Tag: Social Media

From the rise of the micro- and nano-influencers to the increasing role of artificial intelligence (AI) in ensuring brand safety and delivering data-driven insights, new influencer marketing trends continue to emerge this year.

While exploring the ins and outs of influencer marketing space, we have observed the top 10 trends that will be huge this 2020. These trends are anticipated to guide brands in strategizing for campaigns that are sure to generate ROI.

1. Expect more influencers across content, experiential, and social media marketing strategies.

Since audiences see influencers as more authentic and credible, 89% of marketers think ROI is comparable or better with influencer marketing.

Brands will turn to confluence marketing strategies to amplify campaigns and social commerce by boosting or repurposing influencer-made content for example.

Brands are also expected to expand influencer marketing budgets and we can expect more exclusive invite-only influencer events.

2. No longer will micro- and nano-influencers be underestimated.

With a more dedicated niche following, micro- and nano-influencers are more engaging than celebrity and top influencers. More brands will plan campaigns with a mix of nano-, micro- and macro-influencers.

Brands can reap the benefits of both worlds. While one targets a specific niche audience, the other has a wider reach and potential to spark large conversations.

3. Brands will seek deeper, long-term influencer partnerships.

No longer do brands think a single influencer post or story is an effective conversion strategy. More are opting for long-term influencer partnerships through custom product lines or ambassador programs.

This helps brands achieve business outcomes, build authentic audience loyalty, and identify the marketing strategies that work best for them.

4. Industry will be streamlined by tighter regulations and pressures on influencers to comply.

Past controversies and issues on fake followers have motivated brands and audiences to demand more influencer transparency. To ensure compliance, social channels are stepping up such as, Instagram putting up a ‘Paid Partnership With’ feature.

Following these new regulatory measures will enhance an influencer’s perceived authenticity and strengthen campaign performance.

5. More airtime for audio-based content.

Audio content, especially podcasts, has risen in popularity. Audio influencers hold listeners’ attention for extended periods, allowing native ad formats to be easily integrated.

In 2020, it is estimated that podcasts alone will account for $863 million in ad revenue. While the market for audio influencers is still blossoming in APAC, advertisers and brands should anticipate, appreciate, and plan for audio in future marketing strategies.

6. A growing fascination with CGI-Influencers.

Virtual computer-generated Instagram (CGI) influencers are shaking up the industry. Uniquely, CGI- influencers give brands full creative control over campaigns.

Appealing to techy Gen-Z audiences, CGI influencers like digital AI-avatar Lil Miquela are shown to have engagement rates almost 3x higher than real human influencers. Evidently, users are fascinated by this blend of fantasy and reality.

7. eSports influencers uniting fans and brands.

With ½ of fans being millennials, ages between 25-39, and more than 1/3 are women, eSports influencers have an especially wide and engaged following.

It is not surprising then that the number of influencer campaigns with eSports athletes has tripled in the past five years, with non-endemic brands increasingly getting in on the action.

With the eSports industry predicted to exceed 1.62 billion in revenue in 2021, advertisers and brands should consider eSports influencers in their marketing strategies if they want a piece of this winning streak.

8. Brands are recruiting employees and customers to build advocacy.

Audiences believe employees have a deep understanding of a brand’s culture. This makes their endorsements seem more reliable and authentic.

Brands like H&M, L’Oreal, Reebok, Starbucks, and MasterCard have launched advocacy programs motivating employees to become influencers. Social Media Today reports that these employee advocacy programs result in an average 26% increased revenue YOY.

For this same reason, customers are also being recruited as brand ambassadors. For advertisers and brands looking to amplify both retail and social commerce efforts, leveraging existing employees and consumers effectively capitalizes on the power of word-of-mouth to raise brand awareness.

9. AI is helping brands ensure brand safety.

Advances in AI are allowing marketers to derive more meaningful insights about campaign performance from vast data sets. Performance-based metrics like unique reach, actual impressions, and video views can now be verified and consolidated onto all-inclusive influencer marketing solutions that help streamline campaign workflow with image recognition and natural language processing (NLP).

Allowing social listening and the flagging of inappropriate content, brands can also shortlist the best influencers to fulfill campaign outcomes. Facilitated by automated booking tools, these developments let brands better optimize marketing strategies and ensure brand safety.

10. New highly shareable platforms and content are emerging.

Younger generations want engaging, authentic, and rapidly consumable content. With the adoption of technologies like drones, 360 video applications, AR and VR, influencers can enhance their storytelling abilities and produce higher-quality, innovative content. Rising social platforms such as TikTok and Twitch have also adopted these trends.

This article was written by Madeleine Mak of INCA APAC.

INCA is an influencer marketing solutions which helps brands to run brand-safe content campaigns through creators and influencers across digital platforms. It is owned by media company, Group M.

United States – The incumbent chief marketing officer of Facebook, Antonio Lucio took to their own social media platform the announcement of his resignation, which will be effective Sept. 18. 

Lucio said that his decision to step down was due to his desire to refocus his time on advocating for causes of diversity and inclusion, issues which have demanded greater attention in the past few months in the United States. 

“Given the historical inflection point we are in as a country regarding racial justice, I have decided to dedicate 100% of my time to diversity, inclusion, and equity,” wrote Lucio.

In May, a series of protests for racial justice began in the US when African-American George Floyd was killed by a white police officer during an arrest in Minneapolis city. 

Lucio said, “‘Although these issues have been core to my personal purpose for many years, and they were an important element of my work, I want to make them my sole focus.” 

Come September, Lucio will have served a total of two years on Facebook. In his post, he recounted the projects that the company has launched under his leadership and said that although there is “still a lot of work to be done, [there] is a strong foundation from which to build.”

“The work and progress made over the last two years [are] all due and thanks to [the team]: “More Together” for Facebook app, “It’s Between You” for WhatsApp, the Instagram anti-bullying platform, the launch of Messenger Rooms, “Never Alone,” “Born in Quarantine” and the launch of a new identity system for the corporate brand.”

Expressing his confidence to the team ahead, he wrote, “This team is ready to deliver its best work yet.”

Meanwhile, Facebook said that they support Lucio’s decision. 

“Antonio did incredible work telling our story during a transformative period for the company, “ a spokesperson said.

“[Facebook is] grateful for his enormous contributions and wish him well in his next chapter.”

Starting an online business is becoming more of an option amid the ongoing pandemic as more people are relying on online purchases to obtain their needs. Albeit such a trend, deciding to put up a digital business can still be a tricky affair, as you’re dealing with matters that of any other type of business such as setting up a capital, procuring suppliers for your products, and building a staff among others. 

One of the considerations that must be taken into account is your marketing strategy, and with the influx of social media tools at your disposal, one must learn to leverage such tools in order to translate branding into sales, and eventually start seeing those bucks rolling  in.

Social Media Strategist Janelle Swing of the entrepreneurship and freelancing group Filipina Home-based Moms (FH Moms) shares the best ways to do just that. 

Janelle imparts six expert but doable steps the you can do right now to maximize the available online platforms, and eventually see an improved growth on your business online.

1. Product knowledge should be at the back of your hand

Start off by listing the features, benefits, and real of your products in order to identify how to properly draw your communication and marketing plan.

Janelle said that these three facets are essential for customizing branding and helping the product or service stand out amid a sea of online sellers breaking from the clutter 

“As an entrepreneur, you must be fully aware of the product feature and offerings that you are selling. It builds credibility and institutes trust amongst your target customers,” said Janelle.

2. Identify your target audience

As an entrepreneur, you have to walk in your customers’ shoes and identify correctly your customers’ concerns, needs, and pain points. Once you have figured your business audience, you can come up with an effective marketing effort, content plan, and communication treatment to reach out to your target audience.

3. Identify your price points

As an online seller, it is important to identify accurate price points of your offerings. Reaching a reasonable price point will be based on factors like your target audience, their consumption habits, the market competition as well as the value for money the product offers. 

Janelle further advises that an estimated price point lets you benchmark your position and helps you customize your communication plans for promoting your offerings and engaging well on social media without overdoing it. If gauged well, a well thought of price point can scale up a business to a great extent.

4. Craft a content strategy

An essential way to maximize social media reach for your business is to have a content strategy calendar in place, which if properly utilized can prove advantageous for most brands or businesses.

“It doesn’t have to be an expert strategy. But rather, you must identify what would best appeal to your audience. You just have to be able to use the existing tools of your platform in order to get the most out of it,” shares Janelle.

Showcase your products with multiple photos

While Shopping online you would want to vet a product and inspect the product details quite minutely before making a purchase. Similarly, it is essential that your customer gets to view different angles of the product you are cataloging in your website. Always make sure that you upload multiple photos that are shot well, backed by suitable lighting conditions and background, for your audience to fully appreciate it.

Leverage FB’s pinned post option

You can highlight the product or service that you want to feature with this option. It could also be an FAQ, or a “ways to order,” and descriptions showing available modes of payment in order for your customers to easily navigate their way and understand your offerings.

Use the auto-response feature

Using an auto-response feature is the best way to engage your customers, while you’re away. You can earn loyal and new customers depending on reliable and satisfactory customer service. With this auto feature, you can assist customers and answer their queries in real-time without having to log into your account every single time.

Use the FB live-selling feature

Part of your content strategy must include FB Live sessions to further engage your online audience. With this feature, you can directly engage with your audience in an instant while also offering your product and services. However, live sessions must be well planned in advance and spaced out adequately to build a sense of anticipation amongst your audience. Do not rush into these sessions, live selling is a terrific opportunity and if leveraged well, can have a reaching impact for your brand and business.

5. Find a bankable supplier to tend to your overall business needs

Apart from a considerable social media presence, as a seller, you should have access to the best available space to procure your regular supplies.

Always make sure that your supplier is a legitimate source of products with trusted sellers and offers dedicated customer service.

6. Your creative materials are the most essential tools

Presenting a fetching catalog of product photos is no easy task – it takes a good amount of creativity and adequate photo skills to make your product stand out from the clutter of online sellers. There are a lot of good options to curate highly engaging content online as per your business taste and needs.

Use Canva

“For starters, you may use Canva in creating your layout. This is an easy- to-use platform where you can use templates to layout your product photos, plus it is free. You just have to be consistent with the colors and template style of your photos to have an effective brand recall and brand association,” said Janelle.

Using social media to get positive leads and generate revenue doesn’t need a big budget. As an entrepreneur, you need the right attitude, a positive and go-getter mindset, and the ability to tap into free online tools at your disposal to unlock the social media prowess and strive towards a successful online business venture.

This article is brought to you by Zilingo Philippines.

The COVID pandemic has seen a plunge in the employment rate for most industries and according to the Philippines’ statistics, the country’s unemployment has risen to 17.7 percent in April.

Homegrown super-service app MyKuya which launched in 2018 has been since handing out opportunities for its would-be partners, but the ongoing retrenchments in businesses have further proven the app’s value proposition.

MyKuya is a mobile-based application and technology platform which allows users to quickly hire trained partners to run jobs such as grocery delivery, personal shopping in malls, plumbing and carpentry works, and even on-demand tasks for small businesses.

These partners, called Kuyas and Ates (brother and sister), are able to become part of the on-call workers by signing up through the app, and going through just like any normal hiring process, that of with document requirements. 

As of current, the app has signed up 10,000 partners, and they are nowhere near from stopping at that, as MyKuya is rallying to create 1 million job opportunities by 2022.

With this massive goal, how do then the company plans to reach out to prospective Kuyas and Ates?

MyKuya’s Marketing and Communications Manager Gab Billones said that hyperlocalizaiton of content and simplification of narratives are some of its top strategies.

“One of the most effective strategies that we do is hyperlocaliczing our efforts, really targeting communities, condo associations, and different particular groups where interests of the majority, particularly the target market that we have are present in these online communities,” Billones said.

“We also do simplifications. We’re not just doing hyperlocalization, we also simplify the messaging, and the narrative of MyKuya, so it becomes more relatable to as many people as possible. We curate stories, particularly highlighting the activities that our partners do, and the kind of value that our customers actually find with MyKuya services. So those are the kinds of narratives that we actually highlight on our Facebook messaging, and we’re still trying to reach out more and more communities, in preparation for our expansion activities as well,” he added.

Presently, MyKuya has established online presence on the major social media channels of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. On Facebook, they present real-life testimonials of individuals who have already worked as partners for the app, integrating the promotional hashtag #MyKuyaMyHero. 

“How do our Kuya and Ate exemplify heroship during the pandemic? Each Kuya, a different story! Read on the inspirational stories of our partners in this time of lockdown and ECQ, and find out how they are able to help many people!” said one of the posts, followed by quote cards of partners, bearing their images and testimonies. (Translated in English)

In terms of the app’s users, the super-service app has also responded to the hard times that the pandemic has thrusted many into, and has made service rates more wallet-friendly amid users’ tightened budgets.

One thing that it has already done is to reduce the rates for their Pick-up & Drop service, lowering it from P150 per hour to P99 per hour within the MECQ period. 

Reduced rates will also be seen on the app’s services for their enterprise owner users such as BizHelper and MotoToday services. BizHelper is help in tasks like packing, sorting, and organizing, while MotoToday is for those that require motorcycle delivery or pick-ups. Under the MECQ, the lower minimum number of hours to avail of these services has been reduced from 6 hours to 4. 

Enterprise owners are one of the main stakeholders of the app. As of today, it has over 100 SME users. 

When we asked about their approach to business development, just like how they reach out to potential partners, MyKuya’s Country Head Dennis Bunye said that they go for a personalized approach, even implementing an SME club.

“We reach out enterprise partners in terms of in-person, face to face conversations, and we also get referrals in terms of how we can gain access to certain communities, which we hope to serve as well in order to be able to provide more value to them,” said Bunye.

“We are also having this what we call SME club, wherein we will make use of the spirit of community and provide value through not only giving advice and not just being salesy about it, but really sharing what we learned as we get to understand further the requirements of our SMEs right now,” he added.

Beijing, China – TCP Group (TCP), the inventors and owners of the Red Bull brand has announced that it has launched on August 8 the new Red Bull campaign, “Ni Zhen Niu” 

The campaign is set to promote the latest addition to Red Bull’s beverage line, the Red Bull Vitamin Flavor Drink, which has previously debuted at the China International Import Expo (CIIE) last November. 

The campaign was kicked off through the launch of its new line-up of celebrity brand ambassadors. This includes R1SE’s Zhou Zhennan, Xilinnayi Gao from Bon Bon Girls, Warcraft III player “Sky”  Li Xiaofeng, and Billiards player Pan Xiaoting. 

Red Bull will implement a strategic multi-media marketing campaign. The said brand ambassadors will showcase the so-called incredible “Zhen Niu spirit,” in TVCs and social media content, bringing inspirational messages of determination and confidence to consumers. 

“Through this campaign, we are promoting what we call the Red Bull Zhen Niu Spirit of ‘Going Beyond’ and ‘Limitless Potential’,” said Supachai Junkeiat, TCP’s global marketing director.

“We want to inspire and empower our fans through this message and support them as they challenge themselves to ‘Go Beyond’,” he added.

Meanwhile, TCP CEO Saravoot Yoovidhya shared that China has always been a top priority in expanding presence of TCP’s brands.

“As a Thai-Chinese enterprise, China has always been at the front and center of our global ambitions to become a global ‘House of Brands.’ This deep-rooted attachment means that TCP’s top priority will always be to contribute to the development of China’s economy and society,” said Yoovidhya.

TCP Group houses a diverse product portfolio comprising four consumer food categories, and another 30 product lines under nine brands

Building and maintaining a healthy brand is a relentless and ever-evolving process. While online sales have seen steady growth in the past decade, the impacts of the pandemic have further accelerated the uptake of digital mediums. In particular, those organizations with a regional presence, things get even trickier as each individual Asian country has its own digital and social landscape; failure to understand these hyperlocal insights will eventually lead to failed strategies.

With this, Thailand-grown social media analyzing service Wisesight shares the 7 methodologies that they think marketers may leverage to enhance their regional game plans.

Wisesight believes that competition between foreign and local brands has never been as tight and fierce as it is now; and without studying the background and consumers’ interest, it’s hard to dive in and expect significant growth of revenue. 

A common theme emerges between these 7 methodologies, that is, brands should simplify the analysis and management of regional initiatives with the help of social data. 

Here’s how marketers can do it:

1. Do a Regional Brand Health Check

A ‘regional brand health check’ will enable insights on the intricacies specific to your brand within each market, giving you direction on how your consumers think, and truly feel about your initiatives, and if they are on point for each country you have a presence in.

According to a study that was centered on a regional footwear brand’s health for four countries – Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, and Vietnam – the highest share of voice came from Thailand and Malaysia, with 36% and 34% respectively. Despite the fact that the Malaysian population size is lower compared to Thailand, the rate of consumer’s voice is significantly high and similar for both countries, which implies a high affinity for the brand within the market and even a potential to be top of mind in Malaysia when employed with the right marketing strategies.

2. Run a Channel Analysis

Another methodology that enlightens on the mix of channels to use in different countries would be ‘channel analysis.’ This will help craft the right social media channel mix strategies to penetrate each APAC country. An example of this, is for a specific regional footwear brand, Malaysia has a higher concentration of consumer voice on Twitter by 54%. This study is critical as the channel mix varies by industry and audience types.

Other findings in the study of the four countries are that the most active users are in Thailand and Malaysia, followed by Singapore and Vietnam. Vietnam was relatively low across channels as the footwear brand had just penetrated into the market during the period of analysis. Other key takeaways a brand could get from this type of analysis especially in multilingual nations like Malaysia, Singapore, and India among others, is the concentration rate of dialects or languages commonly used by fans of a brand. Localization of content is needed to capture the attention and raise engagements and such analysis can help you decide to what degree you need to localize, and which languages specifically are more important to your audiences.

3. Carry a Sentiment Analysis

A ‘Sentiment Analysis’ helps to understand and cater to consumers as it’s a necessity to satisfy their needs, resulting in having a positive impact and sentiments. Analyzing sentiments aids brands to identify key areas of focus to improve operationally, or product-wise, adjust their marketing plan and tweak their communications and social media efforts. This will help them resonate better with their audiences, ultimately improving overall brand net promoter scoring (NPS).

4. Micro-KOL identification – Organic influence

While appointing an agency to get influencers is a costly affair, many regional brands are turning to the Micro-KOLs as this segment of influencers is deemed more reliable and perhaps they’re the way forward in some instances. However, identifying them is a challenge in itself. Wisesight’s Micro-KOL identification methodology enables the brand to collaborate with organic fans of their brand, tapping into the holy grail of the marketing funnel “advocacies”.

5. Dive into Product Analysis

Deep dive analysis specific to products alone will give learning on the key elements to highlight in different countries to attract consumers’ attention. Based on the regional footwear brand’s study findings, netizens were more brand-centric which indicated their customer’s loyalty towards the brand.

Consumers across the four countries perceive their footwear as comfortable. While Malaysia and Singapore both have positive impressions towards their designs, those in Thailand and Vietnam are more concerned about the authenticity of the shoes due to a penchant for reselling in these markets. With these insights, the marketer now has a better picture of how to position their key selling points in each country to resonate best with audiences.

6. Endeavor in Regional Topic Analysis

Get into your customer’s head; what are their main concerns and topics of interest? For context, a brand that ran the exact same content calendar across the region garnered varying topic preferences from audiences, the below chart illustrates how Singaporean consumers were contest driven, Malaysia were more brand-centric and Thais were keen on resales of the product from the Brand – an exactly similar marketing strategy but different reception.

With analyst-supported research, brands can also study the topics from different parties to understand consumers’ preferences from different segments. This will help brands in understanding the method to target different types of customers. A Wisesight case study for a regional hardline manufacturer during the height of the pandemic lockdowns, revealed both contractor and consumers’ priorities were different. Contractors needed to adapt to sustain their business and to target different segments of customers and the end-user simply postponed all projects.

Overall, it shows that the end-users prioritized their experience and could wait to purchase the product, while contractors focused more on the supply chain of the products. The brand ultimately could plan what the end-user would need more of when the lockdowns were lifted and create more communication for contractors on the availability and methods to access their products during the lockdown.

7. Consider Content Performance Analysis

Inbuilt social performance insights can only get you so far. In this specific method of analysis, aside from learning from your own performance, a combination of competitors’ performance will allow you to learn from their successful strategies and failures, continuously improving content, posting performance with the insights and tactical recommendations given by Wisesight analysts. In the below analysis, Brand 2 (UNIQLO) only has 0.001% of efficiency rate despite having the highest number of posts among all brands.

Clearly, the posts and interests between the brand and consumers do not match, resulting in having to do so much more to hit the engagement numbers. The goal should be to have a high-efficiency rate and gain high engagement too.

Applying these methodologies to analyze consumer’s voice regionally amounts to improving visibility for marketers, streamlining marketing spend, and truly building active communities that serve as organic advocates for your organization. These methods will further help audit the performance of your appointed creative agencies, campaigns, social media content performance, and overall marketing strategies.

Manila, Philippines – With COVID-19 forcing everyone to stay home, more and more people are turning to online platforms for information, connection, and entertainment. And no platform has managed to entertain quite like TikTok. 

TikTok has been taking 2020 by storm, with 315 million installs across iOS and Android in Q1. To date, the video-sharing app has been installed in devices 800 million times and was touted as the most downloaded app earlier this year. It now has 2 billion downloads overall, doubling its total from 15 months ago.

Philippine-based PR agency, M2.0 Communications, recently hosted a webinar to talk about the growth attributions of TikTok particularly in the Philippines, and discover more about the social app.

“Our mission has always been to inspire creativity and bring joy. We want to help people stay connected, stay informed, stay entertained, It’s also about inspiring each other.”

John Castro, Community Operations Manager of TikTok Philippines

Another reason for TikTok’s mass appeal is it is designed for the local user. The app is available in over 150 markets and supports 75 languages.

What makes TikTok tick?

According to Castro, TikTok’s lifeline is its users, who are mostly Gen Z. This generation is a digital-first generation, with 98 percent owning smartphones. They also spend a lot of time on the internet: averaging 10 hours a day online, streaming at least one hour of video per day, and consuming an average of 68 contents per day.

While Gen Z is certainly a big driver of the app’s popularity, other generations are joining in on the fun as well, resulting in a vibrant and engaged community. And it is that community that sets TikTok apart according to Castro. 

“We have dancers, chefs, cooks,” said Castro on the variety of users on the platform all expressing their individual truths. “It’s not just about the dance trends, it’s more about the creators, the users, and the community,” he said.

John Castro, Community Operations Manager of TikTok Philippines (pictured left) and Laureen Uy, Lifestyle Influencer in the Philippines (pictured right)

New content for the new normal

A big trend in content creation brought on by COVID-19 is the shift towards authentic content. And this is where TikTok shines because it is about users expressing their individual truths, in whatever way they choose.

Before the pandemic, lifestyle influencer Laureen Uy posted a lot of travel content. Now, her content has been restricted to things she can do in her own home, forcing her to think of new ways to present her content. “As a content creator, I still want to keep my creativity going even at home,” she said.

As someone new to the platform, she was surprised by the amount of learning on TikTok, inspiring her to also produce informational content. That educational aspect of the short-form video platform is something that TikTok has actively pursued, adding the option for longer-form content so its creators can better inform their audiences.

Ultimately, TikTok’s success will depend on its users. And while the growing user base of the platform will undoubtedly attract marketers, Castro emphasizes the importance of understanding what works on TikTok. “If you’re coming into TikTok thinking you can do the same thing you can do on other platforms, you’re probably going to be mediocre,” he said.

For Uy, it’s about diversifying content for different social media channels. “If my content on Instagram is more fashion and lifestyle focused, my content on TikTok would be focused on fun and infotainment,” she said.

Perhaps the best way for brands to run campaigns on TikTok is through the creators. After all, it is a community-driven platform. It will be an exercise of experimentation and creativity, much like the environment of the TikTok community itself.

The Rise of TikTok – Webinar Highlights

“On TikTok, you’ll see different types of challenges and videos you might not see on other platforms,” said Castro. “We want you guys to express your creativity. It can be in the weirdest way possible. We embrace weird, and we want you guys to do that on TikTok.”, he added.

The presentations and the full webinar video can be accessed here.