Digital Dudette

Online Media Planning: Mistake to Avoid #1 | Digital Dudette

2011-07-08T02:10:00.000-07:00

What Happens When Expandable Banners Expand On Each Other?
Situations like this (please see the images below) where banners "expand on each other" is something we may not be able to foresee but with digital media growing immensely, mistakes like this must be prevented because:

Online Media Planning: Mistakes to Avoid

1. Brand image might be compromised as one brand is on top/below the other. It gets worst in the case of competing brands. For example, if Pepsi & Coca-Cola end up appearing in the same page with the similar situation and Pepsi turn out to appear above Coke, that would leave a negative impression for Coke although they are paying the same premium price to have rich media banners. And you won't have a very happy client.

2. Disrupts users' from being able to view content on the page which they WANT to read by blocking them with not one, but two expandable banners. This will eventually lead to an unsatisfactory experience, not only affecting the brands advertised but the website's image overall. Therefore: (1) publishers should take extra effort to configure their technical system to avoid such situations and (2) production house should ensure that banners are programmed to immediately close when cursor is not on the banner.

3. It's a costly mistake. Rich media banners are usually 30%-35% more expensive than standard banners, hence all the more reasons it should be properly executed.


Online Media Planning: Mistakes to Avoid

P/S: Nothing against MSN here, I believe many other publishers would have the similar issue. I'm just highlighting something that I noticed that happened to be in MSN.

More of these series will come up as and when I notice something new, or do me a favour and leave your comment below if you'd like to highlight something. Cheers.

Creating A New Blog: 3 Reasons Why I Chose To Start Fresh & What I Hope to Achieve with Digital Dudette

2011-07-05T05:26:00.000-07:00

I was previously blogging at Talk Power, the blog I started after joining my first full time job. My superior advised that starting a blog would help me train my thoughts and if it got good, it might even provide me job opportunities in future.

1. Focus

What didn’t work with Talk Power?

I didn’t have an exact concentration when I started Talk Power. I blogged from digital campaigns to online political news to chicken curry recipes and little art projects, not exactly with solid content.

What I hope to achieve with Digital Dudette?

Content focused to digital marketing, particularly to review campaigns that ran in Malaysia, research and online political feud between the government and users.

2.Look & Feel

What didn’t work with Talk Power?

Though I took a lot of effort in writing most of the post in Talk Power, I still feel the look and feel of the blog seemed cluttered. It involved too much of work to go back to old posts dated back to 2009 and re-tag each post so I decided to hit the eject button.

What I hope to achieve with Digital Dudette?

Cleaner feel with lots of white space and organized content.

3.Content

What didn’t work with Talk Power?

Initially I created content based on seasonal topics which worked good to bring in very high spike of traffic while the issue was hot but as soon as interest died off, the traffic died off too.

What I hope to achieve with Digital Dudette?

To create ‘evergreen’ content to share what I’ve been learning over the years, hoping that it may serve as a guide to others. I’m planning to create more “how to” guides, infographic charts and series of posts.

MCMC Bans 10 File Sharing Sites, Anonymous Begin Operation Malaysia | Digital Dudette

2011-06-16T23:18:00.000-07:00

I was following up on the news about MCMC's decision to ban 10 file sharing sites and how Anonymous began Operation Malaysia, it was simply amusing! So I created this infographic last night to record Operation Malaysia #Hack Timeline. Feel free to share this infographics around, feedbacks appreciated!

MCMC Bans 10 File Sharing Sites, Anonymous Begin Operation Malaysia

My Point of View:

Firstly MCMC angers the online ‘rakyat’ by choosing to ban the 10 file sharing sites. Then when the hacking situation got out of hand they turned back to the ‘rakyat’ and pleaded for their cooperation to report anything suspicious. People wouldn’t want to help you if you are trying to control them.

MCMC states that they are not trying to censor the internet but are trying to fight piracy. Seriously, users can and will find a way around the ‘censorship’, Malaysians aren’t so daft. And please lah, be a little bit more creative to combat piracy. Don’t take the easy way out.

Anonymous threatens to hack, Government takes it rather lightly and the police tried to portray the Malaysian version of NCIS. After the incident of numerous hacks that was going on (Citibank’s Hack incident affecting 210,000 customers and PlayStation Network was down for a month), Malaysian authorities should have taken a more preventive method instead of chickening out and pulling the plugs of their servers middle of the night.

Check out the on-going updates on this Facebook Page: 1M Malaysians Don't Want SKMM Block File SharingWebsite.

"Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice." - Frank La Rue, the UN's Special Rapporteur

UPDATE (19/6):

I posted the link to this post on the above facebook page and couldn't believe the response! More than 600 views in just a couple of hours!!! And truly happy to get the support from fellow Malaysians for the infographic I created :)

There were rumours that there were attempts to hack CIMB Bank's website, some say the site was down but I haven't got any official reports on that. Please share if you have any links.

You should also read Finance Twitter's blog, interest thoughts and I especially love the picture! Read more here: Despite Being Hacked, Malaysian Govt Shows Arrogance.

Credit to financetwitter.com

But I'm happy to hear that there's atleast one logical person in politics that gave a proper statement about this matter. Tourism and Heritage Minister, Abang Johari said that this incident should serve as a lessons to the Malaysian Government to better safeguard its digital records from possible attacks in the future. Read more here: Attacks by hackers serve as lesson for all, says Abg Jo.

I'm just curious why now the cyber security fellows are warning about fake firms online but MCMC hasn't done anything to ban those websites, atleast you'd be protecting users instead of stirring anger. Read about it here.

Flash Mob >> Cool Ideas for Marketing Campaigns in 2011 | Digital Dudette

2011-06-16T22:01:00.000-07:00

#2 Flash Mob

What is Flash Mob?

If you haven’t heard of flash mob, seriously where the hell have you been all these while? Flash Mob involves a group of people who performs randomly in a public area. Mostly done to create curiosity and in hopes to go viral, very few brands have been near success tackling flash mob.

Flash Mobs in KL, Malaysia:

1. Glee

Read about it in Rage.com

2. Beliebers – Justin Bieber Inspired Flash Mob in Pavilion.

3. Violence Against Women: Read about it in the The Star.

4. Malaysia Kini - Protest against government’s control over media.

5. Unicef’s Hide & Seek Flash Mob to raise awareness about Child Abuse.

6. Freeze Tiger Trade Flashmob hit KL streets.

7. Maxis iPhone 3GS Flashmob in KLCC (68,978 views)

8. Digi Flash Mob (12,900 views)

But one that I personally like (though it may not be considered as a flash mob) is the large human smiley that was executed during F&N’s Fun Fest in Bukit Bintang, with 1,000 people forming the smiley. Read more here in The Star article.

Picture extracted from The Star Online

My Point of View:

Music definitely inspires and helps those flash mob videos go viral, but not many brands have successfully tackled flash mob to-date. Maxis’s attempt for engagement worked well for iPhone 3GS in KLCC but not so well for DiGi (in terms of Youtube views). If you noticed the list of 8 flash mobs above, you will see that PSA campaigns work better for flash mob as they can tell a story.

However, an article I must highlight from Marina Mahathir. She wrote on how flash mob is one of the many evidences young Malaysians have stepped up above the stereotype that their elders put on them. Here’s a summary of lessons to learn from flash mob events.

1. To appeal to young people you need to tap into whatever is current and trendy, and not try and invent something new.

2. Young people can come up with better ideas than most adults, and know exactly how to organise it themselves.

3. Young people are quite capable of enormous discipline and effort if they like, and want to do, something.

4. There is absolutely no need for any VIPs to officiate at these events. In fact, the absence of any ups the cool quotient of the event.

5. When young people get together like this, they do not automatically destroy. Rather they build friendships, community and peace, regardless of race, religion or creed.

Augmented Reality >> Cool Ideas for Marketing Campaigns in 2011 | by Digital Dudette

2011-06-11T00:12:00.000-07:00

#1 Augmented Reality

The most innovative segment in Digital Marketing and perhaps one of the most over used word since last year, Augmented Reality has probably been exposed to plentiful of clients and how they could potentially create novelty in Malaysia by being one of the very few brands to use.

What is Augmented Reality?

I think one should first see an example of AR in a video before reading about it because words cannot tell you how cool it can be. Simply said, AR works by receiving input from your device (eg. webcam) and uses a technology to alter the reality in the output (eg. computer screen). Find out how it works in-detail in How Stuff Works.

Who’s used AR in Malaysia?

Perhaps one of the first to leverage on this technology is MAS Airlines, who developed the MHdeals AR App. It uses GPS to position airports around you and display the best Malaysian Airline deals. See the video below to learn how MAS Airlines used AR.

My point of view.

The usage of AR is rather pointless in this app. As a user, if I’m travelling, my need to locate an airport nearby me sounds bit daft. Perhaps they could have taken a little more initiative to do an integrated campaign with print. For example, they could print a map of China and use AR to recognize the country, thus showing the users the latest promos MHdeals are offering to fly there.

Lesson to learn?

Though augmented reality is COOL, it SHOULD NOT be used if it doesn’t serve a distinctive purpose.

AR Success Story - Stella Artois Bar Finder App

I love how the idea of AR technology was beautifully executed for Bar Finder app by Stella Artois. It’s serves a purpose, it’s convenient, it’s the reason why people would want to embrace AR. It’s lifestyle driven app to drive sales, what could beat that?