. Concepts such as lead scoring are also one of the methods that marketers are adopting not just to track overall campaign performance but also the performance of each piece of content.

Audience - If content marketing is the lifeblood of all marketing work then audience is without a doubt the heartbeat of all content marketing. Understanding the target audience of your business and doing a deep dive into them to understand how they source for information, what are their pain points help determine your content strategy and the effective outreach channels.

You may also want to conduct a research of the content that your competitors are coming up with and how the customers are responding to it. Analytics tools such as Sysomos, Meltwater are possible resources to tap on.

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Knowledge variety

Audience

Content MarKeting

Lyn Kwek is a Senior Marketing Manager for Asia Pacific in a telecommunications company. Based in Singapore, her responsibilities include regional Public Relations and Analyst Relations, marketing communications as well as working closely with corporate marketing and country marketers across Asia Pacific to create multi-touch demand generation programs that are aligned with business objectives. Lyn has an MBA from NTU, Nanyang Business School with a specialisation in Marketing and Strategy. She started her career in the IT&T sector 14 years ago in field sales before transitioning to marketing.

COvER STORy

2. Content Marketing through the Marketers’ Lens

Resource - The decision to develop content in house or to outsource to an agency depends a lot on the budget as well as the capabilities available.

Just like Corporate Branding has always been misunderstood as a pure marketing responsibility, I would argue that content creation is in fact not just a marketing responsibility and should be expanded to different functions, particularly the customer facing functions. Here are some interesting ideas to promote internal content creation: 1. Nomination of content champion in each

customer facing function such as Customer Service, Sales, Delivery etc. and featuring the content created by these champions not just externally but internally through internal communications, e-newsletters etc. Understandably, this will be additional workload for the content champions, hence internal publicity can be a good form of recognition to reward them for their hardwork and thus sustain the effort.

2. Content competition across functions through metrics such as number of likes, number of shares and then providing recognition to the champion internally is also another good way to encourage participation of content champions.

Metrics - If there is only one thing that matters

to the business about marketing, it is the metrics. The traditional metrics of open rate, click through rate are becoming less significant in a world where the line between sales and marketing is increasingly becoming blur and the success of sales and marketing is deeply intertwined together. Engagement rate, conversion rates and closure rates are the common terms exchange between sales and marketing nowadays.

In a content centric campaign of an e-book download for example, the performance of the content can be easily tracked. However in activities such as a customer event where content takes a less obvious role, it is important not to let metrics such as registration rate, attendance rate overshadow the role of content. It would certainly help to work jointly with the stakeholders to define what the success metrics are. Identifying the correct metrics that are relevant for the business is important to ensure continual investment in marketing.

Budget - The budget factor has a direct correlation with the resource and metrics factors as mentioned above. Often, the cost of content marketing is hidden within the marketing tactic itself but the ability to demonstrate a clear ROI of the content helps in budget allocation to develop good content. To be cost effective and efficient in content creation, it helps to work with your marketing peers across regions, across countries to minimise duplications as much as possible.

Marketers generally know the importance of content and how it can be a game changer even if the marketing tactics are generally similar.

A combination of an internal and external perspective in Content Marketing ensures that marketers are addressing content from a more holistic perspective.

The obsession with content is here to stay just as digital and social. Ultimately, the challenge lies in how marketers can break down this big giant buzzword and make it simpler and relevant for his/her marketing efforts.

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THE SINGAPORE marketer /

Budget Metrics

Resource

Content MarKeting

Jan - Mar 2015

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A MARKETER’S STORy

INTERVIEW WITHProfessor Jagdish N. Sheth

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Consumers’ need for diverse products has resulted in product lifecycles becoming highly volatile and unpredictable. What concepts in marketing will assist marketers to accurately predict lifecycle movements and response more effectively?

To accurately predict in a highly volatile market and individualistic society, firstly, one has to constantly experiment and learn from feedback. Secondly, with the rise of social media, companies need to practice continuous listening from the marketplace. Social media broadcast message more effectively as compared to traditional media these days. Therefore, to be constantly adapting is the way to go.

Social media is taking the world by storm. Many organisations are shifting towards social media in the expense of traditional media. What is your take on this?

There is no question that social media will become a substitute for traditional media. Anything that is peripheral becomes a cold medium. There was a time when television media came and print became peripheral, same applies for social media. When social media is coming, television media will become specialised. Television media is mainly used for mega events like World Cup. However, social media will become more universal and at the same time many companies are already shifting their marketing dollars on social media.

With technology changing so rapidly, how can organisations manage this?

Interestingly, today’s print medium is highly specialised to magazines. Today, you see niche magazines taking over the market. Technology is the oxygen of the company. Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) these days are holding on to the budget of 40% of the IT spending in a company and therefore they need to have the technical knowledge to recruit the right set of social media agencies. They also need to understand the power of social media for their own brand in terms of brand patronage and brand alteration. Consumers are going to take liberty of the brand as they have become co-creators of the brand now. Some companies are seeking consumers to create commercial for them. With that, they may garner a few hundreds of commercial at one time and some of which may be world class. It is a low cost and creative way to get consumers to do work for you. Even your advertising agencies cannot produce so many commercials for you to pick the best. Consumers are in fact your best marketers.

What do you see as the biggest change in marketing over the years and what future megatrends will derail current/predominant marketing concepts?

Marketing concepts historically began with products. Management thinker, Peter Drucker,

An internationally recognised thought leader who has been called by Dr Philip Kotler as a “renaissance thinker: an innovative thinker in strategy marketing, management as well as leadership”, Professor Sheth shared with The Singapore Marketer on the impact of new age marketing trends on marketing and branding efforts as well as his take on marketing China products.


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came out with the two main functions of business, namely Innovation and Marketing. We tend to become very product-centric once we come out with the newly invented product. Marketing creates value by association. What has changed over the years is that marketing has moved away from promoting the ingredients in a product, i.e. from secret recipe in Coca Cola to the functional value of the product. The next evolution in marketing is social value. Does marketing serve a purpose in society? What are you doing for the environment in process of making the product, in other words, we are referring to “Purpose-driven marketing”.

How can Asian companies embark on purpose-driven marketing?

Purpose-driven marketing is even more appropriate in the Asian culture as we are not as capitalistic as American. Asians still believe in balancing the institutional and individual well-being. Purpose-driven marketing becomes the DNA of Asians just that we do not link it properly or does not have the proper planning process to resonate with the people. Companies which are driven by passion and purpose financially outperformed those that are shareholder-driven. For boutique and family-oriented companies, it is easier to implement purpose-driven marketing as you have a less formal relationship and a smaller community.

What new age marketing trends will influence future marketing programmes and cause the radical shift in the way marketing are supplied in the industry?

There are three changes. Most of them are coming from technology. Firstly, demand-driven procurement is widely used today. Many businesses today are going online. For instance, Amazon bookstore uses Just-In-Time procurement method, of which stocks are only purchased when orders come in. Online Marketing is the biggest change in paradigm. Now it is the demand that generates supply chain, not manufacturing, which is a radical change. Second impact of technology

is the smart phones. Smart phone applications and social media are making a huge paradigm shift in marketing functions. Technology affects service sector more significantly as there is a co-production between the consumers and the producer. Without technology, it is much more manual and inefficient. For instance, in hotels and airlines industry, consumers make their online booking and print their own boarding pass etc. In most companies, technology plays a critical role in their businesses. Furthermore, as services are perishable, technology enables you to use its capacity at that point in time much more than a non-technology based organisation.

Can China’s current effort to embrace marketing make it equal to USA as a marketing leader of its brands?

I personally believe that China will eventually surpass America in marketing and branding. Reason being, China, like Japan, learn to produce very price sensitive products and it is moving up to luxury products. China is the largest luxury market in the world. It surpassed America. It also has the largest e-commerce platform that also surpassed America. I believe that the branding aspects that the Chinese learn from the rest of the world, like German and American brands, are further improved by the Chinese. It is a matter of time of which we will admire the Chinese brands as we are admiring the Japanese and Korean brands now.

In recent years, there are some problems with the image of quality products in China. Do you think this will hamper their progress and campaign to build strong brands?

There is no question that anytime when the product quality is not up to standard, especially when it concerns safety, market failure takes place. Capitalistic model is not the only approach. What we have to do is to create a regulatory process with inspection and quality standards. The rise of Chinese brands is just like the rise of Japanese brands. Japan used to be cheap goods maker at

A MARKETER’S STORy

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one time. Japanese government collaborated with the industry to create ‘Jetro’, which is the Japan export agency, to create the regulation of which one cannot export their products overseas unless they meet the minimum quality standards. By regulation, China will also do the same thing by disallowing inferior good to be made.

Japan is being reputable in many product and brands, especially electronic products. They have now decentralised many of their operations, including R&D, closer to the consumers and market place. In your opinion, do you think that will impact on the reputation of the Japanese brands?

Yes and no. Sony suffered from that as a Japanese brand when they tried to make products in Malaysia. It’s alright if they only assemble and input components from Japan, but when they started buying components locally, quality assurance is an issue. When a consumer gets a Sony product made in Malaysia, they determined that it is of the lower quality in comparison to those made in Japan. However, product distribution works well from advanced country to another advance country. When Japanese car maker went to America, it did not encounter much difficulty as American was already having quality assurance through product safety law and admission control law and etc. In a nutshell, going into advanced country is way easier than those with emerging economies as they have to manage supply functions or create suppliers in emerging markets like China, India or South Africa who are world class.

In your opinion, do you think that in time to come if China was to do the same like Japan, they will achieve the same level of success as what the Japanese have?

I am actually convinced that China will make the transition like Japan did from cheap goods to those with value and premium quality. I would say it is a matter of no more than two decades

when we will have the admirable of goods that are made in China. People used to be sceptical about Samsung and Hyundai. Hyundai failed the first time in America as they did not place much emphasis on quality assurance, but Hyundai is a very popular car in America. I think China can easily do that as well.

We are encountering more non-US companies in the top 100 most valuable global brands 2014 list. What key lessons can we learn from a mix of non-US to US brands that are entering and exiting the list given the fact that more companies are investing on branding of products, services and experiences?

Investors and entrepreneurs underestimate the power of marketing and branding. For example, Singapore has some very good brands but due to market size constraint it cannot do much. However if Singapore brands can have a global mindset, things will be different. Just like Swiss watches that did very well globally. If one has a good domestic brand reputation, especially from an advanced country, it actually has a global market opportunity. In the old days we used to say about globalisation “Think Global, Act Global” and we later moved on to “Think Local, Act Local”. Now I am creating a whole new paradigm, “Think Local, Act Global”.

Singapore being a small country with plenty of small businesses, how much investment in terms of resources do you think these companies will need in order to grow their brand?

I think they have to engage in public private partnership of which government has an investment interest in their native sons. Companies can invest and tap on government’s branding efforts and treat branding as an investment preposition for the nation. Such power of the nation comes to the brands and people admire the nation because of their world-class products. It is the nation’s interest to invest in branding especially for small and medium enterprises.

Jan - Mar 2015

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By MarK Laudi

Troubleshootingyour Content Marketing initiatives

FOCUS

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So, you’ve done your best to create content. you have researched the subject matter well, and have written or produced interesting articles and/or videos that you think your target market will find valuable. You have then uploaded it to your website or corporate blog, and your corporate youTube channel. But you are not getting the response you had hoped for. Now you are under pressure to cut the budget. What can you do?

Before you reallocate resources to traditional forms of advertising, here is a three point troubleshooting plan. You might be surprised that your content itself is not the problem.

Step 1:How are you measuring success?

Clearly, all marketing initiatives must help your sales force sell. But remember, content marketing is not advertising. It is not a short term sales tool. It is a lead generator that fosters a deeper relationship of trust with your target market, and results in sustainable customer relationships in the medium to long term.

Therefore, measuring content marketing by sales is not the right approach. I have made this point before at content marketing seminars I have spoken at, and come up against resistance. After all, the marketers gathered in the room are there to help their companies sell, especially at a time when they are under pressure to shorten sales cycles, and to sell more.

But think about the last time you gave a keynote address at a conference, or staged a seminar. How many people in the audience did you convert immediately after your presentation? You probably generated some leads, but sales – if any – are not likely to have flowed until weeks or months after the event.

The danger with treating content marketing as a sales tool is that it leads to blatant sales messages being included in the content… in which case,

it loses its appeal as content. It becomes an advertorial, and all your effort to create compelling, valuable content is diluted. No one likes to be sold to.

So, what is a better way to measure the success of your content marketing initiatives?

The keyword is engagement: are your intended readers and viewers actually consuming your content? How many hits is your content getting across your blog, website or Facebook pages? How many times is your content being “liked”? Shared? Commented on?

What are the open rates of the emails you are sending out with your content? Most email engines will also tell you how many times the email was shared or forwarded, links clicked on, and images and graphics rendered.

In short, be sure you are measuring engagement, not sales.

Step 2:How are you distributing the content?

Measuring the success of your content marketing initiative by engagement automatically tells you whether you are actually reaching your target market.

Jan - Mar 2015

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If you are not getting an acceptable number of hits, shares, likes or opens, you are possibly not sending it to the right audience, or using the right channels, or even the right number of channels.

One mistake marketers make is not devoting enough budget to distributing content. They pour all their effort in resources into production, and not enough into getting the content seen. Ideally, you should spend 50% of your budget on distribution. That sounds high, but the alternative is to produce good content that nobody gets to see.

In general, you can’t expect to create content, upload it to your blog or website, and expect your target audience to find it. You have to use multiple channels. Email blasts, a corporate blog, microsite, Facebook and Twitter are obvious channels.

Here are some additional pointers:

• your sales force. Your internal customers – your sales people – should be the first to distribute your content to their prospects. Sales people by definition have a big appetite for fresh talking points, to start or reinvigorate conversations with customers.That’s especially the case if they have leads that are stuck.

The elephant in the room is that sales and marketing people often don’t talk enough to each other, or don’t get along. Sales thinks marketing isn’t delivering enough leads; marketing thinks sales isn’t following up fast enough to convert them.

Use content to break down this barrier. If your internal conversations improve, your external ones might, too.

• LinkedIn. Share your content marketing pieces to your contacts and groups. Company pages allow you to share with all your followers, or an audience targeted by company size, industry, function, seniority, geography and language preferences.

But it shouldn’t end there. You should also share your content with your personal network (if you feel uncomfortable to do so, read “Is your content compelling?” below).

And it doesn’t end there, either. Encourage all your staff to share the content through their personal networks, too. And not just your marketing colleagues, but everyone in the company, starting with your sales people.

If the content is good enough (see below), you might be positively surprised by how your staff respond.

• Outbrain. Like Google AdWords, except instead of banner or text ads it places links to your content on the site of news organisations and others who have allocated space on their sites for this purpose. In my experience, Outbrain achieves excellent reach and satisfactory click-through rates.

• various content platforms. There are now many services available that package your content more meaningfully, such as Flipboard and Storify. I don’t have sufficient space here to do justice to all of these, but you owe it to yourself and others producing the content that you consider all of these to take your content further. And that necessarily means your content should be mobile-ready, too.

Step 3:Is your content compelling?

Let’s say you have changed the way you measure your content marketing success, and you have adjusted the way you are delivering the content. If you still have not found sufficient engagement with your target market it’s time to ask yourself these questions about your content:

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FOCUS

Mark Laudi is the Managing Director of Hong Bao Media, Singapore’s first video communications companies specializing in content marketing, internal communications, investor communications and eventv. He is also a former CNBC television presenter and producer, who emcees and moderates many business events in Asia Pacific Region.

• Does it deliver value? Good content must not just contain valuable information. It must be timely, meaning that it is written in a tone of urgency. Charts, graphics and images are just as important as the text, which is why video is so powerful.

• Is the content balanced? Remove any and all sales pitches from your content. They only spoil the deep, trusting engagement you are aiming for. Balance means discussing all aspects of your subject matter candidly, including the negatives.

• Who is the author of the content? This is a frequently overlooked, but important point. First, is the author identified as your company, or someone within your company? Ideally, you would but a name or face to the content you produce. Your audience will have an easier time relating to someone in the organisation. Second, what is the credibility of the source? An article written by your Head of Research & Development is more likely to be viewed as credible than an article attributed to your Head of Sales. There is a good reason why the words “author” and “authority” share the same root. Third, if your Head of R&D is not as good a presenter as your Head of Sales, train him/her up to be a better speaker.

• Are you aggregating content? It is highly likely that other people in your industry also have meaningful, interesting views to share. Draw on their expertise, or even pull their YouTube videos into your playlist. Curating other people’s content is as important as creating your own.

• Is it fun? A lot of emphasis among Singapore markets is on value, and ensuring useful facts and substantiating data are presented. This is a good start. But to create the emotional connection to your audience that is essential to building a relationship, your content must also be entertaining.

If your content is lacking in any of the above points, it could be the reason it is not receiving the likes and shares you are hoping for, and possibly also explains why you or other members of your organisation are reluctant to share it with their own LinkedIn contacts.

Step 4:Have you given it enough time?

Content marketing is a medium to long term initiative in thought leadership. If you have the right content, distributed through the right channels, you might just need to give it a little time to yield results. Engagement does not happen overnight (or do you know anyone who got engaged to someone they only just met)?

But if you stay the course, your customer relationships will be deeper, more loyal and ultimately more profitable.

IT’S THE THOUGHT

THATCOUNTS!

By angeLa Chai

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FEATURE

COMPETITION IS NO LONGER WITH yOUR NEIGHBOURS ALONE, IT IS THE WORLD AT LARGE.

The good news is that your customers are not confined to location or a country, but they can be found anywhere globally. If your neighbour is selling men’s wear, and you sell the same labels, why must your customer buy from you? People are in constant demand of new and fresh ideas and information; they want to be entertained, they want to receive information they have never heard before. If you reach out, interact, educate, and stay in touch to understand your customers’ needs, chances are they will remain as long term customers. This is where successful content marketing can convey a message of hope, tailored to the needs of prospective customers to influence their buying decision.

B2B Marketing is a leading international information provider for business marketers to inform and connect marketers to maximize business performance. In their study “B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, 2014 and Trends–North America”, they found out that within the 250,000 marketers, many marketers focused on many social media platforms in order to distribute content.

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Image taken from http://www.iab.net/media/file/B2BResearch2014.pdf


INCORPORATING COPyWRITING WITH CONTENT MARKETING

From a traditional marketing viewpoint, we understand that content marketing is the creation of valuable information that has a marketing purpose. Copywriting on the other hand is designed to get the reader to take a specific action, such as to make an immediate purchase or return to make a purchase at a bargain, at some future date. In Content Marketing, for instance, a website offers many special reports regarding financial trends for free, only in exchange of your personal email address and permission to promote its offers. Therefore good content with good copywriting can attract the interested audiences, delivering one sales message after another without making it feel like direct selling, whilst getting potential customers to stay loyal to you.

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Nike has been one of the outstanding pioneers in embracing content marketing with their famous, “JUST DO IT” slogan as part of content marketing. This slogan encompasses content beyond selling of shoes, it includes life’s philosophy. Nike believes that traditional marketing could not connect with consumers which results in people not getting what they want. Nike’s campaigns then turned its focus to encourage the average Joe to rise above himself because “Greatness can be anywhere, for anyone and you can achieve it on your own terms.” Visitors to Nike’s website can sign up as members by providing their emails and login anytime to receive news, special offers and make a purchase.

BE AN INTEGRAL MEMBER OF yOUR OWN MARKET

Content marketing is an agile process due to its real time nature and ever changing nature of the audience, who are the prospective customers. To build a successful audience, we have to know the customers on a personal level, empathise with the problems they are facing, know what they are used to seeing in the market and seek their views constantly. With the technological age, we are able to do more in-depth research on the problems that the targeted audience face so we assist to provide services that is value added for them. Whilst professional athletes diligently clock in several thousands of hours to prepare for competitions, content marketing research requires the same degree of motivation and hard work. Through research, you can discover what is not being done well in your industry and set in place the processes necessary to manage this better. Aim to be the first to identify your audience’s need and give them a sweet solution.

Image taken from: google images

Starbucks having their own online forum, http://mystarbucksidea.force.com/apex/ideahome, embraced the importance by having a specific platform for people to discuss about what they like, what can be improved and give ideas. This ingenious platform also linked to multiple other social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Google+. By engaging in Social Media, Starbucks can monitor the audience closely and be seen as being personal. Its employees go through every suggestion and provide explanations and comments. They have a voting system for users to vote whether the ideas are appealing for them for every case. Thus Starbucks participates in the very community it is trying to serve, and is seen as being a genuine and active listener.

Image taken from: http://jmoslow.wordpress.com/2012/03/30/starbucks-my-starbucks-idea/

FEATURE

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Angela Chai, Principal Business Consultant of Highlight Business Services. She has mentored more than 2,000 business owners. She has played key roles in supporting her clients in medical practices, education, restaurants, marketing and information technology businesses, to innovate to reach strategic milestones. She can be reached at [email protected].

(All images are provided by the writer)

Jan - Mar 2015

ONLINE PLATFORM IS FOR ALL - ENTREPRENEURS, ENTHUSIAST & PROSPECTS

Social Media acts like the campfires and reunions that pull the tribes together. This campfire gives us a place to share information about what is new, discuss about the pros and cons, voice out differing opinions and agreeing on similar views. Entrepreneurs at this age will “hang out” at social media all the time; gathering at platforms such as Twitter and Facebook is a daily affair. Thus, Social media reflects the audience’s real “digital” world, which gives a daily update on what people do and say, what is needed to understand our audience better. In a survey by the New York Times, 68% of people said they shared to give people a better sense of who they are and what they care about. Hence content sharing becomes more personal and practical.

Content Marketing is your “something more” as compared to your competitors as when it’s successful, it positions your brand as the buyer’s choice. One of the essential components that has been neglected of successful content marketing is the emotional component of consumers. Every piece of content you write has to either solve a problem or entertain the audience or both. Every information they receive from you should make them feel good and informed. To emphasize, content marketing is all about educating prospects for them to trust, like and in the end do business with you. People want to learn before they buy, to be educated instead of getting pitched.

Image taken from:http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/

What started HardwareZone as an online magazine soon became a popular gathering place for Singapore’s computer-savvy to discuss hardware and software news. The website provides localized content on Information Technology (IT) news, product information, and numerous member-centric services. It is welcoming to everyone, regardless you are an entrepreneur or someone looking for a solution. The content is free for all to read, and to regulate, users have to register in order to post. There are also many other sub forums not related to IT. Many businesses utilize this site to give consultation and

discuss on how they can assist. At the same time, many businesses such as Yamaha and OCBC Bank have sub forums in hardware zone to discuss about Music and Financials respectively. The content has gone viral as it has developed into a virtual place where consumers voice their opinions and concerns. A platform where consumers search for solutions, enthusiasts to comment and marketers to research and look for business opportunities.

Be genuine and generous, walk into the world of your customers and empathize with them, navigate into the depths and beyond Content Marketing on the social platform. It is undeniable that customers do not like being sold to by advisement while making any purchase decision. Therefore this motivates the entrepreneur in us to innovate beyond conventional marketing ideas. What people want is authentic and valuable information about the make, the benefits and the unique after-sale service that we provide that differentiates us and yet bonds us with them.

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Content is King. Content Creation is the Crown.

GURU TALK

Social Media content is one of the most misunderstood topic around us. Social Media Content is a strategy by itself. Social Media Content Marketing is just an application. In social media, content is king while social conversation is queen. Content is any valuable information which the user can benefit to increase their knowledge about your product without the call to buy anything. It is directly opposite of a typical campaign.

By andrew Chow

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What are the attributes of good social media content?

• Purposeful. All good content must serve at least one of these 3 purposes: Educate, Entertain, Engage. Users today are spoilt for choices; they are better informed. They need quick knowledge with entertainment value and love to ask questions.

• Addictive. Content should make others come to you for update on a consistent basis. Users should love your content so much they share it with friends all the time to broaden your reach. The more people

want your content, the more advocates you will have.

• Concise. It is amazing how Twitter can survive for so long by just being concise, brief and direct. Everything can be and should be said under 140 characters. People short attention span from short information span especially the Generation Y.

• Emotional. Social Media is an inherently emotional platform. Great Content should make people feel, think and act. The more you are able to appeal to people’s emotion, the more connection you can create with the right audience.

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How to produce great social media content?

• Curate. For beginners, it is advisable to share what’s already on social media. You may research others’ original content which satisfies the 4 attributes and curate them for incremental sharing on your platforms. Some of the tools you can utilise are Pinterest, Flipboard, Scoop IT, IFTTT, paper.li and Pocket.

• Collaborate. You can create content with other stakeholders like bloggers. They can blog about you with their own opinion. Of course you do not enjoy much control over the format and approach. You can also get the larger audience involved through crowdsourcing like crowdfunding, survey, opinion poll, etc. The insights of these crowdsourcing activities is a content by itself.

• Create. Once you know your audience well, you can create your unique content through different medium. You can do 1-minute video, infographics, inspirational posters, quotes, niche event, soundcast, etc. It is not really the format or design, it is about thinking like a normal user and decide what is it in for me to receive these information.

10 most popular topics in Asia to create original content are:

• Best Deals. Deals can be customised to certain audience and preference.

• Country pride and Nationalism. Create something which makes people feel proud and inspired.

• Food. Be creative and link food to other related topic like health, personality, etc.

• Funny / Gag. Everyone enjoy a good laugh sometimes.

• Generation Y. Invest in your future buyers by appealing to their sense of images, colour and language.

• How to make money online. Suggest ways to create multiple income streams.

• Love. Tips on relationship, rapport building and love is an evergreen topic.

• Nostalgia. Walk down the memory lane of different age group.

• Parenting. Parenting is always an interesting and challenging topic. Once you are good at it, you are out of job.

• Private information / Gossips. Behind the scene and industry secrets are always addictive.

• Something new/ unusual and cool. It is acceptable to be a reporter once in a while to give your perspective of current affairs.

The strategic approach to content creation:

1. Select your audience. Different audience will resonate with different medium of content.

2. Source for the most suitable platform. There is no one size fits all platform. Know where your audiences are and position yourself.

3. Strategise the storyboard. There must be a theme and topics with work with. Be systematic and congruent.

4. Schedule the content. Spread the content over a timeline over 3-6 months. Recycle them once in a while.

5. Share them often. This requires your management, staff, customers, and partners to collaborate and share each other’s content.

Andrew Chow is a passionate social media and public relations strategist, entrepreneur, speaker and author of Social Media 247 and Public Relations 247. Based in Singapore, his insights into social media strategy, public relations and entrepreneurship have made him a choice selection for workshops and speaking engagements across Asia, His mission is to educate professionals on how to leverage social channels for tangible results. Andrew’s career of 27 years; has seen him work with an array of clients including BBC, Abbot Medical Optics, Singtel and Sony Pictures.

Content creation is hard work but the return is plentiful. When you can share knowledge unselfishly, people will buy your expertise willingly. It is a team effort and should include people who are not from your organization to participate in the process to ensure objectivity and maximum creativity.

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Reach out to more…

By MeLvin goh

INTRODUCTION

The Content Marketing Institute articulates that content marketing is a marketing craftsmanship or art of creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience, with the goal of driving profitable customer action.

The vast and diverse literature in content marketing appears to converge into a strategic intent where content leads the ‘game’. We may suggest that the ‘game’ as in ‘game theory’ clearly indicates a defined audience with a clear call to action. The winners of crating good content will enable the marketer to attract and retain customer. The purpose of creating and curating relevant as well as valuable content has the intention of changing and/or enhancing consumer behaviour.

We will look at several elements that will enable the marketer to own his content by crafting original

content that engages the audience with curiosity, creativity, connectedness, conversations, crystal clear communications and compelling stories.

A case in study is Oyster Bay wines where the brand has utilised these elements to attract and retain their customers by gaining brand loyalty and capturing market share in several countries by moving up into the most admired brand list by Drink International, one of the worlds most trusted and respected international drinks journal.

CURIOSITy

Oyster Bay’s tagline “Sometimes the world really is your oyster” has invoke much curiosity. Their intention with the “Sometimes” ad campaign is to arouse, attract and stimulate the emotive moments a wine consumer would like to engage in. Their current web states “Sometimes a single moment can last an entire lifetime” is

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Owning your content in“Content Marketing”

A case study on Oyster Bay Wines

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a good example. (http://www.oysterbaywines.com/sometimes). The craftiness of this content is admirable giving the audience an opportunity to explore the brand’s identity. It also enhances the audience arousal and creates an awakening of the soul to question the world we live in. What are these “sometimes” moment that triggers our existence and offers memorable “pleasure or pain”. Content that utilises this element of curiosity will lead the audience to ideas that induce them to stop, read, think and behave differently. This opens up to a world of creativity.

CREATIvITy

Steven Covey’s famous quote “First seek to understand than be understood” opens up opportunities of ideas where you really need to know what are the pains your audience is going through and how you can create pleasurable moments by creating a content that seeks to understand them better so that you can connect with them instantly. Content that captures attention has the power of imagination to belief that it is not what the audience read but what the audience need to digest and take action. It is ultimately the test to the “call to action” that will enable good creative content to get hook onto your audience.

Sharing your moments of pleasure or pain through creating “blogs” will enable the marketer to gain valuable insight. This in turn will offer a forum of exchange where ideas are shared between consumers. These ideas will educate, inform and entertain consumers so that their choices may be reinforced by the web content. This in turn will enable consumer to have a virtual reality that their pleasure or pain are similarly felt by other consumers and thereby they are no longer alone. Creativity in content leads to connectedness in this virtual world.

CONNECTEDNESS

Every one of us needs love and connectedness, as the saying goes “No man is an island”. Delivering information that makes your customer

feel connected helps you to own a share of their emotional intelligence. This may lead you to enhance the essence of your content as an on-going process to continuously repeat those beliefs that your brand offers. In the case of Oyster Bay the theme for connecting emotional intelligence are words like “elegant, assertive, with glorious fruit flavours”. These words are in my opinion appealing to wine consumers. These taste descriptors would offer the immediate connection to wine as a social beverage that will connect like minded consumers into a fraternity of loyal followers. People will click with each other on similar interest and affinity to labels that are desirable and synonymous. The connectedness of your content is like a fragrant perfume that ignites those flavours reminiscent of your defined audience. Once your content is well weaved into the tapestry of your connectedness, you want your consumers to talk about it. This single thread of descriptors will be the conversational piece of all your products or services that you intend to market.

CONvERSATIONS

A well curated content has a personal attraction that is far more credible when spoken. As a marketer, we sometimes fail to justify the relevance of our brand’s existence. If the world really is your oyster, you might want to protect how your message is being communicated to your defined audience. A conversation between the brand and the intended audience must bring all the relevant information to educate and advise your audience on why they must chose your brand and not the others. A content that fuelled conversations about the same intention with the same words like elegant, assertive and glorious can only reinforce the positioning of the brand in consumers’ mindset and engrave a deep sense of belonging.

CRySTAL CLEAR COMMUNICATION

We cannot change how our audience listens, but if our content is crystal clear our consumer will be able to hear them. The advent of technology and people working together has bridge our day to day

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BUSINESS SCHOOL

Melvin Goh has more than 20 years of wine marketing experiences in retail merchandising, promotion and distribution. He has marketed more than 50 wine brands in Singapore and is the Winner of the Australian / Wine & Spirit Education Trust Travel Scholarship in 2010.

communications, however, we need our message to be heard and digested in byte sizes and not chunks. The success of a crystal clear message will empower our communication. If we succeed in attaining this goal, we have a compelling story that will stir the heart, mind, body and soul of our defined audience.

COMPELLING STORIES

The “Sometimes” stories have succeeded in making Oyster Bay a pleasurable wine that is so compelling. The advertorials that run in the strategic content marketing campaign has been proven to be successful. The authenticity of stories tweeted or blogged by the consumers have created a powerful testimony over time for the sustainability of the brand.

This case study demonstrated that a sound and well integrated content marketing, using curiosity, creativity, connectedness, conversations, crystal clear communications and compelling stories, will enable the marketer to harness and drive profitable customer action.

“Sharing your moments of pleasure or pain through creating “blogs” will enable the marketer to gain valuable insight”

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The Lazy Entrepreneur’s Secret To Getting More Leads Than You Can Handle…Without Needing To Hustle, Bustle And Grind Unnecessarily!

When I first started my business, I worked hard. I worked day and night. I worked my ass off. After all, that’s how you become successful, right? (Or so I thought…)

Like most new start-ups, my partner and I tried to do most things ourselves to cut cost. (Big mistake on hindsight… but that’s a story for another time)

So in addition to my standard persuasive copywriting services, I was double-hatting as the business development guy.

Looking back, I can’t believe how I managed to survive those initial few months. My schedule was crazy packed. 4-5 meetings per day was the norm.

Night time brought no respite. I still had to follow up on the leads I got, and devise campaign strategies for my clients.

On average, I used to work about 15-16 hours a day. I was constantly tired, and my social life was in tatters. Although I was happy with the clients I brought in, it came to a point where I started to wonder:

“Is The Money Worth The Sacrifices I’m Making?”

Before I go further, here’s something you should know about me: I’m extremely ambitious. I aim high and I want to be the best at what I do.

But herein lies the problem… I’m also a lazy person by nature! See the conflict there?

It took all my willpower to hustle, bustle and grind the way I did. Deep down, I knew that I could not sustain that kind of manual work for long. I’m not that type of person.

So I started to think of a better way to get an equal or higher number of leads, without me needing to work so damn hard.

And the great thing about having an ambitious and lazy personality combo, is that I have an uncanny knack of coming up with short-cuts that can eliminate unnecessary labour, while still managing to increase productivity.

In short, that’s what people call:

Working Smart!

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By ronaLd Lye

Jan - Mar 2015

Within a week or two, I had a framework which in theory, would give me a tsunami of leads from the comfort of my home or office. To give you a brief overview, this is a personal branding framework that works on social media (I’ll explain more in detail later).

So with the formula all set and done, the next step was to test it. I was excited, but I knew I had to be patient, because branding is a long game which requires constant cultivation.

Results did not come immediately, but I kept the faith and persevered. Finally, after about 2 months of diligent posting on my Facebook profile, I snagged my first client thanks to this framework. After that, the leads started flowing like an open tap!

The results were so outrageously fantastic I had to turn away clients who were begging to pay me cold, hard cash for my services… because I could not handle the overwhelming load!

Wow.

Without this framework, I probably would’ve been burned out and jaded a long time ago. Now, I’m inundated with an endless flow of clients… while relaxing in the comfort of my office!

So I’m guessing you must be wondering what this framework’s all about, right? Ok then… I shall not keep you in suspense any longer. Introducing, my very own:

E.R.P Personal Branding Formula

(FYI, E.R.P stands for Engage, Relate and Personalise. More on that later.)

With my E.R.P formula, you don’t have to compete with your competitors for leads or customers anymore. Instead, your prospects will be tripping over each other while competing for your time and expertise!

You can stop competing, and start dominating.

My E.R.P formula will also allow you to radically cut short your sales cycle, and give you the power position during negotiations with your prospects.

That’s because they’re coming to you, not the other way round. This means they need your expertise more than you need their business.

You can get them to play by your rules, rather than you compromising to meet their demands.

Best of all… it’s FREE! Since this is a personal branding framework, it’ll work best on your personal social media profile. Since I started applying it, I’ve acquired dozens of clients at zero advertising cost.

You can stop worrying about getting the best bang for your buck from your advertising costs, and start enjoying infinite ROI.

A Sneak Peek Behind The Curtain: Engage, Relate, Personalise

Before I tell you more about the E.R.P formula, this will only work for you if:

• You have a Facebook account with a big enough group of potential prospects on your friend list. (Minimum 50)

• You don’t mind mixing business with your personal life.

• You’re diligent enough to post relevant content at least 2 times a week.

• You’re realistic about expectations. This is NOT an instant quick-fix solution (took me about 2 months of consistent posting before I saw results.)

• You’re authentic. Don’t make up stories. It’s stupid and unethical.

Alright then… now that that’s done and over with, here we go:

EngageRemember that although they’re your

prospects, they’re your friends as well. They don’t want to be “hard sold” to on Facebook. They want to be entertained. To enjoy their surfing time. To engage with you.

And the best way to do all that is: Tell stories about yourself!

Use your daily activities as story ideas, and be purposeful and clear on the message you want to convey. Most importantly, your story must in

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Ronald is the founder of Wordplay LLP, a highly-sought after persuasive copywriting firm. He and his team specialise in running direct response marketing campaigns. He believes that all marketing activities should lead to bottom-line business results such as leads, sales and profits. He has helped many SMEs from various industries generate explosive profits within a short time. To find out more about Ronald and Wordplay, check out Wordplay LLP on Facebook for advanced copywriting and marketing insights, or visit www.wordplay.sg.

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some way, educate important info related to your product/service.

E.g. If my message is the importance of marketing:

“I had a lunch meeting with a business owner who has a great product, but non-existent marketing. That’s why his sales is down in the dumps…”

RelateIt’s important that your readers can relate to

your story, meaning they can understand, or better yet, visualise in their minds what you’re going through.

This will get them to buy into your message easily as you can capture and lead their imagination, from the first word all the way to the last.

Be careful not to use too many industry-specific terms or jargons, unless your readers are already highly-educated about your product/service.

E.g. If I’m a bespoke tailor writing a relatable story to my readers:

“I was specially hand-picked by the flight attendant to enjoy a free upgrade to first class… because I was wearing a suit and the other passengers were not…”

PersonaliseTo create the ideal perception of yourself to

your prospects, you need to personalise your posts. This is based on two powerful concepts:

1) People Buy People FirstBefore your prospects buy what you’re selling,

they buy into YOU first. They want to know you. To like you. To identify with you. Only then, will they buy from you.

That’s why it’s important to instil some of your values and beliefs into your posts occasionally.

This is especially so for salespeople or SME owners, since the relationships between them and their customers/prospects are a lot more personal.

2) Birds Of A Feather Flock TogetherAfter getting a sense of who you are, they’ll be

magnetically attracted to you if you have similar or compatible character traits.

Even though it’s business, it’s also personal. No one wants to work with someone they don’t like or can’t get along with.

E.g. If I’m a believer in hard work and sacrifice:

“It’s a Friday night. All my friends are out partying. They asked me along, but I turned them down. Because as an entrepreneur, you have to sacrifice somethings to achieve greatness…”

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DIGITAL DIGEST

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Mobile:The Missing Piece to Your Content Marketing Strategy

By tiM davies


When developing your content marketing strategy, planning for mobile is a must.

The current scale and future growth of smartphone usage dictates that mobile must be considered when developing your content marketing strategy.

• According to nielsen.com, Asia Pacific smartphone penetration is highest in Hong Kong and Singapore at 87 percent, followed by Malaysia (80%), Australia (75%) and China (71%).

• Smartphone adoption is predicted to increase markedly over the coming years, with smartphone subscriptions in South East Asia and Oceania expected to grow by almost 500% between 2013 and 2019, with reference from Ericsson report published in June 2014.

• 97% of active users in the Asia Pacific region access social media via a mobile device, with reference from We Are Social report published January 2014.

• According to nielsen.com, smartphone owners in South East Asia spend on average more than three hours per day on their smartphones.

Jan - Mar 2015

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When preparing a content marketing strategy to cater to the growing mobile audience, what sorts of things should you consider?

UNDERSTAND yOUR AUDIENCE

A marketer should always seek to understand her or his audience so it should come as no surprise that you should pay special attention to the mobile habits of your target audience:• Where and when do they use their mobile

phone?- Is it on the go or when they’re on the

couch at home?• Which sites do they access?• Which apps do they use and why do they

use them?• What’s the coverage of their data network

like?• What sort of content do they engage with?

The answers to these questions should drive your content marketing strategy. For example, a person who is using their phone on the couch, when connected to Wi-Fi, is much more likely to watch an extended video than one who’s on public transport with intermittent internet access.

DESIGN FOR MOBILE FROM THE OUTSET

Many marketers take content they’ve developed elsewhere and try to fit into a mobile template, when a better approach is to design with mobile in mind right from the start. Questions you should are: Will your content be easy to digest on a mobile screen? Are your key points visible without the user having to scroll? Will it be the right length? Will it be easy for the user to look away and find their place at a later time?

DELIvER A GREAT USER ExPERIENCE, THEN ENHANCE vISUAL APPEAL

Perhaps obvious nowadays, but you should optimise all you written content for ease of

reading on a mobile device. It doesn’t matter how pretty a page is if the text displayed is illegible. Have you ever read a resume that has text that’s too small to read? How did you feel? A user should never have to zoom to be able to read your content and this applies to capturing data too. If you’re looking to build an email distribution list with White Papers, optimise your web form for mobile and remember, typing on a phone is hard so make sure you only ask for input that you absolutely need from the user.

Make it easy for people to respond to your content. Ensure any phone numbers are “clickable” and the same goes for email addresses.

Remember that precise clicking can be difficult on mobile devices. If you cannot design your content in such a way as to overcome this challenge, then make it easy for people to access your content from another device. This could be as simple as providing an “email button” so the user can email your content to themselves for later viewing.

STRUCTURE yOUR CONTENT FOR THE MOBILE USER

If writing articles fits your strategy, structure your content for easy reading on the go. Provide readers with summaries or “content snippets”, but also provide links to more detailed content for those who are interested. Ensure that any such “more information” links open in new windows so that the user’s reading is uninterrupted.

Craft intriguing headlines that inspire your audience to tap into your content. People are continually being bombarded with messages so make sure yours stands out with bold, concise headlines. Bear in mind that there is limited space on a mobile screen so keep your headlines short to ensure they fit.

Give users choice in how to interact with your content. Put yourself in the shoes of a person

DIGITAL DIGEST

Tim Davies is Head of Strategy & Marketing at Hikemeup (www.hikemeup.com), the mobile app that rewards you for interacting with content you actually care about. Tim has an MBA (Strategic Marketing) from Babson College, the world’s #1 ranked school for entrepreneurship, as well as Bachelors in Information Systems and Finance from Swinburne University in Australia.

accessing your content on the go. Would you rather watch a long video, or have the choice between watching a quick summary or a series of short videos that cover the full content?

On that note, if you have the available resources, consider including video in your mobile content strategy. The right video can convey a message in an engaging, and mobile-friendly format. According to Nielsen.com, in Asia Pacific, 74 percent of online consumers, report watching video on mobile phones at least once a month.

The rising popularity of short-form video services like Vine and Instagram Video is also creating great opportunities for mobile content marketing.

CONSIDER WHETHER APPS WOULD WORK FOR yOUR AUDIENCE

When talking about mobile marketing, one has to talk about apps. The usage of apps, especially in banking or online shopping, is such that marketers in any business should at least consider the potential of apps for their business. According to TechInAsia article published Oct 2013, Asian countries lead the world in

business-to-consumer (B2C) app usage.

For those considering entering the world of mobile apps, check out App Annie (http://www.appannie.com/), which has app rankings and statistics broken down by country.

While achieving a lot more than just providing content, the Nike+ Running app (ranked #2 in Singapore on the App Annie iOS Top App Chart, as at time of writing) is a great example of content marketing. The app provides content that engages its users: from basic running statistics, to a “running coach” feature that provides full training plans. The app and the content contained within it encourages users to regularly open it and to keep on running, which ultimately results in more shoe sales for Nike.

It’s clear that mobile devices are a vital part of our daily lives, make sure you take the right steps to ensure that they’re also a vital part of your content marketing strategy.

We are offering exclusive mobile advertising offer for the first 100 readers of The Singapore Marketer. Send an email to [email protected] to receive your discount.

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Stay Ahead Of The Competition

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By PauL LiM

LEARNING SITE

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In today’s volatile market environment, some companies have reported a loss in revenue due to the intense competition for shrinking pie. Competition from emerging markets, soaring costs and the pressure for higher wages threaten to hit many competition. The price comparison is also rampant.

The success of the company depends on structured and efficient framework in order to forge ahead amidst stiff competition.

When it comes to dealing with the competition, the company can forget about your business strategies if they are unable to implement them ahead of the competition. Sun-Tze once said, “Know yourself and your enemy and you will win in battles”

There is one proven formula; applying PASSION if you want to stay in the game for the long haul.

PRODUCTS

The company can continuously enhance the quality of the products; it is critical to always inject new ideas into product development to deter imitation and surpasses your competitors. Be open to new ideas and innovate constantly; this will ensure that you are always ahead of the race

Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is your product’s most powerful benefit combined with the unique aspect of your business. USP in any business is what helps draw customers to support your products. The company must capitalise and invest on their USP because making best use of it will distinguish your company from the competition.

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Paul Lim is an entrepreneur who owns 2 companies in different areas – Print Management and Website Design & Development. AStar Success Pte Ltd has been awarded Asia Excellence Award specialises in Graphic Designs, Website Design & Developments, Marketing Ideas and 3D Visualisation. Find out more at www.astar-success.com. Paul is also the Honorary Secretary and Chairman of Marketing Institute of Singapore’s HR & Finance committee.

AWARDS

Quality certification and business excellence awards are an integral part of today’s business landscape. It is also an unspoken testimony of your company’s quality products and superior service. These accolades will raise the profile of your company which gained new business, as it added credibility and attract talent more easily. Awards also motivate your employees and raise staff morale.

STRENGTH

Enhance your company’s selling points and convert them into a winning formula. Plan your business growth systematical ly. Whi le your company’s strength is essential for success, it is equally important to reflect on its weakness and seek improvement.

Research on the other players in the market, this will give you a better gauge of how you stack up against the competitors and will help you identify the direction you should take your business.

SERvICE

Customer service excellence will give your company the competitive advantage. The company needs to survive in a tough and increasingly uncertain business climate in today’s customer-oriented business environmental “people skills” are critical for the company success.

It pays to analyse your customers and their buying behaviours in details so that you can provide better service and win them for life

INvESTMENT

In a competitive environment, investment in state-of-art technology will make your company sustainable in terms of scale, superior product quality, wide product range and environmental compliance. The

expansion will give your company advantage in the global competition as it results in better economics of scale and reduction of operation expenses. It will provide the flexibility to improve product mix by adding high end products.

Investment in new equipment is expensive. So before you spend the money, consider alternative options such as conducting pilot trails before making a major commitment.

OUTSOURCING

Outsourcing can give your company flexibility which is essential to improving business competitiveness. This option will aid your company to conserve funds, increase staff productivity, improves its product expertise and speed up its growth in the corporate business. This frees the management to focus on potential areas to be further improved.

NURTURE

It is essential to shower the deserving staff; their contributions are critical to the success of your business. Treat the staff well and provide them the relevant training for the job and they will be able to serve the customers better. It is important to enhance customer loyalty. After all, this is the reason why we are in business. Customer loyalty will give you the competitive edge over your competitors, while soaring your company sales into greater heights.

Remember to track your company progress and monitor the performance. Develop a system for reporting key figures such as sales, profits, customer satisfaction and market indicators regularly.

It is also important to keep abreast of current market trends and conduct regular reviews on strategies, tactics and resources, constantly tweaking and streamlining processes in order to stay ahead.

40More B2B marketers today are taking advantage of content marketing. As a cornerstone of B2B marketing, content marketing helps build trust, establish thought leadership, generate quality leads and close sales. While many companies have great content that works well in their home base, when they take it abroad, there is a good chance it gets lost in translation, or even worse, causes a major embarrassment.

There is the half-joke of a cola salesman from the U.S., who was posted in Saudi Arabia. Since he didn’t speak any Arabic, he conveyed his message through three posters. The poster on the left showed

Localising great content: Don’t get lost in translation

LEARNING SITE

By asuthosh nair 41


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a man lying in a desert, exhausted and thirsty. That in the middle showed the man drinking cola. And the poster on the right showed the man refreshed. Six months later he returned disappointed, having made no sales. Much too late he realised why his posters did not work. The Saudis read from right to left. They had read his posters the “wrong” way, and were clearly turned off by the implication.

Avoiding the fate of the cola salesman is simple if we keep a few pointers in mind.

RECOGNISE GEOGRAPHICAL CONTExT

Language and culture are tricky. To ensure your message is understood, we need to localise the content, which is a lot more than just flipping words. To start with, pin down what works in Singapore and the region (excluding Australia and New Zealand). Remember that:

1. English is not the native language. While people in countries like Singapore, Hong Kong, India and the Philippines are conversant in English, the language is not native to many.

2. Asia is not homogenous. Unlike the United States, which largely conforms to a few common cultural standards, Asia has unique cultures and different markets.

3. Mobile devices and therefore mobile Internet users far outnumber desktop computers and users.

Thus, when it comes to localisation, a ‘one size fits all’ approach will not work. Content must be tailored for each country. This applies to culture, demographics, language and sometimes even political context. As language barriers are likely to exist, marketers can use the power of visuals to explain the message better. This includes graphs, pictures and videos. And optimise your content for mobile devices – that means concise content, responsive design and prioritising scrolling over pagination.

MIND CULTURAL NUANCES

Besides understanding the quirks of the target market, a marketer who is reaching across borders needs to be diplomatic and sensitive to other cultures. Here’s how:

1. Avoid idioms, slang or culture-specific references – These may not be easily understood to your target audience. For example, the phrase ‘hit it out of the park’ may not resonate well with people who are not familiar with baseball.

2. Be careful when employing metaphors and symbolism – Work with a test audience or local expert who can vet the content to ensure it doesn’t disturb or offend anyone. Nothing is worse than violating cultural norms or taboos.

3. Use region-relevant statistics – Sharing statistics, benchmarks or data from another region is likely to be irrelevant to your new target audience. And while localised

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LEARNING SITE

Asuthosh Nair is the Director Client Advocacy at GetIT Comms, a company that develops and implements marketing programmes, campaigns and projects for B2B organisations. Read more about B2B marketing strategies at www.b2bento.com.

research may be time-consuming and costly, it demonstrates commitment that will serve you well in the long run.

4. Wherever possible, use local or regional case studies – these enable your audience to connect better with what you are offering. If these are not available, you can use your original case studies, but with less emphasis on its context. This allows the reader to focus on the benefits and outcomes, instead of feeling that the information is not relevant as it happened elsewhere.

LOCALISATION IN ACTION WITH CyBERSOURCE

CyberSource, a subsidiary of Visa, is the world’s largest e-commerce and security provider, and as part of its expansion in Asia Pacific, wanted an effective way of educating regional businesses of the importance of fraud management solutions. GetIT Comms worked with CyberSource to develop a “Pulse Survey” – a highly dynamic, visually compelling, web-based app for deep-dive lead generation and lead nurturing.

Pulse Surveys differ from the usual web surveys in that it offers instant benchmarking responses and recommendations, based on respondents’ anonymous information. It asks for respondents’ contact information only after they see the recommendations on screen and would like to receive a personalised PDF report containing their

responses and recommendations. This worked well with businesses in the region, as they are typically not open to disclosing sensitive business practices. By seeing how they compare to their peers, they get an incentive to share. In addition, providing useful information at no cost helps to establish trust with CyberSource. The Pulse Survey was also optimised for tablet displays, opposed to traditional web surveys, so people could take it on the go. At trade events for instance, CyberSource booth ambassadors would carry out roaming surveys on tablets, helping boost customer engagement and gain high quality leads.

Localising content therefore is not merely translation. It is about paying close attention to the places and people that you are reaching out to, and customising content so that it communicates the right message and delivers the right impact. Once your audience feels that you understand them and are reaching out to them, you greatly increase your chances of making meaningful connections – which is what content marketing is all about.

(All images are provided by the writer)

“English is not the native language. While people in countries like Singapore, Hong Kong, India and the Philippines are conversant in English, the language is not native to many.”

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INTERVIEW WITHGraeme Somerville-RyanMarketing and Business Development Director (Asia) at Wikborg, Rein & Co.

Do you think content marketing has evolved over the years?

Despite the recent hyperbole I think content marketing has always been with us in one form or another, it just depends on how you define content. I run content marketing projects for business in the professional services, shipping, and corporate services sectors and it differs with every business.

I prefer the slightly narrower definition of ‘content’ where brand is developed though high-level commentary and information provision. That said, content has to reflect the tastes of your clients and consumers, and I have notice a clear move towards the infographic consumption of information. People don’t always have time to read about the issues.

For me the biggest change has been the rise of digital marketing channels on traditional media. This has blurred the lines between self-produced and third party (independent) content. But in the new world of ‘content for everyone, by everyone’ there has also been a clear drop in the quality and repetitive nature of messaging.

What are content marketers doing wrong now?

Where do I start…

Content strategy is poorly (or not) developed, and it is certainly not tied into the needs of the sales teams.

Content marketing now includes every feasible tentacle of advertising and marketing.

Content is being dumbed-down or is being produced as click-bait.

Content production is hurried and poorly put together

Don’t get me wrong…there is some very good work being done. Brands that are being patient and producing good material are seeing great engagement and client loyalty. But for most, the positives are being buried by an avalanche of pointless marketing noise.

What do you think is the most significant challenge that content marketing is facing today? (How do you assure that your content gets noticed)

First is, Quality. It is extremely hard to produce consistently good content. Next is, Stamina. Content marketing is about telling stories, challenging assumptions, and changing attitudes. It is about building an individual or commercial reputation. This can take years. This should take years. I’m not sure most businesses are prepared to put in that much work over that timeframe.

I also think we are also seeing an incredible change in the sort of information which is consumed. Articles are becoming shorter or are being replaced by graphics. Clients/readers are not becoming lazier – but there is more and more information fighting for their attention. Content marketing tactics have to be able to adapt to these changes and be prepared to learn from what is and isn’t working.

What tools do you recommend to everyone getting started in content marketing? Are there any new tools emerging to address the specific needs of content marketers that have impressed you?

A dictionary, spell-check, and a good editor.

With over 10 years of experience in public relations, communications, international marketing, and brand development. Now the Marketing & Business Development Director of Wikborg, Rein & Co.,Graeme Somerville-Ryan’s current work focuses on marketing and communications strategies using both traditional and digital platforms. Graeme will share with you on some of his key points on content marketing.

MARKETER@WORK

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The basics matter – strategy and project goals, marketing, writing, design. There are lots of tools to help you spread content…but they don’t really matter if you are kicking out rubbish with no understanding of what success is going to look like.

How can one track the ROI or value of their content marketing efforts?

I think this is, in reality, one of the hardest things to do. It is easy to say ‘in the digital age everything can be tracked’. Yes, you can measure retweets, shares, likes, dislikes, and comments….yes visitor numbers, readers, and views can be tracked. But…

The real indication of content marketing success comes from a client telling the sales team ‘hey – I liked your comments/article/message on…’ or something to that effect. This is why the relationship between marketing and sales is so important. Content marketers need to understand where their efforts are really making a difference. Credit needs to be shared and feedback is needed on what content works and what doesn’t. Otherwise we won’t know what actually influences our audience.

I think the most exciting thing about the content marketing/social media relationship is not the breadth of reach you can achieve (wow…49,000 pages views); it’s the ability to market to one influential person in an enormous crowd. B2B marketing isn’t FMCG….I don’t need everyone to buy my services. I need a handful of decision makers to sit up and take notice. The ROIs are very different.

How can you give your customers a true brand experience with content marketing?

Well-developed content marketing gives your customers and clients an intimate look into what you and your business think and how you are run.

In the wider digital/social media context, it also shows how accountable you are for your actions and how effectively you deal with customer issues (such as social media feedback/crises). That is a real ‘brand experience’.

What’s something you’ve worked on that you’re most proud of?

In terms of overcoming major buy-in hurdles, getting combined social media and content projects off the ground for legal, insurance and shipping sector clients has been very rewarding. These sectors/professions are very traditional and sceptical as to the role of marketing. As such, there is some hard work involved to get them to accept/buy-in content and social media marketing.

What businesses can benefit most from content marketing?

All businesses can get something out of content marketing, but they need to put some serious thought into what they are trying to achieve and what success looks like. That said, certain ‘information rich’ profession have the potential to produce a lot of good material – law, consultancy, and accounting firms spring to mind.

Where do you see content marketing going in the years to come? Can it sustain its current buzz?

The ‘buzz’ is part of the problem for content marketing. The rush to try and show you are producing cutting-edge content is a real distraction from doing the basic right.

Gazing into my crystal ball…I think content marketing and social media will be inseparable. This might already be the case, which is something I am excited about. We sometimes forget the social media boom is only around 10 years old. We’ve only scratched the surface of mixing high level content, engagement, and sales.

As a term ‘content marketing’ will probably be passé within the next few years…maybe it will be replaced by a cooler term like Social Engagement MarKomms. Maybe not.

What kind of marketer would you describe yourself as?

Flexible. I plan, write, edit, comment, post, and update. I don’t/can’t sing. I also know what I don’t know and I trust my suppliers. If I need a website, video, or infographic created - I outsource. My job is to make sure I am being challenged and the outcome fits the overall strategy and project deliverables.

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Q&A (FEATURED MEMBER)

Craftech started off by solely providing printing services and now it has ventured into graphic design, copywriting and branding. How did you discover the increasing demand of these services?

To succeed in today’s competitive landscape, Craftech needs to be more adaptable, resilient, agile and customers focused. Printing industry has revolved tremendously and selling environment becomes more competitive and complex. Craftech needs to react swiftly to changing market conditions and trends by adding value to our customer’s business for providing integrated print solution for all marketing collaterals.

We can help our customer to Write the ad, Design the ad & Print their ad, this integrated solution also further assist customer for a streamlined process.

What are the challenges you encountered in your business? How did you keep Craftech ahead of the challenges?

My main challenges are inflation and overall cost of manpower and basic commodities are expected to go up. We are facing challenges on tighter foreign worker policies too. In terms of business, it is increased productivity and cost efficiency that will drive earnings. Craftech focuses on growth by leadership, innovation and training to combat the challenges and stay ahead.

Paul Lim graduated with Bachelor of Commerce (Finance & Marketing) and has a Professional Diploma in Asia Pacific Marketing. The entrepreneur is the owner of two companies (Craftech Printing Services & AStar Success Pte Ltd) which are in different area – Printing Management and Website development. Craftech is an award winning company being Singapore’s Outstanding Enterprise SME150/2014. Currently Paul is the Honorary Treasurer as well as Chairman of Marketing Institute of Singapore’s HR & Finance Committee

Paul is also serving as Executive Committee for SAFRA Jurong. He serves Willing Hearts as volunteer member of support service to the underprivileged and needy.

Mr Paul LimFounder of Craftech Printing Services

Interview with

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Craftech has garnered numerous positive coverage in various media. What kind of news do you think are “newsworthy” for the readers?

There are many factors for news to be considered “newsworthy’’, the common approach is using TIPS.

• TimingArticles which are new and current are good news. If it happened today, it’s news. If the same thing happened last week, it’s no longer interesting.

• InterestInteresting (especially human) stories appeal to emotion. They aim to evoke responses such as amusement or sadness. Newspapers often have a dedicated area for offbeat or interesting items.

• ProminenceFamous people get more coverage just because they are famous. If you break your leg it won’t make news but if a famous footballer breaks his leg it’s big news.

• SignificanceThe number of people affected by the story is important. During recent plane crash in which hundreds of people died is more significant than a car accident.

Do you think the 4P’s of Marketing still work in today’s context and why? Any advice for new age markets out there?

It’s time you make a move and leap from the traditional 4 P’s of marketing to 4 C’s of digital, e-Marketing the new world calls it. Do you know that every year about 80% of the new products which hit the market, actually fail? This is because there is a flaw in the mindset of 4 P’s of marketing and it has became stale and totally outdated, thus it’s time to replace them with the 4 C’s to help make business successful on a global scale and in its niche industry.

The new 4 C’s of digital marketing, namely Creating, Curation, Connecting and Culture will take your business to the level next and help businesses and individuals build a strong online presence.

People want to connect on social media and by communicating with their targeted audience they will easily gain insights on their online presence, the type even Google analytics cannot provide.

Craftech mainly deals with B2B customers and dealing with corporates are a totally different ball game altogether. How do you usually reach out to corporates?

Networking is one of our best platforms of increasing our customers based. We make potential customers aware of the products and services we provide. Be vocal about your selling abilities and qualifications, as this will leave a deep and lasting impression with your customers.

Referrals from our existing corporate customers play in sales success and help build our credibility a trust among customers. Besides networking and referrals, Craftech advertises on online platforms for lead generation. We focus strongly on our customers, provide competitively unique ideas and have new strategies in order to ensure long-term customer loyalty.

We see that Craftech is quite active in social media, what kind of approach did you use in engaging with them?

Craftech celebrated 21st anniversary recently, we gave away exclusive GV Gold Class vouchers which includes Movie, Dine & Wine to our lucky fans who supported our Facebook campaign. In addition to the campaign, we also published our products & corporate video to educate and inform our customers on latest & updated news.

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Q&A (FEATURED MEMBER)

Besides Facebook, we are gradually moving into LinkedIn & Twitter to connect our corporate customers with our online presence and further enhance our business relationship.

Kindly share with us Craftech’s Unique Selling Proposition?

Craftech enhances the image of our clients’ businesses and ensure that they make a profitable impression on their marketing communication. Our copywriters have the experience of collaborating with designers to come up with compelling and cohesive communication ideas. The power of the printed word is simply unmatched. The right words can move their audience into positive action. Ineffective or unprofessionally written copy can do untold damage to their brand image. When you get only one chance to make the final impression it is not advisable to take chances with copywriting.

Our Graphic Design team has the capability of producing a complete marketing communications package. We are experts at weaving the right ideas, graphic forms and words into a purposeful dialogue that delivers your compelling message effortlessly and memorably to your target customers. We believe any project big or small deserves the same importance. We treat it both as a challenge and an opportunity for us to differentiate you from the crowd and add that extra sparkle to your communication.

What are your future plans? We are also looking to expand into overseas

markets to get more distributors, specially Asia Pacific and European countries to enhance our distribution channels for our signature products sure as MemoStix & Plastic Cards. MemoStix is an adhesive repositional note pad used as effective marketing tool to enhance on company branding while Plastic Cards plays important role for customer retention programme.

What do you enjoy most about your job?I enjoy focusing on both market and product

developments. The ability to assess market conditions and read market trends have proven to be extremely invaluable to lead Craftech to scale greater heights. We are able to assist our customers to achieve their marketing objectives and grow with them. Our proudest moment is to receive compliment from former Thailand Senior Government Officer on our designs. you have been active in many volunteer works, how do you spend your leisure time?

I read mostly books or magazines on self-enrichment, Basically, I believed that reading is the basic tool for a good living and not forgetting that knowledge derived is enriching and is permanent.

I am also an avid jogger as I relish the quiet moments during my run to rejuvenate and build up my stamina. It allows me to overcome obstacles including any physical pain that I may encounter while training. It also helps to keep my mind sharp and alert. Jogging allows me to build my endurance by pushing it to a higher level.

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Paul received Sponsorship Appreciation from Dr Seet Ai Mee, President Hospice Care Association

Paul was deeply honoured to receive the award from Dr Lily Neo, Member of Parliament for Tanjong Pagar GRC

& Mr Leslie Cheng, CEO of SRA

MARKETING GURU TALK:THE NEW PR/SOCIAL & DIGITAL MEDIA LANDSCAPE18 Sep 2014410 North Bridge Road, Marketing Institute of Singaporeby Shane Chiang (HTC Corporation)

Shane Chiang explaining the HTC commercial. Shane’s trying to take selfie shot with the audience!

The team from Singapore Polytechnic supported the evening talk.

Part of the evening talk was an activity where audience were asked to draw pigs.

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MARKETING GURU TALK:FROM GROUND ZERO TO MARKET LEADER AND NOW TO THE WORLD!13 Nov 2014410 North Bridge Road, Marketing Institute of Singaporeby David Chiem (MindChamps Holdings)

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SPOTTED

David kick starting the evening talk.

The man behind MindChamps Holdings, Mr David Chiem.

avid explaining the “Champion Mindset”.


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The Content Marketing RevolutionAt its most basic, content marketing is promoting products and ideas as ‘news’ or entertainment.Content marketing is getting bigger than ever; content creation and publication is at an all-time high, and traditional marketing budgets are being reallocated to content marketing efforts—or having to be stretched to cover content-based obligations. For innovative brands, an award-winning Tumblr now carries serious clout; hashtag campaigns have become as compelling as taglines; and the Digiday Awards are as coveted as the Stevies. The phenomenon of content marketing and brand publishing has unfolded rapidly because it responds to consumer preference.The content marketing revolution signals more than a mere marketing fad. However, despite its pervasive usage, content marketing isn’t without its struggles. Many companies also have no idea on how to develop content based strategies and have a limited appreciation of what content can and should achieve. What’s the point of content marketing?Key Points:1. B2B content marketing: A beginner’s guide2. Individuals vs Companies –What’s in it for all of us3. The future of content marketing – The impact of social media on form and distribution.

Graeme Somerville-RyanMarketing and Business Development DirectorWikborg, Rein & Co., Media Relations, PR, and CommunicationsGraeme Somerville-Ryan is Business Development Director (Asia) at the international law firm Wikborg Rein. He also provides B2B marketing consultancy services to companies in the shipping, insurance, and business services sectors.Graeme’s background includes the management of a wide range of domestic and international marketing projects. He has undertaken business development functions such as combining CRM strategy and quantification into business planning, CRM best-practice, departmental planning, tender development, management of sector groups, and client targeting.

Date: 22 Jan 2015Time: 6.30 pm – 9.00 pmVenue: MIS Executive Lounge410 North Bridge Road#01-00 Singapore 188726

WHAT’S UP!

Organiser: Marketing Institute of SingaporeEmail: [email protected] / 6411 1630Website: www.mis.org.sg/membership/events

*MIS reserves the right to amend the programme without prior notice.

What every Marketer needs to know about CrowdsourcingOpportunities, dangers, and tips to make crowdsourcing work for youFrom AirBnB to Uber, the collaborative economy isn’t new, but it is definitely here to stay. The growing popularity of crowdsourcing apps are shifting consumer behaviour and as a result whole industries are being disrupted. Crowdsourcing is also changing how companies develop and bring products to market, enabling savvy business leaders to harness the power of the crowd.

So how can your business harness the power of the crowd for good marketing?

Crowdsourcing refers to the efforts to engage a ‘crowd’ for their skills, ideas and participation to generate content or help facilitate the creation of content or products in an online setting.

Key Highlights:• The (marketing) crowdsourcing landscape in 2015• Is the crowd your competitor?• Can you crowdsource anything and everything?• An ethical decision: The crowd and “white hat” versus “black hat” marketing• 15 Tips for 2015 CrowdSourcing

Mr David BebkoCEO and Co-founderCrowdWorks, Inc.David Bebko is the CEO and co-founder of CrowdWorks, Inc., a crowdsourced e-learning company. CrowdWorks launched it’s first website, fluentlee.com, in September 2013. David is an entrepreneur at heart, though throughout most of David’s career he has been employed by large multinationals. David was most recently Marketing Director for Google, Asia Pacific, where he helped large companies transition from traditional marketing channels to digital marketing.Prior to Google, David was Senior Vice President for Social Media at The Nielsen Company. A career marketer, David’s 20 year career also spans management roles at IBM and The Coca-Cola Company.He has a bachelor’s degree in Consumer Economics from Cornell University, a Masters in Marketing Research from The University of Georgia, and completed his executive MBA at Harvard Business School.

Date: 5 Feb 2014Time: 6.30 pm – 9.00 pmVenue: MIS Executive Lounge410 North Bridge Road#01-00 Singapore 188726

Registration:MIS Students – Complimentary MIS Members – $20.00Non-members – $35.00Public Tertiary Institution Student*: $10*This includes all students from NUS, NTU, SMU, NYP, NP, SP, TP and RP only.

Registration:MIS Students – Complimentary MIS Members – $20.00Non-members – $35.00Public Tertiary Institution Student*: $10*This includes all students from NUS, NTU, SMU, NYP, NP, SP, TP and RP only.

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THE SINGAPORE - mis.org.sg€¦ · THE SINGAPORE MCI (P) 034/06/2016 Content is the King l ^ interview with dr Jagdish sheth (dr PhiliP Kotler Called him a ‘renaissanCe thinKer’)