Maxis adds Facebook et al

Maxis has acknowledged Facebook’s impressive growth in Malaysia over the last year, with the launch of a new service called fb2mobile.

The company had previously launched the Friendster Alert service in May 2009 which gave subscribers the ability to receive updates on their Friendster account via SMS. And with the launch of fb2mobile, Maxis now says it is the first mobile communications service provider in Malaysia to provide a full range of mobile services to Facebook, Twitter and Friendster.

Maxis can now connect its mobile subscribers to Facebook and Twitter via SMS and MMS.

It’s not exactly earth shattering news but is another example of the social media craze taking over… everything. Did you know a company called NetProfitQuest (NPQ) is now conducting a "Certificate in Social Media Marketing" programme? It’s supposed to help companies bridge the gap between business goals and the technicalities of social media implementation. (Sounds like something your media agency should be doing).

Anyways, back to the Maxis fb2mobile news. The company says it is also looking to include other major social networking services such as Yahoo and MSN Messenger as well. And anyone who subscribes to fb2mobile alerts get free monthly subscriptions until 28 February 2010 (After that then it’s a monthly charge of RM2).

I guess the last word on this would be it’s good for consumers that a player like Maxis is encouraging, making it easier and cheaper for us to use our mobile phones for something other than making a phone call.

Over two months ago, Aegis (Carat) brokered a deal with Maxis and three leading dailies. It allowed readers of Utusan Malaysia, Sin Chew Daily and The Star to have free access to news via the mobile internet on the Maxis network until 31 October 2009.

Still waiting to hear back from Carat on what the uptake numbers were performing like during the ‘free’ period. Come on, Roy. Share!

Beyonce blamed

Another day in Malaysia, and another high profile international artists postpones a concert days before the event is scheduled to go.

This time it was Beyonce’s turn to disappoint – and disappoint she did if we are to believe the official word from organisers who have denied the move was due to the threat of protests by Muslim groups.

Organiser, Marctensia said in a statement yesterday that the postponement was “solely the decision of the artiste and has nothing to do with other external reasons.”

If the name of the organizer sounds familiar it’s because the company also had to deal with Akon’s last minute pull out of a separate event back in June. H1N1 was said to be the culprit.

But speculation was rife the move was due to Chivas being a major sponsor of the event as Malaysia has several rules regarding alcohol and cigarette companies as sponsors.

It also has rules on dress attire and it Beyonce’s “inappropriate dress sense” was the subject of PAS protests.



However, officials said if she adhered to the dress code there would be no issue.
One thing is for certain though. It’s not only the fans who lose out again. The brands, sponsors such as Hotlink and Guess will have to pour cold water on their Beyonce marketing efforts and restart them at a later date (unless the concert does get cancelled).

Worse still, whatever the reasons are this time for the postponement – it still portrays brand Malaysia in a bad light.

Mystery Google

Imagine a search engine where you get what the person before you searched for. Well, you don’t have to imagine too hard just visit http://www.mysterygoogle.com/ to experience it for yourself. Why would you do it? Let's discuss.

I tried to ring Google offices in Singapore to see if I could get an explanation but it was lunch time and there was no answer. So, I checked it out for myself and spent a good 15 minutes on the site trying to figure out what the hell its purpose is.

I type in “earthquake” and I get search results for “university of south Florida”. Ok, I guess there is a market out there for people who are curious to get other people’s search results – or just want to spend a few minutes seeing what other people are searching for.

But it gets creepy (or funny depending which football club you support) when I typed in “Manchester United” and get “anyways brad and jake touched me all weird that night and were all over me”.


Still, I did spend 15 minutes of my life trying to see if there was any patterns emerging (yeah good luck!) from my search results. From what I can tell most of the search results are random (try searching Manchester United for yourself and you’ll see) or even try “Yahoo.” I got “go outside I need a clear shot” when I entered Yahoo in Mystery Google.

The only things I’ve discovered so far which are not random is when you type “Mystery Google” and search. The result is a message on the search bar telling me “that is the site you are on.”

And when you search for “Google” it says “No. Mystery Google.”

There’s even a copyright message at the bottom which reads: © Mystery Google, 2009 | GOOGLE is a trademark of Google Inc.

Whatever it is, I am sure someone with enough smarts and time will figure it out. So far, the only search term I’ve entered which correctly takes me to the site is “Facebook”. I did it several times. Search for “Facebook” in Mystery Google and it will take you straight to the Facebook home page.

Oh yeah, if you don't type anything and hit search it tells you to "please don't type gibberish".

If you do type "gibberish" - it responds to you sarcastically!

And gets angry when you only search for "mystery" as well...

Below today’s marketing threshold

Malaysia’s broadband quality was described as “below today’s applications threshold” in a study conducted by Oxford University and sponsored by Cisco.

The Malaysian Insider has the in-depth story, and it doesn’t make for good reading if you’re a digital marketer.

Malaysia ranked 48 in the study of internet broadband in 66 countries – behind the likes of competing Asian markets such as Hong Kong (3) and Singapore (7) but also ahead of China and Thailand.

Countries like Singapore were listed above Malaysia as having internet speeds “meeting needs of today’s applications” while Hong Kong rated as country which “comfortably enjoy today’s applications”. (Korea and Japan were said to be markets with broadband speeds that were “ready for tomorrow”).

Even as I type out this blog I can remember the frustration I had posting links on my previous A+M Bootleg entry. I linked to two different online campaigns which an agency based in Australia called Spiral did. It was taking forever to load when I was trying to test out the link and I almost dropped the idea of adding the links.

We tend to be rather impatient when we’re online and any page which takes longer than a minute to load is 30 seconds too long. Which is such a shame because the good social media marketing campaigns are meant to be shared but how can I enjoy something after I’ve lost my temper waiting for it to load.

My Hong Kong colleagues enjoy speeds of 100 Mbps but I can’t even access Google sometimes from home on Saturday afternoons.

UPDATE: You’re not going to believe this but while attempting to post this blog entry my wireless connection at the office went offline for at least 30 minutes.

Big Day Out

Figuring out social media marketing in Malaysia was the topic up for discussion at yesterday’s Starcom MediaVest Group Digital Day Out.

No easy task – but Starcom managed to assemble DiGi marketer Lau Sulin, Starcom’s executive director Lee Yew Leong, Nuffnang’s Timothy Tiah, TV host Jojo Struys, and Scott Wenkart from Australian agency Spiral Digital+Media+Lab to represent a mixed bag of point of views for the discussion.

The usual what is social media question was followed by a series of others ranging from whether advertisers should care about social media to the all important question on effectiveness and ROI.

At one point, Nuffnang’s Tiah even shared how one campaign the company did for a debit card brand flopped big time.

The client wanted to get bloggers to write in about how they would spend X amount of money using the debit card and then reward them with a trip to the Gold Coast.

But, against Nuffnang pleas, insisted that bloggers would have to first apply for the card, get the card, use the card, and take a picture of the receipt and send it in with the write up.

“It was a total disaster,” Tiah said.

“A record breaking four entries to the competition but a lot of emails from bloggers complaining about the competition and that the card never showed up [after they applied for it],” he said.

I asked the panel for their thoughts on Malaysia’s social media marketing scene where we are seeing a lot of brands experimenting on the medium with some launching campaigns which are not really engaging at all. Does this turn consumer’s off from using something like a Facebook if they are being bombarded with unsocial like ads?

“The cream always rises to the top,” Spiral’s Wenkart said.

“People will only engage with something they like,” he said.

The rest – I guess – is just seen as noise and gets ignored.

You can watch some of Spiral’s work here and here.

Renault: Counting the brand cost

More bad news for team Renault ahead of this weekend’s Singapore F1 night race as two of its biggest sponsors quit because of the much publicised FIA ruling.

In case you’ve been living under a rock for the last few weeks, Renault have been handed a suspended disqualification from F1 after team principal Flavio Briatore, executive director of engineering Pat Symonds and driver Nelson Piquet Jnr were found guilty of a plot to deliberately crash in last year's Singapore Grand Prix.

Renault’s principal sponsor, ING has cut short its sponsorship (which ends after the 2009 season wraps) to immediate effect. And left no room for speculation as to the reason why it has ended the association with Renault four races early.

An ING statement read:
“In light of the verdict of the World Motor Sport Council of 21 September 2009 concerning the events that occurred at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, ING will terminate the contract with Renault Formula 1 with immediate effect.”

“ING is deeply disappointed at this turn of events, especially in the context of an otherwise successful sponsorship.”

On top of this bad news, Spanish insurance firm Mutua Madrilena also announced it would end its backing calling the incident “something that can affect the image, reputation and good name of the team's sponsors.”

And added that: “The behaviour of the relevant people in the team was extraordinarily serious and compromised not only the integrity of the sport, but also the lives of spectators, drivers and circuit personnel.”

Strong but justified words from the sponsors given that the incident has been declared as the “worst single piece of cheating in the history of sport” by Simon Barnes of The Times (Have a read of his article he makes a solid argument for his case).

But aside from the financial cost the incident will have on Renault, the car maker stands to take a hit in another crucially important area – brand value.

Seven years ago when Renault made the investment into the incredibly expensive sport of F1, one of the goals would undoubtedly have been to grow brand value and be associated with success.

And since then it would be fair to say they have done just that through Fernando Alonso’s driving and winning.

It’s a whole different ball game now.

F1, as expensive as it is, is also a very high profile sport and the “crashgate” incident only lives to associate Renault with arrogance, cheating, and even worse still, a nonchalant view of humanity.

And it’s also a violation of the brand’s CSR policy which, like many companies, advocates transparency.

Who wants to be seen in a Renault car after this?

Hope isn't a bad thing

I started Ramadan on a slightly negative note by blogging that it could be the start of bad customer service so let’s see if I can end it on a more positive note. How’s this? The 1 Malaysia campaign just might have a chance after all.

There I said it.

But before you flood my inbox with comments like “you’re an idiot” and “I don’t like you”. Please give me the chance to say that I never thought it stood a chance but I came across this story from the The Star via AP while surfing Google Reader. (Free Hari Raya plug for Google!).

A great little story from Virginia of how members of a local Synagogue suggested Muslims come and pray in their building after hearing the Muslim community was looking to rent a place for overflowing crowds during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

On Friday afternoons, the people coming to pray at this building take off their shoes, unfurl rugs to kneel on and pray in Arabic.

The ones that come Friday evenings put on yarmulkes, light candles and pray in Hebrew.

"People look to the Jewish-Muslim relationship as conflict," said All Dulles Area Muslim Society Imam Mohamed Magid, saying it's usually disputes between the two groups in the Middle East that make news.

"Here is a story that shatters the stereotype."

Magid, who grew up in Sudan, said he did not meet someone who was Jewish until after he had moved to the U.S. in his 20s, and he never imagined having such a close relationship with a rabbi.

But he said the relationship with the Northern Virginia Hebrew Congregation has affected him and his members.

Beyond being tolerant, the synagogue and its members have been welcoming.

Rabbi Robert Nosanchuk, who leads the Reform congregation of about 500 families, said the relationship works both ways.

"You really only get to know someone when you invite them into your home ... you learn to recognize their faces. You learn the names of their children," Nosanchuk said.

What’s the marketing angle here? Well, can we just call this a stretched example of what the 1Malaysia marketing team needs to remember – people are generally good and want to live in harmony with one another.

So 1Malaysia should forget about the outdoor advertising or any advertising for that matter until it can come up with ways to actually physically show Malaysians you are in a real way delivering the 1 promise.

It won’t be easy – I certainly don’t have any well researched concrete ideas to offer here – but it can be done one small step at a time if the right people get behind it. America finally has a black President and one who so far has done nothing to suggest he was elected based on his race.

On that note,here's wishing you all Selamat Hari Raya.