Archive for October, 2009

edelman digital x brandtology, asia pacific digital brand index ::

Monday, October 26th, 2009

edelDigi x brandtology:: 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:

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.]

snaps | haibao’s gender finally revealed ::

Friday, October 23rd, 2009

:: taken in Shanghai on Huaihai Rd.  // AjS

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film | a nice set in shanghai exhibition opening night video ::

Saturday, October 17th, 2009

Picture 1:: in case you weren’t able to come by A Nice Set | Shanghai, the exhibition of international and Chinese designer slipmats, we’ve produced a short video of the opening night that you can check out below. If this video is loading slowly for you, try viewing it on Tudou or .

Special thanks again to our co-curators in making the event happen: Jellymon and We Are Plus; along with our sponsors and partners: Aerial7, Vedett, SOURCE, Supermarkart, IdN, AWE5OME, and Neocha. And a special shout-out to , who provided the beats and scratches at the party as well as the soundtrack for the video.

For more A Nice Set | Shanghai-related content 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.

film | videogioco ::

Sunday, October 11th, 2009

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

“shift happens,” did you know 4.0 ::

Saturday, October 10th, 2009

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

clay shirky kills it, enough said ::

Saturday, October 10th, 2009

:: 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

snaps | birthday dj ::

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

:: taken at Archie’s birthday party; the DJ booth. Happy birthday Archie! // AjS

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snaps | my new mug ::

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

:: taken on my kitchen counter in Shanghai; my new all-occasion mug.  // AjS

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