Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Not good strategy - WA Businesses Socially Inept

I came across this article in the WA Business News which suggested that WA businesses have not embraced the power of social media. Coming from WA, I see this as a little disappointing as my perception had always been that WA businesses are more technologically adventurous, seeing as Perth is the most isolated city in the world geographically. Social media is definitely a frontier to be crossed if businesses in WA want to get ahead of the game and Twitter is one of the first places to start.

WA businesses online but not tweeting
28-September-10 by Kym Fuhrmann

Western Australian businesses are the most likely in the country to have a website but many WA small businesses are choosing not to use social media, according to two new surveys.

The latest MYOB Business Monitor found 40 per cent of WA businesses were likely to have a website, higher than the national average of 35 per cent.

The survey found 25 per cent of Western Australian businesses are also likely to use their website for e-commerce.

But a separate poll by the Small Business Development Corporation found only a third of the state's small businesses are using social media.

SBDC Acting Managing Director, Jacky Finlayson said the Ready Response social media poll found 65 per cent of small business operators did not use the medium to promote their business.

"When used correctly, Facebook, Twitter, blogs and other social media tools can be of enormous assistance to small business operators with limited capital to spend on advertising and promotion," Ms Finlayson said.

The MYBO survey found only 18 per cent of businesses used social media.

Tim Reed, MYOB CEO, said, "Social media has received a lot of hype in Australia over the last 12 months so it's quite interesting to see such a low adoption of these online platforms by Australian businesses."

"Rather than being well established, the results indicate that online marketing is only just emerging in Australia."

"Despite the current low adoption rates of social media and websites, it's inevitable that the use of online platforms will increase rapidly in Australia as business owners see global competitors using these forums to lure local sales offshore," Mr Reed said.

According to the SBDC of those WA businesses using social media, 89 per cent were using Facebook, 68 per cent were using LinkedIn and 52 per cent were using Twitter.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Johnnie Walker as Proud of Product Placement as Gecko of Greed

Last night, we went to see the movie Wall Street - Money Never Sleeps and we were greeted by an advertisement that ran nearly 7 minutes long, entitled "The man who walked around the world". It was the Johnnie Walker advertisement, where Scottish actor from Trainspotting, Robert Carlyle, narrates a story about how the Johnnie Walker brand came to be. It may be because I have not been going to the movies all that often but I was surprised at how long the ad was, much longer than the usual 30 second or 1 minute ads.

It wasn't until part way through the movie, everyone laughed when we saw Jake Moore hand the Chinese contingent a bottle of... you guessed it.. Johnnie Walker Blue Label. It seemed to be redefining the meaning of product placement. It seemed just placing the product in the movie was not bold enough, that now you also should consider having a 7 minute advertisement preceding the movie as well. I thought it was good strategy anyway because I walked away with a clear memory of that moment in the movie where entertainment was hijacked by advertising. Borders book stores also featured as product placements in Wall Street.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Nokia World Expo - Free Trips and Social Media

Well I've probably scored the best ever perk of being a blogger - a free trip from humble old Perth to London as a guest of Nokia to attend the Nokia World Expo. It all started with a blog about the Nokia E65, then the blog about Nokia E63 started when the E65 was replaced. The premise was something quite simple, record all the tips and tricks that I learn whilst using the phone. The E65 and E63 blogs became the most comprehensive blogs on the internet about the E65 and E63 and both continue to rank on the first page of Google searches for their respective users.

Nokia caught on to the internet traffic moving through Perth and started offering me the opportunity to trial new phones that they were launching. I thought that was a pretty neat gig to land, receiving a new phone to trial every few months. A few weeks ago, I received an email from 1000 heads, Nokia's brand marketing gurus who had been liaising with me over the last few years.

Would I like to go to London to attend the Nokia World Expo? Of course I would!

CEO of Nokia and other speakers at Nokia World 2010

This weekend I will board an Emirates plane to blog all the way to London and back about the upcoming Nokia offerings for 2010/11. Amongst the phones to hit the market will be the Nokia E7 and the Nokia N8 which brings in HD video, 12MP camera and WebTV. 25 bloggers from around the world, and one from Australia, will be covering the launches, posting photos, tweeting updates and Facebooking the event to whoever cares.. and those who don't. Great strategy? I think so.

For the next week, expect to see Nokia trending up in the social media indicators.