SES Singapore 2011 Coverage #SESSG

Adaline Lau | November 28, 2011

Singapore– At SES Singapore 2011, more than 50 digital marketers shared best practices and discussed emerging trends in Asia Pacific for search, social, mobile, video, and display advertising. Marketers such as Nokia’s Arun Poojari described how the phone manufacturer tracks digital marketing activities even though the company does not sell phones online, while Sarah Whyte, digital marketing manager from Tourism Queensland, discussed the art of content marketing.

Day 1 (November 22)
On its live blog, B2Bento, SES Singapore’s media partner, provided extensive coverage of the event. Highlights of B2Bento’s Keynotes and Panel Discussions live blog included:

During the opening keynote, Mike Grehan, global VP content at SES, Search Engine Watch, and ClickZ, discussed the evolution of Internet, including the emergence of today’s constantly connected consumer and what that means for marketers. David Garceran Nieuwenburg, head of web marketing, Hong Kong Jockey Club, describes approaches to marketing in the highly regulated business of horse racing, sporting, and betting entertainment. And, Barry Lloyd, president, Webcertain Asia, further discusses the challenges of other regulated industries that he outlined as the 3P’s: “pills” (pharmaceuticals), poker (gambling) and porn (adult-related content).

Highlights from B2Bento’s Fundamentals Track live blog of SES Singapore include:

Marcelo Wesseler, head of e-commerce, RS Component, explained how online sales grew 53 percent at his company, in large part due to SEM and social media marketing. His tips include:

Know how your customers speak (not your internal terminology).
Be wary of “lost in translation” ensure you “localize” and not just translate; work with local/regional experts.
Optimize landing pages: match expectations in ad copy, use bulleted points, demonstrate credibility (e.g., highlight awards and testimonials), provide compelling calls-to-action, address all stages of the buying process.

Highlights from B2Bento’s Hot Topics Track live blog of SES Singapore include:

Pushkar Sane, co-founder and chief executive officer, Convergination Ventures, shared tips on building brands in a searchable social world. Among his tips:

Think of brand as a host – keep the party flowing, make it easy to talk and enjoy.
A single person can destroy brand equity, e.g., Dave Carroll and “United Breaks Guitars.”
Sometimes consumers can be less forgiving, e.g., BBC and “Blackberry is not working.”
But don’t panic every time there is negative sentiment, e.g., the Apple and “iPad video.”

Rey Ong, digital marketing manager, Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts; Janice Tan, general manager, Acronym; and Sho Shimoda, global marketing director, IREP, discussed proven strategies and tactics for advanced paid search.

Search advertising in Japan is highly driven by keywords, not URLs, according to Shimoda. Marketers there must create new keywords for different campaigns.
Expand keyword list to include plurals, misspellings, generic keywords, said Ong. At Banyan Tree, 22,000 long-tail keywords contribute 50 percent; top 25 keywords contribute to the other 50 percent.

Kelly Choo, co-founder and VP, business development and strategy, Brandtology, and Hari Shankar, director, Performics, discussed social analytics.

Trained professionals are needed to turn data into insights – from raw data to structured and categorized data to sentiment ratings to accuracy and relevancy improvement, to actionable charts and reports, according to Choo.

So what really matters? Fans? Followers? Shanker said these are just outcomes. He said what really matters are these four key metrics:

Chatter rate (number of responses/posts).
Propagation rate (number of shares/retweets, shares per post; content that has best share rates).
Popularity rate (number of likes per post; e.g., number of +1s per post, number of favorite clicks/tweet).
Return on social spends (sum of immediate and delayed revenues, sales and other goal conversions/investments in social marketing).

Lessons From Nokia: Arun Poojari, acting head of consumer engagement, South East Asia and Pacific at Nokia, discussed how the company tracks the effectiveness of its online marketing activities – even though sales occur offline. According to Poojari, Nokia:

Tracks “deep [consumer] actions” with the brand, such as watching a product video or demo, signing up for a pre-order, or engaging with the brand on Facebook.
Then, Nokia assesses what impact those actions have on purchase intent or brand awareness.

Day 2 (November 23)

In the morning keynote, Sarah Whyte, digital marketing manager from Tourism Queensland, discussed the art of content marketing. She shared two case studies to illustrate how marketers can bring content to life on digital channels:

Roo Mail Video Mockumentary: Tourism Queensland created four videos, featuring stories about “Jackie the kangaroo.” The videos were designed to entertain and encourage sharing.
#Bananasareback: When Queensland was hit by cyclone Yasi in January, the price of bananas shot up in the country, resulting in negative sentiment. When a new crop of bananas was ready in October, Australian Bananas – working with its agency Ikon – got the news out with the goal to create positive discussions and sentiment.

Within four months, Citibank India got more than 230,000 people who like the brand on Facebook. What is the financial service’s secret to success? Monappa Nalyanda, head of digital marketing, Citibank, said the company aims to give customers and prospects a voice in decisions. For instance, it set up a poll, asking people to vote on their preferred location for a new ATM.

Other coverage of SES Singapore 2011, Day 2, includes:

B2Bento SES Singapore 2011 – Day 2, Keynotes, Live Blog
SES Singapore 2011 – Day 2, Fundamentals Track, Live Blog
SES Singapore 2011 – Day 2, “Hot Topics” Track, Live Blog
Photos: SES Singapore 2011 photo album on Facebook

SES Singapore 2011 Twitter Roundup
Here are highlights of tweets from speakers and attendees at the two-day conference:

Tweets from @whytebate:

Good guideline, use 10% of your budget to test social ads.
Be congruent. Consumer journeys are not linear. Multi platform consumption is on the rise, ensure your message is consistent.
Be relevant, monitor & act on conversation, optimism your keywords accordingly & your landing page. Sound Advice.

Tweets from @David_Shen:

Retargeting takes a while to gain traction as you figure out what works at the start, but ramps up quickly.
Community building is obsolete. If you’re hopping into social now, it’s about connecting with your community who’s already there.
Put a Facebook Like and Google +1 button on your site. It helps influence SEO and is one of the easiest things to do.
How to improve social media advertising response rates? Target niche demographics, tailor your ad messaging to each group.
A little effort to improve landing page usability goes a long way. Measure success by profit, not necessarily roas or conv rates.

Tweets courtesy of @MatchedBeats:

Understand and optimize the customer journey, consistency is king and set the right KPIs to measure success @mgrover1
What matters is the quality, and not the quantity, of traffic … like how much of it has actually led to conversion. – @SoulSoup
Be remarkable. Ignite conversations with engaging content. Use “human” language and avoid gobbledygook – @SoulSoup

Tweets from @shanobyl:

81% of smartphone users in Singapore do notice mobile advertisements, and 61% take action after viewing ad.
Drive people deeper into your site with mobile sitelinks -@christiancadeo
4 things to consider in remarketing: tracking infrastructure, product fit, audience pools and legs to ‘scale’ (don’t give up!)
4 steps to integrated marketing: deeper understanding of insights, know media channels, redefining consumer journey, clear metrics.
With a Google+ page for your business, you’ll be seen in the SERP & search bar autocomplete when users are searching for your brand.
Integrating search and social optimizations improve results 70-80% of the time.

ClickZ.com Executive Editor Anna Maria Virzi contributed to this report.

Tags: best practices, SES

Meet industry experts from Adidas, Coca-Cola, Facebook, Google, SAP, Sina Weibo, Taobao, Tencent, Youku Tudou, Unilever, and more. Find out more at SES Shanghai 2013.

About the Author

Adaline Lau, ClickZ Asia editor, oversees day-to-day editorial operations covering digital marketing from search to social media, mobile to analytics in the region. Before ClickZ, she was senior reporter at Marketing Magazine and has worked as a journalist for The Singapore Marketer and Asia Pacific Broadcasting. Add Adaline to your circle on Google+.

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