Newspapers and magazines and TV stations create Paywalls. A subject much derided, that, apparently, is the single biggest source of new revenue for these business entities.It is proving to work.

And I agree.

The time for subscription based business models is ripe. The days when people expected all content on the Net to be free are gone.

People are paying for content now. At least the more mature audience.

And if the content creators are asking the question of whether content could be charged for- they are barking up the wrong tree. The question really to ask is what kind of content could be provided- that renders itself to the medium, is engaging and not just a transposition of print or TV.

But there are other businesses shutting down. Recently, Ongo- a site based on aggregating content from various premium content publishers and selling them off for a fee- shut down. Forcing speculation over content based subscription models.

The truth is – the value of Ongo was in aggregation of content – not creating content. A little like Flipboard.

Now, there is indeed value in aggregation- but not as much as the value in creating fresh, unique engaging content.

Good content rules. It is the “Social Object” , the germSeed. It gets shared, provides context and the oil that greases the Internet.

There is value and a lot of business sense in creating high quality, engaging, real content- it does not scale fast- but the value is really in the quality and not quantity.

The good thing is that people realize this- now more than ever before. Give them good content and they will buy. Ask GigaOm. Ask SEO Moz and ask Wired.

The second good thing is- advertisers like quality content and are willing to pay for being in a quality environment. Most importantly, they themselves understand the value of quality content creation, and are investing in this area.

Content is coming of age. Or maybe a full circle.

MMA Forum Singapore 2012: Smarter Tomorrow

Off to MMA Forum today.

After a long time, hope to be in a conference that enables you to meet thought leaders in the digital space, specifically mobile marketing. (Shoutout and thanks to Rice Communications)

I will be posting some insights from 23rd April’s workshops and hopefully would be attending the next two days intermittently (loads of stuff going on- personally as well as professionally)

Meanwhile in case you are interested- catch an Overview of the MMA Forum Asia, Smarter Tomorrow 2012 by visiting this link.

And if you are there, give a shoutout- the more the merrier.

As a collector and as someone who has a fetish for things illustrated, drawn, sketched, music-tized, videotized and demonstrated- especially information in a graphical format – I try to spread, bookmark and pin whenever/whatever I can/find something of value. Helps me keep a repository and go back to it when I need it- say if I am working on a strategy or need to get inspired for visualizing something.

One thing that struck me recently is that companies/brands have been sending many infographics. These are professionally developed graphics or hand drawn good looking sketches of notes from an event or even just a mind map- explaining a phenomenon or outlining a trend. It can be professionally made or an amateur attempt at creating a short, edgy video or piece of music. And I think that is an awesome marketing approach.

If you are establishing your niche as a thought leader (as a company or as a personal brand)- this works in multiple ways. Provides value to the eco-system, creates consistent contact opportunities with stakeholders (across multiple platforms), is immersive rather than interruptive- and enables the community to become advocates. All this apart from the usual marketing benefits of driving linkbacks, pageviews, registrations, etc.

Since a few years now, I have propagated that the era of Search Engine Optimization as we used to know it- is fast getting over. Evolution in this space has ensured that the era of Social Asset Optimization has begun. And what was SEO- would be a part of social experience for now.

I refrain referring SEO as SEO (if not for the fact that this terminology is understood by people). I have preferred calling it COSE (Cozy)- Content Optimization for Search Engines instead.

This is how search is evolving and this is how Social is maturing. We’ve always propagated that Social Media Marketing needs “Social Objects”- and for the context of this article- these infographics can certainly be social objects.

So Content marketing does not really mean starting a newspaper of your own- rather it is about creating opportunities where content could be created or curated across mutiple mediums, expressions, ways, shapes or forms- and enabling it to travel. Consistency and quality are key virtues that will make all the difference- and help stand out from the crowd.

Infographics are an exemplification of content marketing. Multiple opportunities exist for those who want to try. Multiple opportunities to create these Social Objects.

For fun sake I call them creating Social Asset Snacks. So instead of creating full fledged features- create small assets – that could be consumed instantly and in a short span of time- get them out more frequently and let people consume them in chunks. 

Not a three course meal (read- big budget marketing campaign). A Snack. Social Asset Snack.

This is what ‘Viral’ marketing essentially is- though Content Marketing or Social Asset Optimization is better suited and more ‘legit’/less frivolous a description.

So you can imagine- B2B businesses- where the buying cycles are so much more longer, recommendations probably play an even bigger role than impulse products and where thought leadership is everything- this is a phenomenal approach for those businesses.

I have covered various infographics earlier- and lately some more . Here is another one below- sent to me by a company called Online Graduate Programs who are spreading this Infographic on “The Age of Instant”

Enjoy.

Created by: Online Graduate Programs

Featured Image: Fornal from Flickr

Came across this interesting collage for the possibly upcoming trends in Display media.

Well at some point or the other we all have advocated many similar ad formats. And even wondered why publishers were still running standard ad formats from the stone ages.

A few years ago, the IAB formalized ad sizes & formats. And that has been both a good and a bad thing.

Good because it helps set expectations and establishes standards. Bad because it commoditizes the display inventory, creates blindness from viewers and obviously and templatizes creativity by putting it within a box.

Neverthless- here are some display advertising 2.0 – interactive, mobile, rich and attention grabbing written all over some of them:

@shalabhpandey

Internet was always about faster access- access to content and access to people.

And just about lately- the powerhouses of the web are moving towards real time internet- in an unprecedented manner.

Just when we thought real time location based chek-ins and personalized content dissemination were becoming mainstream and conversation monitoring systems were coming of age- the biggies of the web almost surreptitiously inserted more social, more ‘instant’ features on their interfaces- taking things a step further.

The phenomenon is noteworthy because the net product is more than the sum of its parts.

Shalabh Thinks: Innovation on the web proliferates faster than Moore’s law on processing power of chipsets. Sometimes little steps for the internet can be one giant leap for mankind.

Two examples that caught my attention recently - are Google and Bing- both riding the social wave. And in an unconventional manner (they have been trying their hands at it since some time)- direct integration of Social in search results.

Full on!

I am already impressed by what Google can do with social features integrated with results on search.

Dig the Realtime function on Google- If you haven’t tried yet- go to Google click on the left hand sidebar- Realtime link- and there you go.

It gives you neat little LIVE updates (mostly twitter)-against pre-defined keywords- and a nice little buzz chart at top right. Right sidebar also mentions key/most shared/important social feeds.

What’s more- they just rolled out their Social Search globally. It leverages publicly available data from sites like Flickr, Twitter (something’s brewing with Twitter and Google it seems?) and other Google sites like blogger, gmail contacts etc- and present it you mapping with your social graph.

Neat. More here in this video:

Along similar lines, Bing from Microsoft – leveraged its alignment with Facebook- and did some stupendous work. And they seem to moving in the right direction in nibbling away some of Google’s search share.

So if you haven’t recently- go to Bing. If you are logged in to Facebook- Bing reads it via cookie identification- and you will see your Facebook pic on top right. This means you can now see your friends recommendations (likes etc) on search results- and they can see yours. If you want to. If not- you could disable the function too.

More from this recent video from Bing:

If you are interested- check out the Twitter maps integration with Bing- real time visualization of tweets on a keyword layered on top of a map. Yoiu could grab a code and embed on your website. All good- except it is a bit buggy.

I had suggested earlier that 2010 would be the year of Systematic Web

I sense that 2011 is the year of the Instant Web

And I predict that 2012 will be the year of the Intent web

By God’s grace, in this field, I haven’t trumpeted empty predictions-give or take a year.

So the next most powerful thing after this wave of instant is easy to guess-It is already happening in many ways- and with unification of data across channels – will become a reality soon- is “The Intent Web”. Services guess your intent based on your past behavior and meta data- coupled with those like you. And serve you content and ads based on guessing what will you do or want next.

The Intent Web.

Or call it what you want- but think about it

Shalabh

@shalabhpandey
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rizzato/3488201179/sizes/s/in/photostream

William is a working executive from Singapore. 34 years of age, he is a first generation Singaporean and works in advertising. Like many his age, he is internet proficient and a voracious technology user . Married with a lovely wife Raji and their two little children- like many from his and Raji’s generation, he and his family splurge on anything that aids convenience, status, productivity and entertainment.  

Surrounded with multiple screens, breezing through the onslaught of new gadgets & technologies and constantly connected, they are a part of a generation that lives with an excess of choices.

The ubiquitous presence and frantic pace of technology today is overpowerful and sometimes overwhelming. This somehow defines an era of change, yet what it does not appropriately depict is- a society’s and its denizens’ perspective, predispositions, character and behavior.

And it is precisely this change of perspective that delivers an overarching impact on present and future generations- their way of working, and the society’s rules, laws and values. 

We hold that thought and come back to the generation of William and Raji.

(And I define a generation not limited by an age group bracket- I define a generation as a set of people living in the same period of time, with access to similar resources and ability to use them. This puts 32 year old William alongside  a 16 year old kid from a well earning metropolis breeding family, even though they are a generation apart in terms of age)

There is something unique about today’s generation of globally exposed, nuclear family bred, high income, well educated lot. They want access to everything. The fact that something is not within reach is just not acceptable to this group.

These are the strong headed opinionated people that do not accept the boundaries of technology, geography, processes, systems, or even intellectual properties  and even legal boundaries.

But wait a minute- I am not talking about evil hackers or rebellious mindless zealots.

They are a different type of people and account for an increasingly increasing economically significant group.

And this is what makes them stand apart:

• They do not believe in hacking, they believe in hacks.
• They do not want stuff for free- if they value something, they pay for it
• They don’t just break in to the system- they find a way around it.

And this is the lot that is giving rise to a new economy. The circumvention economy.

Picture this:

William has a penchant for US TV dramas. There is something about watching them at the same day they are aired on US Telly. He tried using Hulu- but there are restrictions. As a user not in the US, Hulu is not allowed to show those shows to people outside the US. William has a few choices- 

• Use  a web based proxy serivce in the US (this has its limitations added to the fact that proxies don’t like the weight of streaming heavy video files)
• Try out online sites that have links to various TV shows (no guarantees there)
• Search the parallel market (torrents) or buy a pirated version from the parallel market.

Not surprisingly, these are not what William wants. He does not want bad quality versions and he can’t wait. More importantly, he is not willing to accept that a choice (getting good quality content at his time and terms) is denied to him. He takes another route.

He circumvents Hulu (and the system). He installs a VPN  (pays $70 odd a year for this service) and tricks Hulu into thinking he is logged in from the US. The programme acts as a virtual ISP- masks his IP- circumvents the system by using a US IP. It could also encrypt data coming to and fro from your client machine.

In a contrast to another system where web users are branded as free loaders- here he pays extra to consume content he wants. He pays Hulu for an account + pay for the VPN service just to get access to watch all the series whenever he wants to!

He abets the Circumvention economy. Illegal? Not sure. Acceptable? Surely.

After all, his friends do it for getting music all the time. And they even pay extra to get a newly released device not available in their markets.

His wife Raji gets to play too. She likes Korean dramas (even if she does not speak the language) and sure enough, gets access to content that she wants.

In another scenario, Raji likes a dress from Japan. She had visited a Japanese website and must have that dress. (Ah! Japanese fashion!). She whips out her credit card on an impulse. And then gets what felt like a ‘karate chop’ shocker. The store does not ship the dress in Singapore.

 She gives an indignant expression. And proceeds to vpost.com.sg- a (postal/delivery) service that has logistical arms in Japan. She creates an account, gets an ID (VP number) – checks out on the shopping cart at the japanese site with her VP number and a japanese physical address. She then sends off a soft copy of the invoice she receives from the Japanese shopping site to VPost. VPost then processes her order, and ships the item at her doorstep. Of course with costs attached- but no worries- at least she gets the access.

There are a few more examples demonstrating this trend- will write about them later.

The key is that is a trend (not un-noticed but certainly un-categorized- and I thought I’d classify this trend first) and it has value for Brands and companies marketing their products. It has psychological significance, anthropological and sociological significance, technological significance and sure enough- economical significance.

Do you know any more?

Think About it

Shalabh

I can’t stand status quo. Somehow. I want it sometimes- even long for it. But I can’t seem to stop challenging it.

In my many years of working life, I have always found myself at the center of change. From the time I managed marketing for network center solutions (enterprise level networking solutions- mostly to dotcommers of the early millenium years)- to consulting on developing web apps/sites to the time of starting Digital Media departments in a few agencies- introducing search engine marketing and developing digital marketing frameworks for my agencies- to starting a completely new agency in a completely new country- to dabbling with starting-up and independent consulting.

It was not easy. It has never been. But many of these have been successful stints. Satisfying and I have brought value to the table.

The only common thing with these challenges has been the fact that I was brought in to be- or expected to be- or turned out to be- The Change Agent.

Digital Marketing field is a field where you can either be like a monkey- sitting on a tree and making some noise- or you get into the jungle and ride the tiger.

• There were (and still are) few systems in place- which implies you could establish a new paradigm- or wait till someone else does it.I did it myself.
• You had to learn the ropes yourself. Self learn -take time away from family. Be “always on’. Learn to swim or drink the water on your way down. And let me tell you- I drink a lot of water- but somehow always surface
• New storms are always on the horizon – but you have to keep on chasing the storm- riding the tiger. (Oh yes!- and if you survive- you need to train everyone else how to do it- over a weekend)

As a change agent, I have always been commanding positions yet without directions. Performing various tasks, yet resource deprived. A digital specialist but also a planner, suit, salesperson, project manager, ad trafficker, et al. Always in start-up mode- always on.

But too much change never worried me. What always scared me though was too little change.Perhaps it is the Indian roots- there is a naturally high tolerance for ambiguity. Mix it with the attitude- “I can do this and I can do this better- because I am passionate about this and willing to go the extra mile”- and the concoction would define a change agent.

But I have been a change agent not just for the sake of change- I have been in situations that demanded change. And someone had to bring it. A start-up, a new set up, an innovation- whatever it was.

Many a times, the challenge was to define change itself.

The times demanded change- and it had ‘something to do with digital’. This was the untold directive. What it actually was, how to leverage and how to solve whatever it was, had to be defined, managed and executed.

Thankfully, leading that change and translating it into something meaningful and demonstrating success was something I have been able to achieve. More in some places, lesser in others. Notwithstanding the degree, it did make some difference. And not without the help of friends and colleagues.

In the initial years- the challenge of making everyone understand the logic of failing fast and failing quick- was immense. As a ‘digital’ specialist- you are expected to know what is going on!

Most of the times, the complexity of the change came not from market forces or even defining the change- it came from internalizing/fitting that solution within the existing dynamics of the organization. That is the biggest challenge.

Life continues throwing new challenges- and with them come some wonderful opportunities.

I am finding myself at the center of another big change agent role- and a wonderful opportunity. I have joined Nokia in Singapore- as the Head of Earned media for South-East Asia and Pacific.

I am getting to define, manage and execute change – all over again- and I do hope to get your support, encouragement and tips.

Chasing the Storm continues to be independent of my professional assignments- and will continue to carry personal thoughts (though a little intermittently) on Ideas, innovations and inspirations.

Happy New Year and god bless.

Shalabh

National sales and marketing congress, an annual event organized by Marketing Institute of Singapore invited me over for taking a one hour session with the audience. The topic? I evangelize (what I refer to as) Engagement led marketing and this seemed to be a good gathering to tackle the subject.

Engagement led marketing, by the way- is exactly that- marketing that is engagement driven. And engagement (to me) is glue that has the potential to tie together different digital (and other) disciplines.

A lot of effort went into this- specially designing and visualization (and I hope it is apparent). I am a bit of a sucker for visually appealing presentations with substance- and I hope I was able to deliver on both.

The presentation was quite well-received and thank God- all that effort was appreciated.

It is said that a one hour presentation requires 30 hours of effort- and I could not agree more. Apart from clearly presenting your own thinking, you need to provide context through research- latest wherever possible, and retain audience interest by making it visually relevant (thank God for photo sharing and creative commons, but finding the right images that tell the story you want to tell is a task- I tell you). Those things take time. (“A whole lot of precious time” as Paul McCartney would say)

On that topic, there are some guidelines I have started following regarding presenting to an audience- and time willing, I’d love to share the key points of delivering a presentation in a conference.

But that later.

I am approached by quite a few people complaining about the pace of technology, fragmentation of media and silo-ised disciplines. This presentation is an attempt to make people appreciate that all marketing disciplines need to work together; engagement led marketing thinking is the common ground/glue- and the key steps in drafting an engagement led integrated marketing strategy.

Think About it

Shalabh

Twitter: @shalabhpandey

Now that you started reading this post, let me begin by asking you some quick questions:

• What is the Focus and Directrix of a parabola? (Yes you did study this in school)
• How about the Calvin cycle of photosynthesis?
• Quick – what’s the first law of thermodynamics?

Hang on – if you think I am about to take you on a  ‘Are you smarter than a 5th grader’ journey- No I am not. Nor am I going to demonstrate my knowledge on elementary science and maths. To tell you the truth, I have no clue on the answers myself.

So why am I asking these questions in the first place?

To begin with, these might not be life impacting concerns for most school survivors (/adults), but if you’ve been there through those schooling years, you will probably appreciate the importance of knowing the answers to these questions.  Likewise, if you are an adult who wants to refresh your memory on certain concepts (like I love to go back to refreshing Statistics and mathematics fundamentals from time to time), getting  an easily available resource would be huge.

Then again, in today’s “must-have-expensive-private-tuition-otherwise-my-kid/I am- screwed” world, where nothing except crass entertainment (and perhaps ample opinions) is free, enter Khan Academy.

And these are just of the two reasons why you should visit KhanAcademy.org.

Just imagine if you could get good quality education- at your own pace- at the time that you want to.

This one line perhaps explains the concept of this virtual repository of education-well enough- but more in this video:

I first came to know about this while flipping through the Fortune  Magazine on iPAD- a few months ago. Since then, it has been talked about- and even Bill Gates has encouraged and endorsed the academy, and probably Gates Foundation will support the work at Khan Academy.

Salman Khan (or Sal Khan- as he is popularly known), the one man faculty and founder of the academy, is a Harvard MBA and former hedge fund manager. He has created about 1600+ videos since 2006 – short snippets of about 15 mins each on topics covering maths, science, economics, and other subjects. Goes a long way in demonstrating what perseverance- along with talent and passion can achieve.

Online video has been used for education since long- but the unique content, the quality, the approach and the consistency – all of these make for a great story for the Khan Academy.

Now that success has been demonstrated, what we’d like to see is the spread of the concept- across countries- and across languages. I sincerely believe in video’s real power will come to the forefront when local, vernacular content is created- making the internet a truly ubiquitous phenomenon. When the kids in the villages get world class education, and family resources do not constrain kids/adults from getting good education. In many countries, infrastructure could be  the constraint, but at least the content will not be.

Think about it.

@shalahpandey

Had an interesting session at the MediaMind Digital Experience Day.

The topic I was given was:

The Brand Exchange- Maximizing your reach

Historically exchanges have been widely utilised by agencies and clients as an effective way to drive DR goals… but for building brand? Can this channel ever be utilised to achieve branding goals? Could a brand-focused client take advantage of the available reach and frequency that exchanges offer?

When I got the topic, I looked at it- and the first thought was “What the heck is a brand exchange”? But after a little thought, it was clearer.

We have used digital media as largely a direct response channel. And that will change soon.

Not a visceral prognostication, but the signs are there for those who want to see it. It is coming.

Even till now, banner planning/display advertising planning has always begged for much more than impression/click planning, and intelligent, forward thinking and brave minds have tried to explore beyond what they were being told to.

The event was much bigger than I expected, and I went in a little unrehearsed. I prefer it that ways. It lends a little spontaneity to the show, brings in a raw, conversational element, and if you are comfortable with the story you are telling, things flow.

All said, it went off well. And in an audience consisting of hard core digital media guys, I was glad that it was as well received as it was.

Here’s the presentation:

Privileged to be chairing a day at Social Media World Forum for 23rd September in Singapore.

Will write more about it- though for starters- here is my Introduction note for the day:

===========================

Welcome to the second day of immersing within the Social Media environment.

The Media and Marketing industry is undergoing a paradigm shift, and a quick and clear understanding of the opportunities available today and those shaping tomorrow is extremely important and challenging at the same time. In the course of this two day immersion schedule, you will surely get a flavor of what are some of these opportunities and how to make maximum use of them.

I am excited at chairing the second day of this conference. Social Media has moved beyond the initial introductory stage and has fast climbed the ladder of new media adoption hierarchy. The wide scale interest is converting into adoption and business impacting processes are being developed and deployed regularly.

This discipline has fast become a part of mainstream marketing and the ‘social’ thinking within marketing now spans beyond customer service and ‘buzz’ to more marketing functions like CRM and even demand generation. The social media discipline is also disrupting business models- especially on the agency side. It is redefining the traditional agency outlook and is forcing everyone to ‘think digital’.  Or rather ‘think social’.

The Media industry is obviously feeling a ‘shake-up’ at this point of time, and many media companies are transforming themselves to better incorporate the social element. The ‘social media’ aspect has had impact on technologies too and newer ‘social’ led technologies are to be seen in the near future with integration with television, mobile and across multimedia content platforms.

Asian markets are at a forefront of this revolution. Asian users are creating content and participating in group and personal communication in their own unique ways and across mediums. This landscape is unique – and some models are now shaping global adoption and business models.

From my perspective, the interplay of various elements within the marketing mix is what excites me and understanding the impact of each new medium on overall marketing objectives is my pet topic.

We will discuss all of this in today’s conference. I look forward to hearing thoughts and opinions from industry thought leaders and young executives. Their opinions and understanding shapes the future of this medium and so do your opinions and understanding.

Wish you all the best in sharing and indulging in meaningful conversations throughout the day.

Shalabh Pandey

@shalabhpandey

I just read news on the removal of all Hitler related parodies from YouTube.

There have been tonnes of those Hitler parodies online, especially those built on a scene of “Downfall”- the movie.

One of the initial Hitler parodies that caught my eyes was around Social Media (removed from YouTube it seems- though am sure someone can still find it if they look hard)

But the key is not Hitler, or the movie. The key is that that video/parody was produced by a Digital Marketing person/team- just like yourself. And that tells a lot about the way people are expressing themselves- even busy individuals are spending time to create content- and something with a limited appeal to their industry only.

Lately I have seen quite a few of these.

Though only those from industry would find them funny.

One of them is here- scene from “A Few Good Men”- only in this case, the characters take a different stance on the proceedings. The “You can’t handle the truth” dialogue/speech is probably one the most remembered and known dialogues of its time.

And this parody does a good job- production wise.

Tom Cruise plays the (Premium) Publisher; Jack Nicholson- the DSP (Demand Side Platform). Randall Rothenberg – the IAB President & CEO is playing…well..himself.

To put some ‘context’ to it- those who know me- know that I love to use that word while explaining something- here is the original scene:

That also makes me think- what are the DSPs doing in Asia? Are there any worth their salt?

And the second thing that I want to highlight is- when will my Asian friends start doing this stuff? In their own languages? There’s just so much that could be leveraged- Chinese? Malay? Tagalog? There are innumerable classic scenes and power packed performances from every country.

We need to use Video. Use it in a way that opens eyes wide.

Maybe I’ll do it now- sometime soon- whenever I get a spark.

Since I understand Hindi, I’ll use some examples here. Share some scene stealers from movies/episodes from your language.

One of the hot contenders would be- this scene from a bollywood movie- Shakti:

Or this epic one from Deevar:

Not just parodies. Meaningful, humorous and topical sizzles.

Think About It.

At the risk of reinforcing my (somewhat fallacious) positioning as a  ‘Social media’ guy (I am a digital marketing person- and a proponent of engagement led marketing), here is an interesting and relatively new (end June 2010) content on digital (mainly social media, I would say) strategy from a leading brand.

A session by Alexandra Wheeler- Digital Director at Starbucks.

Listing the video along with the presentation here- as noticed on the Digital Buzz blog

Some key points from the presentation (you’ve heard a lot of this before- and the reason might be that it is becoming standard practice now across many firms)

• Social media is about relationships and engagement- so be authentic and don’t outsource your voice (Hmm…not outsourcing your voice could be debatable- and I would argue it does not play with all brands across all situations)
• Digital within Starbucks fits within a larger integrated marketing strategy ( I like this statement. As someone exposed to all marketing disciplines- especially within the digital domain- no one can vouch for this more than me)
• Revisiting Starbucks digital (social actually) strategy- some key success areas were- building a coalition (finding a common cause with the community); making a commitment and acknowledging mistakes when they were made. Crowdsourcing ideas worked for them -the “Free WiFi”  idea came up from the “My Starbucks Idea” platform and an organic community build-up led to ‘real’ fans coming in contact with the brand
• I love the importance they laid to curating content. Content became an engagement vehicle (something I’ve been reinforcing the whole of last year- and continue to do so) Creating great content and seeding it meaningfully scored high points (what I have called GermFeeding and GermSeeding)
• We need to put resources behind digital/social- Completely agree. To make it a committed effort- this needs investment in right people, tools and processes.

Enjoy the talk and the presentation below:

Just caught up with Sean Rach, Prudential Corporation Asia’s Director of Media & Corporate Events over email (with help and prompted by their PR agency Burson Marsteller)

Discussions started with the fact that Prudential had launched an iPhone application on retirement planning- the first insurance company in Asia to launch a mobile phone application as a marketing platform.

I found the concept interesting- specially with the perspective that it is a first in the industry, though I’d say the real deal will be how the concept is extended and moves forward.  Media is where people attention shifts to- and marketers need to quickly adopt their marketing to fit the new tools.

Alongside, think I need to migrate quickly to the voice/video based Brainstorms as they allow for taking a more conversational approach and a more dialogue based interaction- but here it is- perspectives from Sean on his (and Prudential’s) viewpoint towards Digital Media:

What are the key challenges to the insurance industry today and how can the digital medium help mitigate those challenges?

In keeping with our brand credo – - “Always Listening, Always Understanding” – - we understand that consumers and our customers are using digital media everyday in many ways. We are exploring ways that we can appropriately reach out to prospects, as well as, serve our customers through our digital platforms. As we have a very large agent network, digital media is becoming key in providing our agents with the latest customer information, product details, and training.

Could you elaborate on why and how the idea of the ‘Retirement calculator’ iPhone app was conceived? What exactly are the main points it is trying to address and how has the audience reaction been till now? There are many insurance calculators/retirement planning tools on the internet- could you elaborate what is special about migrating an app like this to the mobile web? (going beyond the fantastic point that it is a first in Asia)

Background and key points

The “What’s Your Number?” Retirement Calculator is an evolution of PCA’s existing – and very successful – “What’s Your Number?” retirement campaign, which was established to address growing retirement protection needs across Asia.  Prudential is committed to helping people understand that careful planning is critical for a carefree retirement – people need to understand what their retirement goal should be and how to get there.

Migration to mobile

Seeking to reach people via mobile is natural given the penetration and usage of mobile phones in Asia – in most markets much more than the penetration of the internet. Mobile marketing via SMS is a very common and effective way of reaching out to prospects, customers and even our agents.

We developed this application as a “branded utility”, which aims to drive greater awareness and understanding about the importance of retirement planning. Taking learnings from our web-based calculators, we have sought to create an intuitive way to determine your “retirement number” – the first step to effective retirement planning.

In testing, we found that by placing this calculator in their hands, we allow users to determine a range of scenarios that they might consider. This is the power of mobile – the most personal form of media.

Audience reaction

As we have recently launched the application, we are receiving comments on a daily basis. Most users find it very user friendly and surprisingly comprehensive. It has been noted that it has started conversations among family members and increased the realization that a retirement plan is needed.

What are some of the other ways in which you are using the digital medium for marketing purposes? (It could be anything related to branding awareness, customer engagement, agent empowerment or closing sales) How do you measure success for these activities?

Prudential has for some time sought to leverage digital media. Whether with consumer websites, extranets, intranet, email newsletter, or sms, we recognize the opportunity to reach out and appropriately communicate using these media.

Measurement is key to any form of marketing, especially digital marketing in the financial services industry. We use a range of web and mobile analytics tools to monitor and optimize the success of our campaigns. Digital media, as the most measurable media platform, provides a valuable listening opportunity for Prudential.

What roles did your various agencies play in developing this app?

To develop this application, we worked with a team from both OgilvyOne and Cherrypicks.- – with OgilvyOne taking the creative lead and Cherrypicks leading the technical implementation.

What role do you think the various ‘types’ of agencies could play in the near future when it comes to digital marketing? Especially with respect to mobile marketing? Which of the existing agency ‘types’ is best suited for leadership in the digital space? (PR/creative/media/digital). Do you think there is a future for digital ‘specialist’ agencies?

This is a rather broad question.

Having led a leading digital and direct marketing agency for several years, I view your question in a slightly different way. Given consumer’s media consumption habits, I feel that the best marketing solutions come from understanding all the possible ways to reach and influence your desired audience. This may be through earned media (PR), paid media (advertising), word of mouth, direct marketing and the list goes on.

A truly integrated solution can be accomplished with one lead agency coordinating partners as there is no “one-stop shop” or with a selection of agency partners coordinated by the client.

Digital specialist agencies do offer a great deal of value in understanding the intricacies of how the various media options work, especially regarding mobile media. As digital is often technical, this understanding of capabilities can mute some of the ability to manage the interplay between media options. Thus, digital specialist agencies run the risk of pursuing ideas that fit their particular media versus ideas that can be integrated and brought to life across various media platforms.

From my point of view- this stands for all types of agencies- digital or non-digital. The non-digital ones have difficulty porting the concept to digital, and in many ways, vice-versa. Though in the not-so-distant future, both will do each other and everyone else’s jobs.

Think About It

Following up on my much earlier post on some practical uses of Augmented Reality for marketing, here is one on what it could look like in the future- have seen many around the same topic, but this one struck- and thought should share. If for nothing else, then for the pure eye candy and the ‘cool’ factor that marketers are mostly after.

The setting could be in your kitchen.

Enjoy.