A new book by Matt Parkes looks to shed some light on marketing wisdom. Matt asked thousands of people to give advice in a dozen words and from that came an inspirational book “A Dozen Words of Wisdom”. Here are some highlights.
According to a recent survey in Singapore 60% of people who suffer from bad service never complain. That means that for every four people who complain, another six are just as angry but never tell you about it. This is a staggering number and should be a big worry for everyone in the customer experience sectors in Singapore and those who market the applicable brands.
I recently chaired a B2B Marketing conference in KL and we had the marketing director of IBM do a very interesting presentation. Before he did this he asked everyone in the room whether they thought IBM was cool or not. Out of 100 people only one said yes.
In a cool, cool galaxy far, far away Star Wars became the greatest movie franchise ever made. Many years later the Empire has taken over the asylum and started doing corny brand partnerships with gimmicky shoes that even Jar Jar Binks would turn down.
Social selling is in the process of replacing phone selling/cold calling in Singapore, and here’s why.
What started as a dance genre has become a multi level marketing operation unparalleled in global music for the strength of it’s brand, loyalty of its fans, variety of its interactive aspects and longevity of it’s brand strength.
On a recent trip to China I was amazed by the amount of QR codes I saw. Why have they taken off in China and not in the West or even in Singapore? Simple answer, mobile.
20th Century Fox have created a very innovative Linkedin based promotion for the new Liam Neeson film Taken 3. In what I think is a first they have created a profile for the character Bryan Mills and a showcase page for the film itself and asked you to connect with Mills to enter a competition.
Corny or admirable? You can either think that the new Singapore Land Transport Authority (SLTA) campaign is the corniest thing you have ever seen or admire their ambition in this cynical world to communicate thoughtfulness amongst commuters.
There appears to be a very ill-informed debate about whether LinkedIn or Facebook is better for B2B marketing. To me it’s a no brainer, LinkedIn wins every time. Why bother wasting time on Facebook when it won’t work for you?
Free is the magic word in Singapore for any marketing campaign. If you use it you can promote anything. I love Raffles Place in Singapore’s CBD as it’s always a hive of marketing activity. There are always a plethora of brands trying to capture the attention of busy business executives who are dashing around. You soon learn that “free” is the only message that truly works to achieve this objective.
Vans have followed up their Metallica brand partnership with a timely one with iconic band The Beatles. Vans have launched a special Yellow Submarine branded themed range of trainers and shows with some very cool and colourful designs on.
Rapidly becoming known as the hardest working rock bank in the world, Linkin Park have created a partnership with Shazam to debut their new single “Guilty All The Same”.
Product placement in films is one of those things that can work extremely well or make your brand look very foolish. There is no shortage of films with product placement in them at the moment. Some are very obvious and clunky, and some are very cool and in keeping with the story and film brand.
Sponsoring a football team is tricky business. Past success does not equal future success. Just ask Chevrolet how they currently feel about spending almost a billion Singapore dollars on sponsoring Manchester United from next year.
Four in five CEOs have trust issues with their marketing team and claim to be unimpressed by their work, a study by Fournaise Marketing Group has revealed. I would say the feeling was mutual!Most ...
If you had to name one brand that every girl aspires to and desires more than any other it would have to be Christian Louboutin high heels. Disney clearly think so and have created a very cool if ...
Linkin Park must be one of the most forward thinking and partnership friendly bands in contemporary music. Hardly a week goes past without them announcing a new brand partnership.http://www.youtube...
Nike have created a unique partnership with UK telco brand O2 that will probably form a benchmark to a roll out across the world. Although whether other mobile brands will give up so much just for ...
Puma and Mini have created a very innovative and cool brand partnership. In what may seem like an odd combination of brands more thoughtful analysis reveals a very synergistic partnership ...
For those of you wondering what the child like colourings at Bugis are, it’s Bugis+, previously known as Illuma. It has to be the worst case of a mall revamp in Singapore.Illuma opened with much ...
70,000 people visited the stunning Bay South Garden, the first of the stunning Gardens by the Bay attractions in Singapore, in only the first two days of its opening.Six years in the making and ...
Vampire film brand partnerships are clearly the way to market new music to the masses, especially the teen masses.Linkin Park have tied in the release of their new album “Living Things” by ...
"The Dark Knight Rises – The Legend Ends" the Warner Bros marketing darkly exclaims. But The Dark Knight lives on in lego-land…..!Lego is one of many brand partnerships negotiated to create ...
Mike Shinoda believes in the power of music fan loyalty. Shinoda is the brains and architect of Linkin Park and he made an interesting plea to fans this week via his twitter page.In these days of ...
JW Marriott appear to be true innovators and trend setters when it comes to creative brand partnerships.From art on the wall to bathroom amenities, magazines to shower gel JW have created brand ...
Singapore now has the world’s highest proportion of millionaires according to the Boston Consulting Group. They have soared over the last year to 17% of households, an amazing statistic.That's ...
You have probably never heard of Metersbonwe unless you live in China. You probably have heard of other Chinese brands like Lenovo, Haier and Huawei.However none of them were on the Millward Brown ...
In the last few weeks Maxxis have formed partnerships with Liverpool FC and The New York Nicks. Both powerhouse, global sporting brands that are popular beyond their borders.Maxxis are a global ...
The brand values of a country are determined by what it does and what it has done not what it says it will do.Indonesia’s brand values took a massive step backwards this week with the effective ...
Linkin Park clearly loved their headline act at the Singapore F1 Grand Prix last year so much that they …..bought the company…well no but they have created a unique Linkin Park Lotus F1 Team App ...
Rarely has a book –to-TV series been as highly acclaimed and brought such excitement as George R.R. Martin’s “Songs of Ice and Fire” that HBO created into “The Game of Thrones”.Facebook’s ...
Heineken's Green Room at the EsplanadeSingapore is the stage of a ferocious battle between Carlsberg and Heineken for the mouth’s of thirsty Singaporean event goers. Both have both focused on ...
Lil Wayne, who played 78 shows across the globe and grossed US$50M in 2011, has teamed up with Pepsi owned Mountain Dew to form a creative brand partnership.The core focus of the association is a ...
I love this brand partnership just because it’s so innovative and unusual. Coca Cola and Pure Michigan have created a partnership marketing campaign.Images of Michigan’s sparkling waters, white ...
Manchester City ruin Maybank's Manchester United Champions Card campaign......Maybank, Malaysia’s largest bank, have created a partnership with Manchester United and recently launched a ...
Singapore recently emerged as Asia’s most competitive city and third most competitive world wide in a recent Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) survey. Singapore was just behind New York and London ...
“Mad Men” is a marketing phenomenon….yes I know it should be, it really would have no excuse if it wasn’t!Now into it’s 5th series and still retaining that cool brand image and compelling content ...
Hot on the heels of the worst brand partnership of all time, Trump’s Success (http://blog.campaignasia.com/chris-reed/success-trumped-how-not-to-create-a-brand-partnership/) comes a very close ...
Nu-metal, new sound and something different for the Mad Men to marketThe challenging thing about music marketing is that it’s totally dependent on something that is beyond the control of a music ...
Does a "like" on facebook mean a consumer has engaged with your brand? Two recent surveys apparently say no.Although a recent eVoc survery said that 59% of respondents have liked a brand on ...
I have just celebrated 5,000 connections on LinkedIn and it has changed my life in a very positive way.I first came to Asia in 2009 and moved here permanently in 2010. I arrived with no confirmed ...
When the UK Government decided in their infinite wisdom to close the UK Film Council and restrict the BBC’s budget they clearly were only thinking small short term rather than long term and ...
Tiffany promoted through the famous Audrey Hepburn movie communicates class and sophistication...... On the face of it Swatch and Tiffany look like unlikely bedfellows and they have now come to ...
Tasteful design?The news that Pepsi is creating a brand partnership with Michael Jackson’s estate makes me wonder if Pepsi have completely run out of marketing ideas.Really, you want to create a ...
Back to the 80's for Success by Trump......I had to do a double take when I read this. I had to check that this was not an April Fool or that it wasn’t a parody or on some kind of joke ...
Vodka must be the in drink to be seen with at the moment. In recent months two brands, Absolut and Voli, have linked up with celebrity brand partners to form very creative brand partnerships that ...
Coca Cola and Polar Bears go together like JD and Coke, but do the consumers get it?Coco Cola’s first polar bear advert appeared in 1922 and for the next 70 years Polar Bears appeared sporadically ...
The integrated resorts (casinos with added on leisure to you and me) in Singapore celebrate two years this month. Marina Bay Sands (MBS) dominates the Singapore skyline while Resorts World Sentosa ...
It came as surprise to me that Heineken were brand partners with James Bond. Having seen every James Bond movie and being a passionate and usually fairly observant partnership marketing advocate I ...
The hype for the new Men in Black III (MIB3) movie is well underway. HTC mobile have created a brand partnership with the film linked to driving sales and associating the brand with what they ...
Shinedown are one of the hardest working bands in the world. They truly believe in the word of mouth marketing concept. They tour consistently, do what old fashion bands used to do all the time, ...
I recently went on my first visit to Japan, staying in 6 different locations from Tokyo to Myoko to ski to really get a great feel for this amazing country. I loved every minute of it and can’t ...
Nokia have struck an impressive looking brand partnership with Red Bull as part of their fight back linked with their new Microsoft Lumia mobiles. Impressive looking as the details are still ...
If you’re an Olympic sponsor you may wish to look away now. A new survey by digital agency Jam has found that non-Olympic sponsor Nike is the brand most associated with the 2012 Olympics and is ...
The Camper shoes sponsorship of the Emirates Team New Zealand boat in the Volvo Ocean Race is a mixture of positives and negatives.Camper are a Spanish premium shoe that are some of the most ...
Girls Generation, the Asian pop phenomenon are attempting to break into the rest of the world too. Never heard of them? Well you’re probably not the target market and if you haven’t yet you will ...
The news that Asia Pacific Breweries is reviewing the global advertising arrangements for its Tiger beer brand is no surprise. To anyone in Asia who has seen one of the myriad of eclectic ...
Hasbro and online social game star Zynga have created a brand partnership to mesh the internet firm’s facebook hits with real-world products.The agreement lets Hasbro develop toys and games based ...
An alternative view of the "There's Nothing Like..." campaignAs Australian Tourism numbers keep plummeting, both domestic and international, the Australian Tourism Body needs to be ...
Books and fast food appear to the thing of the moment.First McDonalds have created a monster massive 10 million book giveaway promotion for their Happy Meals with Harper Collins and the author of ...
EA Sports and Man City form a synergistic brand partnership that makes sense to the fans Sponsorship is not partnership and a good example of this is the kind of brand partners and sponsors that ...
Forever 21 and Death Cab for Cutie? Foo Fighters and Courts? Singapore has a plethora of concerts coming up include the aforementioned plus the legendary Duran Duran and emo rockers Evanescence, ...
Is it a sponsorship or is it a partnership? There is a massive difference between the two, sponsorship is not partnership, it’s the same relationship as hooker and punter, it’s all about the ...
Baseball is really just like football.....Red Sox and Liverpool have lots in common and not just owners....American sports group Warrior Sports – owner of New Balance – have recently created the ...
Very cool brand partnership between Billabong and Sony Ericsson adds active content and an extreme sports brand to Sony's mobile brandI love to show brand partnerships in the best possible light ...
The latest in a long line of brand partners for H&M David Beckham is the latest in the long line of celebrities and designers that H&M have partnered with in a strategy you either love ...
Is it me or is every Nike football tournament advert the same? The latest Nike TV advert for the World Cup could easily have been used in 2010 or the Euro’s in 2012 or 2008. They’re all the same and they’re getting boring and predictable. Is that what the Nike brand is now?
Taylor Swift has partnered with Cornetto to create a holistic brand partnership that would melt any fan’s heart. In a unique exclusive the partnership is created by and centred on the Asian leg of Swift’s “Red” tour and includes a branded “Red” Cornetto.
Arguably it is always creatively harder to be an unofficial sponsor attempting to gain World Cup association than to be an official one. It makes you think more innovatively and you have to tip-toe through the legal implications. Here are some great examples of brands that have launched unofficial World Cup campaigns.
In September’s edition of GQ there are no fewer than three adverts featuring David Beckham. I can remember none of the brands. Two were clothing, one perfume. But I do remember Brand Beckham.
Music stars do want to have it both ways. First they complain that music is not being valued properly, that piracy is killing new music—then they go and give away an entire album and wonder why people don’t value music.
An innovative female clothing brand from Holland is changing the way that women are viewed by clothes shops. Instead of having small, medium and large they have 'gorgeous', 'amazing' and 'fabulous'.
Manchester United (MU) recently announced their 40th sponsor/commercial partner. Apart from the MU finance team should anyone else be happy about this? Does it work from a marketing perspective for any of the sponsors?
With 6.5 million subscribers on YouTube, 18-year-old video blogger Bethany Mota is a fashion retail superstar. She has also just created a groundbreaking product and brand partnership with retail brand Aeropostale.
I love Singapore’s National Day to celebrate the Republic’s independence. It’s an amazing day where everyone on the island (who hasn’t left to avoid it) celebrates Singapore’s birthday. This year many more brands than usual have created special National Day marketing campaigns. I think this is a dry run for them for the big one next year. 50.
A recent Asian survey on customer satisfaction reported a drop to only 69% satisfaction. That means nearly a third of retail customers are leaving shops unhappy.
Did you know that Under Armour is now the number 2 sports apparel brand in America, overtaking Adidas?
I am delighted to have represented Singapore in the new global Starbucks campaign “Meet Me in Starbucks” which launches tomorrow. This is how it came about.
I was recently presenting at a conference when I was asked what the most important thing that was going to happen in 2015 was. Without hesitating I said SG50.
Hilton has created a partnership with leading concert promoter Live Nation to try and change their rather stuffy brand image to one that is cool, contemporary and in touch with Gen Y and Gen X, in fact anyone outside of the baby boomers generation. Good luck with that.
I love Chinese New Year (CNY). Every year is different, a different animal for marketers to wrestle with. This Lunar New Year is the Year of the Goat. Although some say it’s the Year of the Sheep as apparently they are the same in Chinese. Some even say the Ram, which ( guess is in between the two.
The Foo Fighters unleash their new album, “Sonic Highways”, this week with unprecedented hype and a unique content-marketing strategy. Lead singer and band architect Dave Grohl had a vision of recording eight songs in eight countries. However that was shown to be outlandishly expensive so he settled for eight songs recorded in eight American cities.
World Champion Rugby team the New Zealand All Blacks have transformed the thinking of the way that a new strip is launched to the public. Just as they lead the world in rugby so they are leading the world in marketing.
I have to conclude that the brand produces the most boring and unappealing content possible.
I was looking through the web for any new Linkin Park material the other day when I found potentially the greatest album ever made. Linkin Park and Eminem together in Collision Course II. Wow I thought and I haven’t seen any marketing for it. There is a reason for that.
I don’t miss many things about living in London (certainly not the weather and the underground) but I do sometimes miss the culture. Having the choice of seeing one of a dozen concerts with top class entertainers every night, top class comedians in places from clubs to concert venues and top class theatre from comedy to drama every night is something to be admired.
I had to look twice when I saw the new marketing campaign for Singapore’s The New Paper. Were they really trying to sell their tabloid based on a sexy photograph of a woman? Was that it? Apparently so…..
It’s pretty easy to get massive viral PR in Singapore and increase customer engagement. Create a website that specialises in adultery. “Bring it” to Singapore. Let the politicians, Facebook and public do the rest, then finally “ban it”. Bang, you have the No. 1 “dating” site in Singapore and more than 100,000 new customers with zero spend. Genius.
If politicians are supposed to have their finger on the pulse of their voters and set the standard for their country then it’s time to leave the UK and Australia and head to more tolerant shores like Singapore…..
When I first saw Red Bull’s appalling Real SG Heroes campaign I thought it was a clever tongue in cheek joke…until I realised that they were being serious. Red Bull owners would surely have a heart attack if they saw it…..
Budweiser are really rocking with their mobile engagement of their “Made In America” concert and shown how bite sized chunks of cool and compelling content really does make you King of Beers
Standard Chartered are known as being a safe bank. Secure. Never troubled during the financial crisis so why risk their reputation on a climb up Everest to test their mobile banking abilities?
If you want to engage a Singaporean customer give away a freebie! That is an unchallenged fundamental in promotional marketing in Singapore and Starbucks knows how to do this better than most.
Ramadan comes but once a year, but unlike Christmas it lasts for an entire month and has a profound effect on the ways that brands market themselves in Muslim countries, especially in Asia. Just like Christmas for the West, Ramadan in the Muslim world is when brands spend the most amount of marketing dollars too.
It may shock you to know but the UK is not where most Liverpool or Arsenal fans are located. It’s actually Indonesia. More staggering still considering that until this weekend neither team had even visited the country!
Singapore’s taxis have something new to complain about. Visa. The company has banned the payment method from all Singapore cabs. Is this just a PR stunt from Visa, or a serious play to be the people’s champion?
Singaporeans love two things passionately: 1) brands and 2) freebies. When the two come together the mix is explosive!
It was pure bad timing that Singapore MRT launched a Free Travel program just as the haze meant that people didn’t want to leave their homes or had left the country…..
Porter Erisman’s engaging and compelling documentary “Crocodile in the Yangtze” on the rise of Alibaba.com in China is a gripping tale of a true David and Goliath battle for supremacy in the world’s largest ecommerce market, China.