We will be having her as soon as the administrative are cleared and she will be bring with her 7 years of experience in Digital & Traditional marketing alike.

The lines between communications disciplines continue to blur and there are increasing needs for marketers to be all rounded. The landscape of digital marketing has evolved dramatically over the last few years and will continue to do so as consumer and technological advances beckons us.

Sarah has crossed over from the client side and has done impressive work in managing large scale digital campaign with KFC and Globe Telecom. She would further add on the strong strategy & client servicing team that we already have in Singapore.

We are happy to have you Sarah. Welcome!

So check this one out:

iPad 2 Augmented Reality Application Magic Mirror

Augmented Reality Magic Mirror Application for iPad 2

Augmented Reality (AR) Magic Mirror is a new application that is developed for the iPAD 2. It gives users a selection of virtual hairstyles and accessories to try on, or to try on their friends. The app uses facial recognition to identify the user and apply virtual 3D enhancements to their video image in real time through augmented reality functionality.

How cool is that!

Whatever the political outcome, (i just hope i finally have a chance to vote this year!) that’s another blog altogether (not creativewrestle.com). But from a digital advocate point of view, i am just glad some principles that we used as oasis interactive’s discipline are evident case studies in Singapore 2011 Elections. Here are some of those.

source from fuse.tv

1) SG 2011 Election. 0% Incentives  100% Influence.
Coincidently, every Singaporean should have received a tidy sum in their bank just a couple of days before the nomination day. No one’s complaining but i highly suspect if this will swing votes towards the ruling party. Incentive is not a motivating factor here.  Also in a recent case, an online Facebook contest meant for Nee Soon residents to recognize their MPs was suspended. Seriously… what were they thinking..

2) You can’t grow your digital popularity through other means
Nicole Seah is a bit of a revelation this election. Even her “sweat it out walkabout” has generated a full forum thread.

3) Getting Re-tweeted is not a representation of your popularity.

This is funny. Apparently, PAP has a twitter account and was “broadcasting” to get more “likes” for their Facebook page. Pat Law, also a fellow digital advocate (see goodstuph) casually asked “why?”. The PAP twitter replied “..so you can see more photos of Tan Pei Ling and help us have more outreach. This, apparently caught the eyes of many netizens and there were many re-tweets.

Instead of realizing that they have been drawn the joker card, this was sent out.

With tablet being so popular now, it is largely believed it will be very common device for the next 3 years. Is it a time for us to convert or expand our website ready for the tablet’s platform? Does your website need to factor into the tablet format? Perhaps, it is wise to look at it from the user’s perspective.

I guess there are some “Guidelines” to build a good or friendly website for tablet platform. Here come some of my thoughts,

1. Touch and Slide.
Navigation is obviously a different ball game when it comes to a 7 inch. There are two basic motions that users are familiar with. The “Touch” and the “Slide”. The layout and the design elements have to consider these factors, which are different for micro sites for example. Designer’s choices of Button designs and background colors are even more important than ever.

2. Typing.
Typing can be a hassle on tablet and if designers are thinking of creativity, they should minimize of getting users to type. Instead, use slides and embedded buttons so
3. Loading time.
Because users are used to the speed that application deliver in mobile and tablet platforms, they have generally less patient to wait for a website to load. And most of the time they are connecting the device with 3G connection.
4. Flash site.
FLASH is not supported in iPAD. But even if Android and Windows supports FLASH, it is still creating a loading issue if the flash website is too heavy in file size.
5. Dynamic Scripts.
Dynamic Scripts (to replace FLASH or increase interactivity) is still primitive in the tablet world. Many still have compatibility problem. Use it at your own risk.

More users are using tablets in there every day life. My insurance agent is already using tablet for their business presentation. We would need to spend more thoughts when we are designing usability not just for microsite but for tablets and mobile platforms as well. Do you have any thoughts on what designers should be wary of when it comes to designing a “tabletsite”?

Focusing the consumer’s wants versus the client’s is important. I always find that going back to the consumer journey path helps my client and me realign again.

Asking Your Client: Where are you?

As with most products and services, customers walk through this path before their decision to be an advocate of the product. Understanding where your brand is helps in strategizing and making digital tools effective.  Below helps you better relate where your brand could be at.

The Awareness Stage – “Never See Before!”
Generally a new product in the market. No penetration force as yet.

The Consideration Stage – “I think so…”
Some brand memory established.

The Trial Stage – “I got try before…”
Willing to believe in your communication effort and give it a try.

The Regular Stage - “I use this brand…”
Believe it works for them and purchase it on a regular basis

Advocate Stage - “You try…You try…”
–>  Willing to share and recommend with their friends and love ones.

I did the “colloquial” version to make this idea easier for understanding. Clients come to us with their brands at different stages. Sometimes we get all too caught up with the whole buzz that goes around digital that we lose focus on its intentions. Clients maybe eager to want advocacy in their brands and feels that our proposal may not cater for them. A further explanation through this mean helps at times.

Just something that could be useful if you have difficulty explaining to your clients.

The New Community Rules

Blogs, networking sites, and other examples of the social web provide businesses with a largely untapped marketing channel for products and services. But how do you take advantage of them? With The New Community Rules, you’ll understand how social web technologies work, and learn the most practical and effective ways to reach people who frequent these sites.

Book Review: The New Community Rules – Marketing On The Social Web from ruben quinones on Vimeo.

Written by an expert in social media and viral marketing, this book cuts through the hype and jargon to give you intelligent advice and strategies for positioning your business on the social web, with case studies that show how other companies have used this approach.

• Explore blogging and microblogging, and find out how to use applications such as Twitter to create brand awareness
• Learn the art of conversation marketing, and how social media thrives on honesty and transparency
• Manage and enhance your online reputation through the social web
• Tap into the increasingly influential video and podcasting market
• Discover which tactics work — and which don’t — by learning about what other marketers have tried

MARKETING

Marketing magazine is Asia’s leading source of advertising, marketing and media intelligence with editions in Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia (Advertising+Marketing Malaysia). Credible, fiercely independent and always first with the big stories, more advertising and marketing professionals in Singapore rely on Marketing each month to keep them informed than any other magazine.

Current Print Edition -

MARKETING
Ed’s Letter: Brands cop flak over insensitive remarks
Brand Health Check: One Dior closes…
Client-side: Give women a reason to turn you on
Opinion: Ad Watch / Web Watch April 2011
Driven to be different
By invitation only
Wired for results

MEDIA
Media Viewpoint: To measure or not, that is the question
Agency Brief: Staying one step ahead of Big Brother
In the spotlight

ADVERTISING
Market Spotlight: Consumers reject retailers’ pleas

ONLINE ADVERTISING

PUBLIC RELATIONS

PEOPLE
Banking the Ngui way

.net is the world’s best-selling magazine for web designers and developers. Every issue boasts more than 30 pages of tutorials, covering topics such as CSS, PHP, Flash, Javascript and web graphics. All written by contributors from some of the world’s biggest and most creative design agencies.

This month we reveal the top 20 CMSes, discuss CSS pseudo-element hacks and explain how to find the perfect colour for your site

Choose the right CMS for your site

How do you pick the right CMS for the job? Ryan Taylor wades through the plethora of available options to help you make an informed decision

Find the perfect colour for your site

Cindy Li of Yahoo Applications explains how to use colour to enhance the appeal and usability of your website while ensuring it remains accessible

Enhance your CSS with pseudo element hacks

Create interesting effects using CSS’s pseudo-elements without compromising the simplicity of your HTML. Developer Nicolas Gallagher leads the weay

Interview

Mark Boulton tells Oliver Lindberg why the web needs to respond better to the way we consume content these days

CSS/control image aspect ratios

How to make media display consistently on your site

HTML5/new ways to enhance forms

Learn to implement the new input types and attributes

Even before the measurement of success of how well your campaign sites engages the customers, the focus should be on the question what drives them to the front of your garage in the first place. Understanding this fundamental with the nature of your products/services could save the embarrassment of low engagement results for your campaign.

The Digital world maybe oxymoron. As it gets bigger in population and platforms, it is integrating itself and getting smaller in reality. As more and more brands are getting their hands dirty in the digital boom, more marketers are struggling to keep up with the complexity and jargons of technology, communities, digital marketing, tracking and development techniques.

The 3i theory tears down these complexity to question what would drive traffic? The 3i represents Intention, Influence & Incentives.

Intention
Simply they they want to. Through your other media exposure or WOM, these are the group of people that are already looking for your product/services. Now. Where this is definitely a piece of good news, the key is that they are searching and you need to be there where it matters and be relevant to their needs. A lot of brands neglect this obvious group and sadly, unidentifiable when googled.

Influence
There are 2 kinds of friends. One that are in your phone list. The other that are in your email list, facebook friends, twitter and linkedin connections. More often than not, we spend much time online to mingle and interact with our virtual friends. And what they say matters to us (more than whatever your online banner promises). Identifying opinion leaders that are able to generate virtual WOM is important and valuable. Not just contents but user generated contents. Opinion leaders are very strong online influencer that is able to sway certain viewpoints. But please respect the customers, they are probably as discerning and it is important not to rush this influence by astro turfing.

The obvious mistake we have seen many make is to use offline metrics to equate it to the power of digital voice. Web 1.0 looks at the impressions you generate from the campaign. Web 2.o looks at the truth of your products/services in the eyes of the consumers. Web 3.0 looks at the advocates you can convert from your campaign.

The next obvious mistake is to simply fear your audience for fear of bad publicity.

Incentives
Cheapskate as it maybe but it’s true. We are still drawn but the real freebies and deals in life so why not on the online platform as well. The same goes for your crowd as well. Incentives are obvious magnet to your campaigns and is particularly useful if you are looking for intended spikes in traffic or some form of database acquisitions. In our experience, rewarding your crowd is not always needed, especially if your campaign has social causes involved.

With these 3is in mind, it is time to look at your products/services and personify your target audience. With that understanding (psychographic and demographic) of your target audience, you can now weight the 3is to your campaign. So what is the next step?

Understanding your consumer journey & identifying the digital engagement platforms

Which stage of consumer journey are you looking at? Creating Brand Awareness, Product Considerations, Trial, Retention or Advocating? We can’t be at all places at one time. It is important to understand to define this and decide on the various engagement platforms that most fit the profile of your audience.

Identifying the digital engagement platform

See the list below

Search Engine Optimization | Social Media Optimization | Search Engine Marketing | URL Friendliness | Portal Paid Advertisement | Social Media Penetration | Online Games | Shopping Cart & e-commerce | Social Media Integration | Microsite Development | Motion Info Graphic Video | Facebook Applications | Facebook Ads | Mobile Applications | Mobi Development | Online Contest | User Generated Contents | Bloggers Engagement …

The list goes on and on. With the right concept and content, these are all tools of engagement. Ideally, they all sound good. In reality, every brand has a budget to work within. Identifying with the 3is theory means  you can now choose the most relevant engagement tools

Oasis Interactive subscribes by this methodology and uses TA personification & 3i theory to determine the engagement platforms that works for our clients. For more case studies, contact us at info@oasisinteractive.com

Image used originated from http://toystoryaliencostumes.com/ for illustrative purposes only.

As designers, it’s easy to get caught up in our own little world of crafting all things to perfection. Fact of life: designers are generally expected to acquire some kind of supernatural powers that enable them to create magic in a flash. Sometimes, the expectation comes from oneself, sometimes from people. Consequently, we work into the wee hours of the morning so we can marry the illusion of speed and perfection to happily-ever-after.

Days go by and the aftermath of such prolonged state proves fatal. Below is a dialogue that explains why.

Designer: I think I need to get a life.

Friend: Sure you do. And stop talking to me about work. Get out on weekends.

Designer: These are the days I get to catch up on sleep.

Friend: What are your hobbies?

Designer: …

Friend: …

Designer: work… No, not sure. Maybe something else.

Friend: Like what?

Designer: …

Friend: Ah, empty brain syndrome. Tells me you don’t have one. If one day, you are stripped of your job and all other possessions, what’s that in you?

I saw red light in the tunnel that night.

One day, if we were to take away our electronic devices and our soul mate the Photoshop, what is the fundamental aspect that differentiates us from other designers? What are our thoughts? How is it different, and does it make a unique opinion that carries a personality?

I’m beginning to think how this is aiding my creative thinking.

The point is when it comes to creativity, it’s a random process, something that takes place in the conscious and sub-conscious, which eventually is inspired by the on goings of everyday life. Depriving that life experience strips you of having a personality, which is the essence of the designs you do. You still have to live a life, have a hobby, socialize with your loved ones and engage into circles of different passions, not just design.

Why not live life a bit larger? When you start doing that, you begin to build the voice inside you that might one day be the source of your inspiration. Life experiences help us see the world at large. Your personality breathes life into your work.

Now designers, it’s important to go get a life.