Thailand’s ‘Amazing’ social media presence

Amazing Thailand mobile app menu.

Thailand’s popularity as a tourist destination isn’t only due to its rich culture, divine cuisine and opportune geography. It has well-organised tourism authority that doesn’t trade in clichés and recognises the diversity of the millions of tourists from around the world and their reasons for visiting.

Tourism Thailand has an excellent online presence centred around its Amazing Thailand website that’s chock full information and tools including travel planners, interactive maps and hotel finders and all important special deals.

The Amazing Thialand campaign recently won a Pacific Asia Tourism Award for its “social networking” campaign left by its Facebook site which has more than 150,000 friends.

This fun page is informative and entertaining. It features a Flash game relevant to coming events, currently Songkran Champion, a shoot ‘em up with water pistols – Songkran is a festival where Buddhist monks sprinkle water on worshippers, though in some parts it has evolved into an all out water fight.

Wall posts are engaging and there are plenty of pics and Youtube videos. In the Notes section you’ll even find Thai recipes and job vacancies for anyone seeking an expat lifestyle. There’s also a link to the highly praised Amazing Thailand mobile apps for Android, Blackberry, iPhone and iPad. The apps feature destination and event guides and food and accommodation information. They also have a Google Maps driven location guide to help you find attractions, and allow you to share your experiences via the Facebook and Twitter sites.

 

Another social media boo boo…

Time and time again we see it, people and brands making foolish mistakes with significant repercussions within the world of social media. Nestle famously botched things up for themselves by demanding a fake Kit Kat commercial (produced by Greenpeace) slamming them for their use of Palm Oil, be removed from the web. The video which up until that point was far from a viral success, suddenly went around the globe faster than Greenpeace could have dreamt it to. All thanks to Nestle ruffling feather. The public barrage aimed at Nestles poor handling of the case and sudden attention on their use of Palm Oil did not do them any favours and is now a case study that I personally feel every client should take note of.

One would think that with such a large brand going through such a public PR battle via social channels, some lessons would be learnt.

Apparently not.

Fashion designer Kenneth Cole is the latest to thoughtlessly act via a social media platform and surprise surprise, is now watching his brand fall from grace. Kenneth made the very foolish choice to hijiack a hashtag in Twitter to promote his latest collection. Now hashtag hijacking is not rare, but it’s use can not be taken lightly. To do it requires very strategic thinking or it can backfire. Like in this case. See image below:

The Cairo hashtag was being used as a news source to share events from troubled Eygpt. The most insensitive thing about this, is that a significant amount of people are losing their lives due to the unrest. This is no time at all for a brand, representing something as irrelevant as fashion, to hijack a hashtag where concerned users are sharing serious content.

Bad move.

But I will give credit to Kenneth Cole for addressing his stupidity via an apology post. Despite it seeming to be heartfelt, he has opened himself up to an onslaught of criticism. See the comments here.

Surely it’s time that we, as brands (and even individuals – no need to remind us all of Stephanie Rice’s Twitter mishap where she lost her Jaguar sponsorship), learn that as we join online conversations we are involving ourselves in a very transparent and dynamic environment. We must think logically and strategically and above anything else, we must use some common sense.

 

Monster or mouse?!

I’ve heard a lot of buzz about Sony’s new-ish Facebook app – Media Monster Wars (first hit attention August last year). And with Justin Timberlake headlining the experience, naturally I was intrigued.

It’s a really neat example of an integrated social media game that generates a monster from analysing your own Facebook content. Which means the more active you are (the more likes, photos, comments, shares and interaction you have) the more powerful your monster will be. Then off you go to share the app and battle your friends. And if you’re powerful enough, then why not challenge JT himself.

Or so the promo video shows.

Here’s where I insert a #fail. I’ve tried a couple of times now to make a monster. One both occasions the “generating and optimising media monster” part of the process took well over 8-10 minutes, only to stop and start the process again. From the start….

Which leads me to my belief: there’s one key element to developing a great Facebook apps: keep it simple.

Sure there is room to dazzle people with a fabulous user experience, but don’t risk a botched attempt at brand interaction by doing too much; crashing apps only result in one thing – irritation. Not good for any brand.

Especially not in this case for Sony, who no doubt is paying significantly for JT’s appearance. If users can’t get the opportunity to challenge him with our monsters, then where’s the ROI?!

 

The colour of money

I recently noticed that a lot of the digital media apps on my phone have blue icons – think Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Whitepages, WordPress, Foursquare etc.

This preference for azure tones is no coincidence. The internet is dominated by blue brands followed by red.

Take a quick look at the above image and you generally find that, of the icon brands, blue is the choice of IT and new media, while red is popular with news and entertainment sites.

This can be easily explained by psychology and the meaning of colours in design.

Blue portrays creativity, wisdom, gentleness, calmness, trust, loyalty, intelligence, devotion, confidence, comfort, ideas, harmony, friendship, patience etc.

A business can use blue to represent loyalty, confidence and trustworthiness. Most businesses use blue to build customer loyalty and brand reliability.

Red on the other hand shows energy, strength, love, passion, romance, warmth, excitement, blood, desire, enthusiasm, danger, joyousness, speed, courage, prominence, intensity etc. For businesses red can be used for portraying passion, excitement, and attention. Red can bring enthusiasm to your brand.

However, any colour can positively portray what a company wants its brand to represent. So what’s the attraction to blue and red if colours like Yellow, Orange, Purple and Green also bestow traits such as confidence, attraction, vibrancy and passion?

Faced with choosing a brand colour new startups are more likely to imitate successful brands they’re trying to emulate. So it’s no coincidence that they happen to choose the same hues as the dominant players. Some of these probably did the same during their embryonic stages. Others might have totally different reasons for choosing a colour. Mark Zuckerberg was once asked why Facebook was so blue and explained that because of his colour blindness meant blue was the only colour he could see. How many have followed in his wake?

Emulating successful brands has been happening in the corporate world for decades as a way for new companies to be associated with success. It is by no means a key ingredient in the recipe for success especially if the product is sour.

After all the two biggest kids on the online block, Google and MSN have multi coloured logos.

What are your brand colours saying about you? Was there much thinking behind them?

Colour distribution of icon brands

Designing style guides for brands and websites

New Year High Resolution Sports

Sponsor Me has just launched the world’s first action-sports social media site sponsorme.com. The website aims to connect potential young sporting champions of tomorrow with today’s top sponsors.

It appears to be a Win-Win. Adrenalin-junkies are also getting to see the hottest action –sports events live in HD across lots of different viewing platforms. iPad, iPhone, Droid Pad, Samsung Galaxy Pad and Google Pad are all in Sponsor Me’s sights.

Endorsed by stars such as Sunny Garcia and Bruce Irons, live webcasts will cover high profile professional and amateur evenings including surfing, skateboarding, snowboarding and motocross.

It’s all going off, with the Premier Online Action-Sports Competition offering $100,00 cash for the best video posting.

Best put turbocharging my Rossignols on my things-to-do list pronto.

10 Predictions for 2011

The mind-snapping pace of digital innovation makes at least one prediction certain. What the trend -watchers are predicting today, will be totally eclipsed well before this time next year.

Still, here’s our take on the possible shape of the digital, social and experiential landscape in 2011.

1. We’ll see the resolution of the debate over the real impact of 3D TV.

2. Android will bite deeper into Apple’s once impregnable brand fortress.

3. High action games will see no let up. (Call of Duty – Black Ops has already hit $1 Billion in sales since its release late this year.)

4. Too cool for school graphic design will be refined in line with the demand for uncomplicated useability.

5. Analytics will be increasingly used to answer the cynics presently challenging the real brand worth of “Tweets” and Facebook “Likes”.

6. Competing technology will rapidly approach parity; creating the demand for even smarter brand thinking.

7. Smaller closed, or far more selective, social networks will play a far bigger part in the lives of key influencers.

8. Expect far stricter controls and compliance protocols – especially in the mobile area.

9. Twitter will gain an even louder brand voice, as it pursues the dream of reaching Facebook’s figure of 1 Billion users.

10. More brands will create their own social enterprise sites to maintain corporate integrity and confidentiality.

Wishing you a Happy and Prosperous New Media Year.

2011 – The Year of Analytics?

The pre – New Year stats suggest an ongoing stratospheric rise of New Media.

*Gorillaz has just created the band’s 15-track album “The Fall” on iPad using 20 Apps  -each App under $20.

*Windows Phone 7 Marketplace already tops 5,000 Apps.  Recently adding 1,000 Apps in just over two weeks.

*Latest reports suggest Android already has over 200,000 Apps available.

*Facebook beat Google to the post on Christmas Day in the UK. Claiming 10.5% of all UK social networking internet visits. Google recording 9.77%.

*Facebook’s value leaps by 56% to $41.2 billion- according to securities firm Nyppex. 

Figures apart.

Beyond question is the increasing significance of digital, social, mobile & experiential channels. Answering what the stats really mean in these areas will define the true change makers.

Here are a few thought starters

Does mega quantity equal quality response?

Does a first impression really last? (And for how long?)

How does brand dominance translate into consumer relevance?

How do global figures indicate local impact?

The Nativity in the digital age

If Jesus were born today the Archangel Gabriel would appear to the Virgin Mary via SMS, Joseph would find out via Gmail who would then use Foursquare to find accommodation in Nazareth. After the safe birth of Baby Jesus, the three wise men would score an invite to visit him via Facebook and but their gifts on Amazon.

That’s how the nativity is played out in this very clever video, was produced by Portuguese digital design agency Excentric as an online ad to show its wares. It has had more than 4 million hits across its English and Portuguese versions since December 13, however its creators say it was never intended to go viral.

Miguel Figueirdo, president of Excentric told CNN he challenged his creative team to show traditional companies how they could harness social media to suit their own story. It took them about five weeks to go from the drawing board to uploading the video.

The other clever marketing aspect of the video was its mid-December release. Figueiredo says the date was chosen because it’s when people start thinking about Christmas and greeting cards.

“We took that time when people are very sensitive to receive these type of things, so they think, ‘Oh what a great idea for me to send as my own Christmas cards’.”

Closing eyes and opening minds

What is social media? Is it tweeting your brand’s retail offers? Managing your branded Facebook page? Sharing company videos on YouTube?

Sure.

But we think it’s much more than that.

We think it’s about involving an audience in your brand message. Exciting their senses; getting them to feel, think AND do something. Taking the brand message from the advertising channel and into their lives.  That is what the ‘social’ part is all about.

As for the ‘media’ bit, well we don’t believe that it’s necessarily confined to social networking platforms either. Instead, we like to look for socially engaging ways to utilise the most effective media channels for each target market.

That’s why we love this cinema campaign by BMW.

BMW have found an impressive way to engage cinema audiences by using an image projection technique that leaves viewers with the BMW logo on their retinas once they close their eyes.  Truly innovative for a cinema spot.

Not only that, the spot has all the tell tales signs of a BMW piece. It’s highly emotive, beautifully shot and taps into all the BMW brand propositions. Even I, as someone who’s never driven a motorbike, felt the adrenalin pump through my veins…. And the takeout – the logo etched in my mind (literally) was just the icing on the cake.

It’s a wonderful example of innovating in traditional media in a way that takes the brand into the lives (or the body in this case) of the audience.

Now who’s up for a test drive?

How many tablets can newspapers swallow?

New research from Telsyte tells us that the Australian tablet market, which includes the iPad and Galaxy, could be worth $1.35 billion by 2014. Much of this growth will come from traditional publishers seeking to capture more readerships through the creation of tablet apps. But will avid newspaper and magazine readers be seen to swallow the tablets as vigorously as predicted?

Can the power of digital quickly topple the readership habits of a lifetime?  Time will tell. If it does, the very fabric of our world will be changed forever.

Gone will be:

• The tabloid torture of the page-turner on a crowded tram.
• The ink fingerprints on a long black.
• The Saturday workout of picking up a slab of junk advertising lift -outs.

But there are downsides to this new age. We can’t see many spies in hotel lobbies hiding behind tablets.  What about swatting a fly with an iPad?

Also our furry friends would be denied displaying their loyalty by carrying home the morning paper. Yet, there would be more trees left to keep them happy in other ways. Which begs the question. Is the future so easy to read?

We think not.