Tag: Digimind

Singapore – Global media intelligence company Onclusive has announced that it has fully integrated Digimind into the company and will rebrand as Onclusive Social. Said milestone marks a significant enhancement in Onclusive’s ability to provide comprehensive media monitoring and analysis solutions to clients worldwide.

Through this, the integration and rebranding strengthen Onclusive’s social media monitoring, insights, and analysis capabilities on a global scale. Moreover, clients will benefit from a more comprehensive, AI-driven approach to media intelligence across all major social platforms under a unified brand.

This integration will also provide clients with the tools they need for a complete view of their media presence and performance, encompassing earned, owned, and shared media landscapes.

In addition, the integration of Onclusive Social’s technology, which leverages advanced AI solutions and machine learning, significantly enhances Onclusive’s ability to deliver global social media listening and in-depth analysis. This move solidifies Onclusive’s position as a customer-rated leader in social media listening software, as recognized by G2.

Said integration and rebranding efforts are part Onclusive’s ongoing strategy to offer a complete suite of market-leading global media monitoring, measurement, and management solutions to PR, communications, and marketing teams, helping them to continually prove and improve their value.

Clients of both Onclusive and Digimind will also be able to access an expanded set of tools and capabilities under the unified Onclusive brand. The integration also means that clients can now work with a single provider for all their media intelligence needs, from traditional media monitoring to advanced social listening and analysis.

Rob Stone, CEO of Onclusive, stated, “The full integration of Digimind as Onclusive Social represents a pivotal moment in our mission to provide the most comprehensive media intelligence solutions in the industry. By bringing Digimind’s cutting-edge social listening capabilities under the Onclusive brand, we are uniquely positioned to offer our clients unparalleled insights across all media channels with a seamless, integrated experience.”

Meanwhile, Digimind Co-Founder Patrice Francois commented, “Rebranding as Onclusive Social is more than a name change; it’s a testament to our full integration and shared vision. As Onclusive Social, we’re excited to bring our advanced social listening and intelligence capabilities to a broader client base, helping organisations make more informed decisions based on comprehensive media insights.”

Manila, Philippines – Popular coffee chain Starbucks in the Philippines recently came under fire after a signage from one of its local chains limiting discounts for PWDs and senior citizen went viral on social media. In it, the signage noted that said discounts will be only limited to ‘one food item and one beverage only per visit.’

Following this, a government hearing ordered by House Speaker Martin Romualdez summoned representatives from Starbucks Philippines to discuss the said issue. During the hearing, Angela Cole, operations manager at Starbucks Philippines; apologised and clarified there was an error in their advisory, saying it was not properly worded.

“We are taking full accountability and acknowledge the mistake. We are disappointed at the confusion we caused because of the erroneous signage,” Cole said.

However, many lawmakers still point out that Starbucks wasn’t sincere with their apology, with some stating that Rustan’s Coffee Corp, the local Starbucks licensee, should substantially correct its mistake by doing promos such as making a buy-one-take-one offer to senior citizens and PWDs, like buy one croissant, take one beverage.

To learn more about how online social sentiment for this fiasco unfolded, MARKETECH APAC tapped insights from social media monitoring Digimind to learn more about the numbers and insights regarding this local Starbucks issue.

A constant growth of negative sentiment

According to the data Digimind recorded from January 11 (the date when the signage’s image went viral) to January 19, the fiasco got around ~328,000 people online talking about it, and was mentioned around ~556,000 times with around 20 million estimated online reach.

The news reached its peak by January 17, which saw a +190% increase in online engagement since the image was first posted. Digimind notes that this news recorded a negative sentiment score of -27%. This change started drawing flak from netizens for its alleged violation of anti-discriminatory laws against PWD and the elderly.

For context, under the ‘Expanded Senior Citizens Act’ and ‘Act Expanding the Benefits and Privileges of PWDs,’ PWD and senior citizen beneficiaries are entitled to a 20% discount and exemption from value-added tax on some goods and services.

Digimind also noted that a significant portion, approximately 20%, of recent Twitter conversations related to Starbucks reflects a noteworthy sentiment of dissatisfaction, prominently featuring the term ‘boycott.’ 

For Digimind, this surge in online discourse signifies a considerable level of discontent among users. Various reasons have been articulated for advocating a boycott, with the recent alteration in Starbucks’ discount policy emerging as a pivotal point of contention.

Jared Silitonga, marketing lead at Digimind, said, “Adding complexity to the discourse surrounding Starbucks, it has come to light that the recent discontent among internauts has been exacerbated by the apology given by Starbucks associated with the changes in the discount policy. The company’s apology, brushing away the error as “erroneous”, has been a pivotal development in the ongoing narrative.”

He added, “The apology, while a step towards transparency, seems to have unintentionally intensified customer dissatisfaction. The amplification of discontent could be attributed to a variety of factors, including the manner in which the apology was communicated or perhaps a deeper-seated frustration stemming from perceived insensitivity or lack of responsiveness.”

Netizens still defend discount policy change

Looking into the data that Digimind had collected, the negative sentiment against Starbucks Philippines focused more on questioning why the coffee chain should decide the limitations on the PWD/senior citizen discount despite it being government-mandated, as well as the discount limitation being ‘discriminatory’ against the certain demographic.

This sentiment also spills over to some netizens desiring to boycott the coffee and instead move to competitor coffee chains or support small-and-medium coffee chains locally.

Despite this, some netizens are defending said discount policy, stating that there are instances where the PWD/senior citizen discount is often allegedly misused by users and are used repeatedly in an establishment. Moreover, some netizens argue that the discount should instead be only used on essentials and not through expensive items.

“Looking beyond the negative sentiment, there are also internauts who commend the policy change aimed at reducing abuse of the system designed to benefit the elderly and PWDs. These supporters view the change as a way to explicitly protect the rights of a minority group within Starbucks’ customer base. Some argued that it is worth considering how other establishments do not provide any discount at all,” Silitonga noted.

How to address corporate social responsibility issues

In terms of what Starbucks should do in terms of addressing these issues properly, Silitonga offers a piece of advice related to balancing its corporate social responsibility and the cultural nuances in the Philippines.

“In the context of the Philippines, where Starbucks holds a significant market presence, the impact of this message and subsequent apology takes on added significance. The local nuances and cultural considerations must be carefully considered in addressing the concerns raised by the community. Starbucks may need to engage in a more targeted and culturally sensitive communication strategy to navigate the intricacies of the Philippine market,” he said.

He added, “From a broader business perspective, this situation highlights the importance of crisis communication and the delicate balance required in managing online reputation. This fiasco has not only triggered dissatisfaction but has also highlighted the need for meticulous planning and expeditious execution when communicating changes, especially those that directly impact customer experiences.”

Manila, Philippines – The Department of Tourism (DOT) has recently announced a new tourism slogan ‘Love the Philippines’, which was met with mixed reactions from the general Filipino community. The slogan, which replaces the old ‘It’s More Fun in the Philippines’ tagline, was conceptualised by the creative agency DDB Group Philippines, replacing long-time creative agency partner BBDO Guerrero.

Many netizens have pointed out that the new slogan is less appealing, compared to the old tourism slogan, conceptualised by BBDO Guerrero back in 2012.

To learn more about how social media and the rest of the online community reacted to the announcement, MARKETECH APAC‘s deep-dive series Inner State has tapped social insights and analytics solutions provider Meltwater and social media monitoring company Digimind to learn more about the numbers and insights regarding the DOT tourism slogan revamp.

Positive Sentiment, Yet Driven by Influencer Reach

Meltwater noted in its data that social media mentions of the hashtag #lovethephilippines were mentioned over 26.2k times in total from June 26 to June 30. Twitter led the discussion with over 23.2k mentions, followed by Facebook (2.14k mentions), news (356 mentions), Reddit (273 mentions), and Instagram (111 mentions).

Despite the mixed reactions from the general public, Meltwater’s media monitoring data notes that there was an overwhelmingly positive sentiment online, comprising 74.8% of all overall sentiments. Meanwhile, neutral sentiment comprised of 17.1% of overall sentiment, followed by negative sentiment (4.8%) and not rated (3.4%) pertaining to content without definite context.

While sentiment on the DOT campaign was measured as being ‘positive’, Meltwater also pointed out that a large chunk of the positive sentiment across social media can be attributed to posts made by influencers and local personalities, including of current president Ferdinand “Bong-Bong” Marcos, Jr., actress Ruffa Gutierrez, as well as TV personalities Samantha Bernardo and Joj Agpangan.

For Weldon Fung, area director for client acquisition and expansion for SEA at Meltwater, with DOT pushing for the new slogan’s implementation through influencer messaging, it could be a case of brand recall by repetition and inundation, though lacking in any form of resonance initially.

“This might be a great case study on when not to fix something that’s not broken. The previous ‘It’s More Fun in the Philippines’ slogan was much loved by the public and really spoke to the hospitality and warmth of the nation, something that everyone could identify with domestically and internationally,” Fung told MARKETECH APAC.

He also added that the new DOT Philippines slogan fiasco could be also likened to the ‘Hello Hong Kong’ campaign.

“While it’s understandable for a new agency to give it a fresh new look, the current ‘Love The Philippines’ slogan has reminiscence of the ‘Hello Hong Kong’ campaign, which offers very little to go by as far as an emotional connection, to the point that some Filipinos online have said that it came off sounding desperate and needy. However, the long-term success of the new branding and slogan is still to be determined.”

Sentiment for Old Slogan Still Evident

Following the launch of the ‘Love The Philippines’ campaign, netizens were quick to draw comparisons with the older ‘It’s More Fun in the Philippines’ tagline.

This was evident from Digimind’s data, which saw that the old slogan almost had a share of voice (SOV) in the ongoing social media discussion on the ‘Love The Philippines’ tagline. It also noted that the old slogan picked up at least 19% of the mentions.

Discussions between the ‘Love The Philippines’ and ‘It’s More Fun in the Philippines’ are not far between, with only a ~700,000 reach difference between the two, in favour of the new tagline. 

According to Digimind, netizens appeared to contrast the old slogan against the new one, particularly airing their preference for the former as being the wittier take to attract tourism, while branding ‘love’ into the slogan was seen as being too strong and incongruous from how locals viewed the state of the country.

Considering the huge clamour for the old slogan, Jared Silitonga, marketing lead for Digimind, noted that the tourism department should have dug first into social media insights to check if a tourism campaign revamp was necessary.

“In order to effectively handle critics, it is absolutely essential to make use of social media listening to gather both positive and negative feedback. By doing so, it becomes possible to refine future communications and strike the appropriate tone that accurately reflects people’s current sentiments. With the help of social intelligence, brands and agencies can easily analyze public opinions and create consumer profiles, thereby providing PR and communication professionals with invaluable data that can inform their strategies from a multitude of different perspectives,” Silitonga told MARKETECH APAC.

How The Stock Footage Fiasco Contributed to Discussion

In the days that followed the campaign launch, DOT also came under fire for its video using stock footage from other countries. DDB Group Philippines, the agency behind the new campaign revamp, has apologised for the video released, saying that it was only intended to promote the slogan and no public funds were being used.

Digimind noted that while discussion on the campaign waned after a discussion peak on June 29, a spike in the discussion started from July 1 following the stock footage fiasco. The agency, and the phrases ‘footage of locations’ and ‘non-original’ popped up as some of the mostly-used words across the social media sentiments.

Meanwhile, Meltwater’s keywords also noted several phrases voiced out during the fiasco, such as phrases related to how many times the tourism slogan has changed, and how the concept was ‘lazy’ and ‘without substance’.

“In the media, sensational news can often turn what is believed initially to be a well-meaning concept into a potential crisis, especially as negative news is known to circulate quicker and form groupthink in the masses. While there is no foolproof process, like many public sectors, before launching a statement, the Philippines’ DOT will need to “read the room” and ensure that their messaging has gone through multiple assessment rounds with various stakeholders, including focus groups with locals,” Silitonga added.

Singapore – Global social media monitoring and competitive intelligence company Digimind has appointed Josh Drasta as its new general manager, APAC. 

In the new role, Drasta will be working on growing Digimind’s team and clients in the APAC region with best-in-class social media intelligence and monitoring solutions for the company’s APAC clientele.

In an interview with MARKETECH APAC, Drasta shared his excitement over the new role. “Be it an SDR role, closing the deals, managing accounts, caring for customers’ success, generating insights out of data, or proposing new marketing strategies – I have touched pretty much every side of the roles of our team. This makes me very excited to be hands-on across these areas, get a feel for the business, and find avenues to expand our activities,” he said.

Prior to joining Digimind, Drasta held the sales lead role at Google, where he helped increase its advertising business and product adoption growth by educating, and promoting solutions to its customers, amongst other responsibilities.

Talking about his experience at Google, he shared that the role gave him the chance to work alongside incredibly talented people and on challenging projects such as working with Google’s highest potential agencies and their C-suite, as well as with business owners of the EMEA region’s most promising businesses.

He added, “At the same time, I was very intrigued about the opportunity to help to grow Digimind and Onclusive in the APAC region at a very special time, given the integration and the future product roadmap. The size and operations of Google and Digimind & Onclusive cannot be compared, but fundamentally, the goal is the same – delight the customers, push the limits of what’s possible to deliver with our products, and grow the team. This is exactly what is close to my heart, and I am very excited to make this my [day-to-day] activity.”

Moreover, he said that the experience at Google gave him the opportunity to learn, adapt, A/B test, and execute a plethora of projects, which he will be bringing forth to his new team at Digimind.

Drasta was also previously a sales director for APAC at consumer insights platform Linkfluence. He also has a wide experience in business development and marketing from companies such as Isentia, Socialbakers, and Groupe PSA.

Last year, Digimind onboarded media monitoring company Onclusive with the goal of delivering a complete suite of market-leading global media monitoring, measurement, and management solutions to PR and communications teams.

Asia Pacific – Social media conversations on shopping are expected to shift now that the way people purchase has changed once again with the ushering of the post-pandemic. This has been evident in social media listening company Digimind’s latest report which revealed that within APAC, internauts have produced over 8 million online mentions of luxury brands in the year 2022.

We need not go too far on this occurring reality when the recent viral TikTok incident supercharged the conversation on ‘luxury’, where a Singapore-based Filipino teenager drew backlash for calling her first Charles & Keith bag purchase as ‘luxury’.

At present, the interest of consumers in conversations on luxury shopping persists. The report by Digimind monitored the public posts of online users from four APAC countries – Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines – that mentioned the top 10 luxury brands namely Cartier, Chanel, Dior, Gucci, Hermès, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Rolex, Tiffany & Co., and YS. 

Within the overall 8 million social and web mentions in the region, the report showed that Thailand tops the volume of these online mentions, accounting for 37% of it, or in particular, 2.9 million. This was followed by Indonesia with 1.94 million and the Philippines contributing 1.92 million. Meanwhile, Malaysia and Singapore recorded 867,000 and 295,000 mentions, respectively.

Since the four countries do not have the same population numbers, the data was based on the number of active social network users per country.

The report also explained that there may be several factors on why these luxury brands were being talked about online. First, there is a 79% positive sentiment recorded behind the brands amongst APAC consumers. Another factor is the collaboration of K-pop artists with the said luxury brands. Iterations of these would be artists wearing custom-made outfits during their concerts or events. Furthermore, luxury brands are getting a lot of attention due to venturing into newer technologies, including Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT), the metaverse, and cryptocurrency for payment purposes.

Olivier Girard, head of Digimind APAC, said that the luxury culture in Southeast Asia is very much alive because of loyal customers, with fans adoring the ambassadors of these products. Girard also added that they noticed the continuous interest with great average of monthly mentions and sentiments from the people in the region.

He added, “When it comes to high-profile events, social media coverage is a critical area of monitoring, where a single blunder can potentially have massive repercussions on multiple stakeholders. Social media monitoring tools like Digimind Social offer brands the ability to spot the hottest trending discussions and extreme shifts in sentiment in real time, turning actual public perception into concise, actionable reports to activate the right escalation chain.”

The recent brand ambassador announcement by Shopee Philippines has caused a wide range of reactions amongst Filipinos online, with the majority turning against Shopee for tapping local celebrity Toni Gonzaga who is known for her controversial support of now-president Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. 

As of this writing, Shopee has defended its decision, stating that Gonzaga was chosen for her ‘mass appeal’, and not for her ‘political views’.

Despite this, clamour and discussion regarding Shopee Philippines’ announcement remained. In light of this, MARKETECH APAC has tapped social media monitoring Digimind to learn more about how the negative flak unfolded–as told by social media data.

Are Social Mentions Equal to ‘Boycott’ Sentiment?

Digimind noted in its data that social media mentions of Shopee spiked following the brand ambassador announcement, peaking at 286,495 on September 29. Said day was the time Shopee Philippines uploaded a teaser video of Gonzaga as the new brand ambassador.

However, despite the large volume of tweets mentioning Shopee, social media mentions, specifically those suggesting the boycott, only took 0.4% of all social media mentions. Despite the small percentage, this still amounts to a fairly sizeable volume of4,000 netizens expressing their opinion to boycott Shopee.

According to Olivier Girard, head of Digimind for APAC, influencers will always be on the verge of receiving scrutiny, especially when being associated with a partisan group or cause. 

“While consumers are familiar with the concept of influencers or celebrities endorsing brands, brands now need to have a more stringent process in place when assessing each influencer’s fit for their brand or campaign. Any brand, large or small, runs the risk of facing some level of social scrutiny or backlash when announcing a public figure with uncertainty over the public might receive them,” he said.

Was There a Spillover to Rival Platform Lazada?

 Following the negative flak to Shopee, numerous citizens have shown interest in moving to rival e-commerce platform Lazada, which is also one of the most popular e-commerce platforms in the country.

However, Digimind notes that the social media conversations around Shopee still eclipse those about Lazada, showing that resentment towards the former is much stronger than renewed support for the latter. Over the course of September 26 to October 3, Shopee registered around ~2M social media mentions while Lazada only managed to get around ~145k social media mentions. In addition, Shopee’s mentions reached around ~11m users while Lazada reached around ~5.2m.

“Where brand reputation is concerned, it is therefore critical that brands evaluate potential ambassadors closely in the domain of social media,” Girard said, related to how brands should pick their next brand ambassador.

Who and Where the Discussion is Coming From

Digimind noted a great number of discussions related to Shopee come from sellers themselves and users that are greatly concerned about the welfare of the sellers.

A handful of small businesses and online shops have decided to create a business account, with some saying that they would not support a platform that ‘enables [political lies]’, as well as ‘unjust termination of employees’. Netizens have pointed out the irony from Shopee Philippines’ side in retrenching employees in order to ‘optimise’ operations and then contracting a new brand ambassador afterwards. 

Girard said that it’s important for brands to obtain consumer sentiments to help them prepare communication contingencies ahead of time, as in the case of Shopee. 

“[This] can help brands identify influencer profiles that match their target community and sieve any negative sentiment your marketing and social teams might otherwise miss out on in the macro analysis,” Girard explained.

In the end, the brand ambassador announcement for Shopee Philippines went on as usual, albeit social engagement against them has diminished over time. Time will only tell how these media social sentiments truly play out in the longer run.

Singapore – Global action star Jackie Chan was recently announced as top e-commerce Shopee’s newest ambassador in August which was launched as part of the platform’s 9.9 campaign. Shortly after, Chan makes a comeback to viewers’ screens for the platform’s 11.11 campaign. 

In light of the backlash from some advertising and creative professionals on Shopee’s current ad for 11.11, MARKETECH APAC reached out to social listening platform Digimind to learn about how the mass audience perceives the latest campaign. 

On October 25, just a few days after Shopee released its 11.11 ad with the international star, Singapore-based marketing expert Richard Bleasdale stirred quite a conversation on LinkedIn by sharing a post about the ad, describing it as the “worst ad ever made.” Soon, the post drew quite traction, serving as an invitation for other creative and marketing leaders to share their verdict on the ad–which was a unanimous disappointment over Shopee’s chosen creative direction.

The general audience, meanwhile, had been split on their perception of the ad. According to Digimind’s analysis, some had found the 11.11 campaign endearing, while a fraction showed displeasure over the latest campaign mixed with some neutral liking.

The main narrative of the ad in question was Jackie Chan fighting off bad guys ‘magically’ through the power of Shopee’s ‘big discounts’. For every press of the actor on his phone, discount bubbles pop up such as “$60 CASHBACK ALL DAY,” sending an enemy down and defeated. 

Shopee
Screenshots from Shopee’s latest 11.11 ad

Apparently, the negative sentiment by the mass audience drew some parallel with professional opinion, which is Shopee’s seeming failure to leverage Chan’s martial arts prowess. Following Bleasdale’s post, MARKETECH APAC formally reached out to some of the advertising professionals that commented on the post.

A consensus among the creative leaders was Shopee’s perceived faulty decision to favor a fictional story of ‘powerful’ discounts rather than spotlighting the ambassador’s renowned action-comedy branding. 

A leader from ad agency Cheil Singapore described the ad as an “orange mess,” while an advisory board member from martech DAIVID said the ad could have been an opportunity to have “some whacky martial-arts impossibility” performed by the ambassador. 

Digimind had rounded up some definitive comments which had been in agreement with the said professional flak. 

Digimind_ social mentions
Negative and neutral comments on Shopee’s 11.11 ad gathered by Digimind

One tweet said, “I guess Jackie Chan beating up people with a tap of a button is all [we’re] going to get in a Shopee ad.” 

While another wrote on Twitter, “[Jackie Chan] did a [Shopee] ad, my life is ruined.”

Other hostile comments pointed out other ‘less-than-perfect’ elements of the ad such as Chan’s seeming wrinkle-free appearance and how the ad looked like a ‘deepfake’, which is the digital alter of a person’s face. 

“I’m laughing, they [airbrushed] Jackie Chan’s wrinkles…,” one netizen tweeted.

While another one said, “Tell me why I’m so convinced that the Shopee ads with ‘Jackie Chan’ [are] [deepfakes]…” 

According to the report, there were a total of 309 mentions in Southeast Asia, excluding promotional content, about Shopee’s 11.11 ad from the period of October 17 – 31 across leading social media platforms including Facebook and Twitter. 

Digimind social mentions

The study found that Malaysia conversed the most around the campaign with 40% of the mentions coming from the market, followed by the Philippines (30%) and Indonesia (20%).

Digimind top countries

Information from the study also showed that the inaugural Shopee ambassadorship of Chan for 9.9 in August garnered higher traction on social media than the sophomore campaign of the star for 11.11. There had been a 4530% fall in the total volume of mentions for the newer campaign compared to the previous 9.9 over the same period from August 19 – 31.

Shopee’s 11.11 ad was released on YouTube on October 18 across its covered markets in Southeast Asia. Thai viewership of the ad eclipsed the platform’s other markets, registering over 39 million views as of writing.

Digimind’s analysis covered the markets of Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and India.

Singapore – Cryptocurrency, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, have sparked popularity over these years, thanks to a huge following online. In the case of Southeast Asia, social media users have been active in discussing the sector across various social media platforms, new data from a report by social media monitoring and intelligence company Digimind.

Singapore takes the lead as the most active market where cryptocurrency mentions are prevalent across social media platforms, amounting to 902,225 mentions from February to May 2021 or about 16% of the density against regular social media users. Social media density refers to the ratio of social media mentions for a particular topic against the number of recorded social media users, regardless of what topic they discuss.

This is followed by the Philippines (2,767,413 mentions) and Malaysia (815,523 mentions) who both tallied 3% of social media mentioned density. Indonesia, meanwhile, is the least vocal in the region when it comes to cryptocurrency mentions. Despite having 3,011,790 mentions, it only takes up 2% of social media density, in proportion to the 170m recorded social media users.

As Bitcoin and Ethereum take the lead of what is on consumer’s minds on social media across the region, the cryptocurrencies Dogecoin, Binance, Tether and Ripple also follow suit, signifying the diversity of cryptocurrency choices for consumers in the region.

In terms of most-mentioned cryptocurrency platforms, Coinbase takes the lead, with 41% of respondents saying it’s on the top of their minds. This is then followed by Binance (28.9%), Okex (19.8%), Huobi (8.2%) and Coinhako (2.1%).

“Determining the right cryptocurrency trading platform is akin to frequenting a supermarket store that offers the best services, from discount prices to exclusive membership rates, and convenience. Brands need to be well equipped to detect the most pressing pain points of consumers or users, survey threats to brand reputation and make informed decisions quickly by synchronizing omnichannel information within a single dashboard to stay investor-centric,” Digimind said in a press statement.

For Olivier Girard, APAC head at Digimind, through the lens of social listening, they see the insecurities and motivations of the average investor, as well as the potential for this new technology to be adopted into the mainstream market.

“From the consumer perspective, it is remarkable to see how cryptocurrency is embraced by people from all walks of life and nationalities – fueling the hope of mainstream adoption in the near future. Even in APAC, we can see efforts ramping up to create greater accessibility, and provide regulations within cryptocurrency exchanges that affirm the trust consumers are having,” Girard stated.

Singapore – Word-of-mouth and genuine love for a brand continue to be one of the most powerful sources of brand promotion and marketing, and this is on top of micro-marketers or online influencers, who, even though arguably relatable, still patronize brands under a sponsorship or a deal. We go much deeper into the user-generated brand love phenomenon – and that is through our close network on social media. With less outside influence, and trust that laden with more truthful opinion, word-of-mouth is now digitized online buzz. 

Asia-Pacific is a region with strong collective values and beliefs and when it comes to well-loved brands on social media, consumers bound by this region seem to gravitate the same towards conversations on the same types of brands.

According to a quarterly study by Digimind, a social listening and market intelligence platform, the top most discussed brands for the second quarter of the year have taken up quite a lot of changes since the previous quarter. 

The study notes why consumers, more than experiencing brands, love to ‘talk’ about them on social media – it’s because the simple act of it has become some kind of self-actualization.

“There is a gratifying feeling to express how they feel about a product or service, or simply have an opinion,” notes the study. 

The top 10 in Digimind’s Top 50 most discussed brands in APAC

For starters, the title of the most-discussed brand in APAC has been retained from the first quarter of the year, and it is none other than Singapore-born e-commerce platform Shopee. A lot of brands have fluctuated among consumers’ radar, but not Shopee, which isn’t surprising. 

E-commerce has been the go-to shopping ‘destination’ for most since a brunt of physical establishments has been, for the meantime, closed down. With almost everyone accomplishing their purchases on e-commerce platforms such as Shopee, similarly Singaporean platform Lazada, and Indonesia’s Tokopedia, the next impulsive step is to share them on social media and boast of them, as doing so enables consumers to feel an even greater sense of elation and self-worth. 

This has been evident with the latter, with Lazada pushed two places up from Q1, and then Tokopedia an inch closer from the previous period, for both to enter in the top 10 most discussed brands. 

Meanwhile, the holy grail brands and platforms that are at consumers’ immediate disposal, continue to dominate conversations on social media. These are Spotify, Google, Netflix, Apple, and Zoom, with all falling under the top 10 most discussed.

Massive celebrity collaborations have also made way for consumers’ interest to be supercharged towards certain brands, and we’re speaking specifically of the global stardom of K-pop group BTS, which has amplified brand love for McDonald’s and even luxury brand Louis Vuitton. 

The study notes that while much of the commotion is directly from its passionate fan base, a part of the social buzz is also affected by those whose curiosity has been stirred, and therefore, channeling their recent ‘discoveries’ on social media as well. 

A social media post from a BTS fan in the Philippines

With McDonald’s releasing the ‘BTS meal’ across its global markets, the fast-food label jumped to the top 10 of the APAC rankings in Q2 by 34 places. 

Meanwhile, global fashion brand Louis Vuitton which has recently ridden the BTS bandwagon, allowed for it to amass significant social buzz within a relatively short frame of time, putting them within the top 20 rankings by an upturn of 32 spots. 

Another more surprising movement in social buzz based on the study is one with TikTok, which from being part of the top 10, is now nowhere in sight of the top 50. Maybe, the short-video platform, despite its popularity, enjoys much more viewership and usage of the app itself, more than being talked about as it is from afar. 

The top 20 in Digimind’s Top 50 most discussed brands in APAC

Meanwhile, popular super apps and delivery platforms in the region – Grab, foodpanda, and Gojek – which have been looked to with much more dependence from users, have all landed in the top 20. 

“For brands, resonating with the right community is as good as leaving them to handle your marketing with every individual promotion helping to populate your brand’s campaign further,” noted the report.

Data presented were collected by Digimind Historical Search and based on social mentions in APAC between April to June 2021 on platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and even from Pinterest, Reddit, and Tumblr, and YouTube, among others.