:: i love this. Just watch.  // AjS

:: as I think most of you know, I’m a strategist at Edelman Digital Asia Pacific. As such, I just wanted to share some news.

Together with our partner Brandtology, we launched the Asia-Pacific Digital Brand Index (DBI), a regional study of online conversations about big tech brands covering 10 markets (Japan, Korea, Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, India, and Australia). The study captures and distills 800,000 mentions of 233 major technology and telco brands on over 4,000 sites.

For more details and market-by-market data / fact sheet downloads, link here. [Google was #1 and Dell was #10, link here to found out the rest of the top 10.]

The study’s analysis and insights are quite telling.

One of the key take-aways for me (something John Kerr, Edelman Digital Asia Pacific head discusses more here) is that while having a consistently aligned social media strategy across Asia markets on a macro objectives level is crucial, tactic execution needs to be locally contextualized to ensure success. The nuts and bolts of brand engagement simply won’t work uniformly across such diverse social media environments.

The study also puts forth an interesting series of indices that help local and regional marketers find measurement benchmarks around important areas like Internet word of mouth conversation volume, engagement (or mentions per unique voice), channel volume / breadth, etc. All very much worth checking out.

To learn more, feel free to get in touch: adam.schokora@edelman.com

Also, see below for a video of John Kerr giving a quick overview of the study. To better understand the study’s methodology, link here.  // AjS

[Full disclosure: Edelman and Edelman Digital represent technology brands around the world, many of which are included in the Edelman Digital Brand Index.]

:: an incredibly imaginative and creative stop-motion / paper-flip animation from Donato Sansone. Sound design by Enrico Ascoli. Enjoy.  // AjS

This is another official update to the original Shift Happens video. This completely new Fall 2009 version includes facts and stats focusing on the changing media landscape, including convergence and technology, and was developed in partnership with The Economist. For more information, or to join the conversation, please link here or here.  // AjS

:: I peeked this TED Talk today and was pretty impressed. Shirky does many things really well in this presentation, but most notably:

• he smartly and succinctly summarizes the entire “transforming media landscape” X “social / digital media is important and why” meme we have all come to know and love over the past 5 years.
• he clearly illustrates the best example of social media in a China to date – better than any of us so-called Chinese digital experts have done. [Hail the power of online video and good public speaking skills!]
• he says this, “on the Internet, every medium (i.e. TV, magazines, telephone, books, etc.) is right next door to every other medium, put another way, media is increasingly less just a source of information, and increasingly a site of coordination.”
• he also puts forth this brilliant nugget of wisdom, “the media landscape that we knew, as familiar as it was and as easy as it was conceptually to deal with the idea that professionals broadcast messages to amateurs is increasingly slipping away. In a world where media is global, social, ubiquitous, and cheap; in a world of media in which the former audience are increasingly full participants – in that world [i.e. today], media is less and less often about crafting a single message to be consumed by individuals, it’s more and more often a way of creating an environment for convening and supporting groups [i.e. conversation and community-based interaction]. The choice anyone who has a message that they want to have heard anywhere in the world faces, isn’t whether that’s the media environment we’ve want to operate in, that’s the media environment we’ve got. The question now is, how to we make the best of that medium even though that means changing the way we have always done it.” [Halle-fucking-lujah! Shirky, you killed it with that closer – bravo!]

The last point is what I have spent a good chunk of my professional life trying to get others to understand (and pay for). It has vast implications for “media people,” (who is everyone now-a-days) as well as the communications, PR, marketing, advertising, etc. industries. The next time your client (or colleague, or your mom) just doesn’t get it, play them this video. If English is not their first language, get a professional to translate it into the appropriate language. It will save you a lot of time / effort / money in the long run.  // AjS

:: the acoustic guitars, harmonicas, and this retro Hohner Melodica came out recently while I was picnicking in Shanghai with friends. One of those friends was Zhang Feng (张峰, aka Bono), the frontman for the well-known Shanghai-based indie rock band Banana Monkey. See below for a short video catching Zhang Feng play a few crowd-pleasers, namely (and in order) Qi Qin’s The World Outside, Wang Fei’s One Little Wish, Luo Dayou’s Childhood, Qi Qin’s Sometime Around Winter, and Eric Clapton’s Wonderful Tonight.

If the VIMEO video loads slowly, try viewing it on Tudou. For more from Banana Monkey on NeochaEDGE, link here. For more from Zhang Feng on NeochaEDGE, link here.  // AjS

This post was originally published on NeochaEDGE, a site I regularly contribute to. To see more of my posts on NeochaEDGE, link here.

NeochaEDGE is a daily-curated, bilingual website and discovery engine dedicated to showcasing leading-edge creative content and emerging youth culture in China.

:: see below for an intensely imaginative and creative 3D animation film titled Water Brain. The short was produced by a team of students at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts (GAFA) that collectively form Ani7ime Animation Studio. Water Brain accurately and tragically depicts the incredible performance pressure Chinese school children face throughout adolescence from parents / teachers.

In the world of Water Brain, school-children’s brains are water. When overstressed, their brains boil and give off steam that serves as food for the schoolbag-shaped monsters (parents / teachers) “enslaving” them in energy factories (classrooms / bedrooms). I don’t want to spoil any of the details – just watch it. I’m certain you’ll love it.

Water Brain was recently awarded the Best Graduation Film Award at GAFA and will be presented at SIGGRAPH 2009, an international animation and computer generated graphics exhibition.

If the below Vimeo video loads slowly in China, Water Brain is also available on Tudou and Youku. To download Water Brain, right-click here and select “save as.” We’ll be keeping an eye on Ani7ime Animation Studio, so watch this space.

For more from Ani7ime Animation Studio on NeochaEDGE, link here. // AjS

This post was originally published on NeochaEDGE, a site I regularly contribute to. To see more of my posts on NeochaEDGE, link here.

NeochaEDGE is a daily-curated, bilingual website and discovery engine dedicated to showcasing leading-edge creative content and emerging youth culture in China.

:: this guy gets an A+ for effort as he reports on the recent typhoon in China. At about the 20 second mark he starts screaming about the how bad the raindrops hurt as they “smash” into his head and how he can’t even open his eyes. Amazing, and, despite the terrible destruction and loss of life, kinda humorous. Bravo, well done.  // AjS

:: Coca Cola created this short advert (if you can call it that) as part of it’s ongoing Open Happiness campaign, showing how Coca Cola can connect people and bring happiness. W+K Amsterdam is behind it. H/T Jenn.

It’s superb.

Notice that while there is no Coca Cola logo / branding in the content itself (only in the closing title card), you know it’s Coca Cola right away (the shape of the bottle and glass, the color of the bottle cap, etc.). Beyond the branding though, the content delivers on the most important thing of all – is just plain compelling and entertaining. Bravo, well done.  // AjS

:: a Chinese netizen spoof of a KFC commercial. Chinese speakers, listen closely. Very funny.  // AjS

:: see below for a fun stop-motion film titled Webcam (摄像头). The short was made by Neocha.com-user Lvmu, a third year student at the China Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, and it tells the story of an adventurous webcam trying to break free from the laptop its tethered to. Forty-five seconds of enjoyment – I promise.  // AjS

[full disclosure: fifty 5 is a partner at Neocha.com]

:: this is just so amazingly good. See below for a short film titled Deadline. Deadline was directed / edited by Bang-yao Liu, a Taiwanese student at Savannah College of Art and Design, and shot by Jay Tseng. The film was Liu’s senior project, and it creatively tells the story of everyone’s fight against deadlines and keeping up with post-it / to-do notes. The interaction between the actor and the pixel-like post-it notes is flawless. Production on the film took three months of planning, four days of shooting, and over 6000 post-it notes. This video was originally posted on YouTube just a week and a half ago and now has nearly one million views. The “making-of” video is equally as interesting. Bravo, well done. // AjS

:: a short video showcasing the versatility of a slinky-like cardboard couch. Bravo, well done. // AjS

:: a video of a Chinese kid recreating the original Super Mario Brothers theme song with a remote control car toy and wine bottles. Bravo, well done.  // AjS