“Clients just don’t get digital” is an oft heard statement made by many from advertising agencies (traditional and new), media agencies (again, traditional and new), digital design houses, digital advertising technology providers, digital media outlets.

It’s a statement that’s been muttered since almost 10 years ago when I first started dabbling in digital businesses, digital marketing and technologies. Everyone seems to have an opinion about that, so what’s the real answer? More importantly, what’s the cause of it?

Here’s my take: I think it’s too sweeping to say all clients, marketers and communications professionals, don’t ‘get’ or see the true value of digital businesses, technologies and operations. BUT I do agree there’s a sizable amount of those here in Asia which isn’t surprising considering the IT and the Internet is still in the early adopter stage in many developing economies.

Where does the fault lie? Quite honestly, it’s often lies with personnel from the abovementioned firms. Agencies, design houses, technology providers, publishers and such all have some issues juggling their business interests and being truly client-centric. Here’s what I mean:

1. Conflicting business interests.

If you run a company that makes money from producing advertising materials or assets, technology tools and applications, what would you say if I told you market share & revenue for a particular client but it wouldn’t involve any production though? Similarly, if you provided digital advertising technologies, advertising spaces/mediums or specialize in planning where clients should advertise, how would you react if I told you a strategy had been put together to address certain point-of-sale or customer service or product positioning problems that would boost revenues or increase customer spend, but it wouldn’t involve licensing any technologies or buying any advertising?

2. Lack of deep knowledge.

Many staff (esp. those in sales) in digital media companies, digital specialists within advertising and media agencies and even digital specialist companies often have crossed over from traditional communication background i.e. television and radio airtime, magazine and newspaper ad slots etc. These include many members of digital teams even in top advertising and media agencies. Many of the strategic planners, account directors, managers aren’t well versed in the various digital media and platforms, not to mention online businesses and their various models, revenue streams etc. Clients often rely on these guys but naturally that poses a problem since the specialists are still trying to come to terms with the digtal mix (also, agencies aren’t exactly environments where you’ve got lots of time for training and orientation if you crossover to digital) as well. Not to mention digital media or solutions sales staff focus on hitting their targets and add to the confusion as some clients get swayed into buying into these yet not seeing much results or good.

3. Prospect of losing authority.

There are some whom are of the opinion that educating, knowledge sharing and being transparent with their clients as a scary prospect simply ‘cos it might mean the client not needing them or relying on them as much. Basically they’re afraid they won’t be looked at as the ‘guru’. This often results in sharing knowledge or presenting data, statistics, research to prove their own theories, proposals and strategies. What could be done perhaps could be higher visibility and clarity on the situations, industries, tools etc. involved and researched before coming to the strategies or proposals.

OK, before I start getting death threats from everyone in the agency and consultancy world, clients aren’t completely innocent in all this. If you’re buying a can of soup in the supermarket, every can on the shelf claims to be the best, but it’s up to you to know what to believe isn’t it? Say what you want, many clients just haven’t taken the time to be trained nor bothered to spend the time to get familiar with the digital mix. Ask any recruitment company and they’ll tell you digital jobs are still the hardest positions to fill. Why? Most marketing communications professionals have cut their teeth in splashy ads in magazines rather than flashy rollover banners online. Witty 1 line copy taglines that float across a television as opposed to 25 characters in a Google text ad title, 500 – 800 word advertorials in a daily than 140char tweets… well you get the picture.

So agencies, design firms, consultancies, providers etc. have a part to play, but clients can do quite a fair bit as well.  Help Us… Help You. ;)

Yup, 2 positions to fill! So for all the digital business rockstars, we’d love to hear from you. Here’s the details:

The Positions:
1 x Consultant
1 x Associate Consultant

The Job:
You love the Internet.
You believe it’s a platform that has the ability to change the landscape of businesses and companies.
You aren’t one to get caught up in every single new fangled digital technology that comes along though.
You know every business needs to align their objectives with the right digital technologies and plan strategies around each to hit these objectives.

If that describes you, you’re the person we’re looking for.

As an Associate Consultant/Consultant, you’ll work with & manage the work of clients from a diverse variety of sectors & industries. You’ll LEAD and manage the clients’ digital businesses or marketing operations (so you tell the client what’s right and not bow to their every request. We don’t want silly “Yes” people)  in different areas such as:

- Digital Business Strategy
- Strategic Partnership Development
- Digital Marketing Strategy
- Digital Communications Programs/ Calendar Planning
- Social Media Marketing
- Search Engine Optimization & Marketing
- Relationship Marketing / eCRM
- Web Analytics & Optimization
- Digital Assets Development & Production
- Digital Media Planning & Buying

You won’t need to be trained in all these areas. But in order to be a rockstar at this job, you’ll need:

- A Diploma/Degree in Business, Marketing, Commerce or related majors
- To have worked for 1 to 2 years for the Associate Consultant position and 3 to 5 years for the Consultant position, in planning & managing an eCommerce, Digital or Online Businesses as well as Digital or Online Marketing initiatives
- Experience in a digital advertising or media agency would be a bonus, but not necessary
- Excellent interpersonal, presentation, confidence and relationship management skills
- Great project management skills, organized, timeline driven and meticulous
- A motivated, energetic, positive and refreshing attitude
- To travel for work from time to time
- Happy to work in a small tight knit team

Note: Fresh Graduates with related freelance or internship experience and boatloads of passion are welcome to apply!

If we’re fortunate enough to have you on our team, we’re happy to provide:

- Great benefits including medical, transport & pantry rights!
- On the job training & guidance to ensure you won’t be overwhelmed and ever have that sinking feeling.
- The freedom to highlight any issues you face & determine how you’d like to grow in the firm
- A competive basic monthly salary & in addition, performance bonuses either quarterly/ bi-annually/ annually!

This position is open to Singaporeans or foreigners already working in Singapore. Please send your CV, including a photo, current & expected salary to hr@sowingseeds.com.sg

Yup, we’ve finally done it. Moved out from our old premises and we’re now located at UE Square. It’s a nice building in a great quiet location with lots of restaurants, cafes, coffee shops, downstairs and all around at Mohammad Sultan Road as well as Clarke Quay.

Do note our new mailing address is now 81 Clemenceau Avenue, #04-15/16 UE Square, Singapore 239917

Yup, our office is closed till the New Year. It’s been an awesome year but we need to catch up on some sleep and party into 2010 of course. Our doors open 4th Jan. We’ll see you in 2010, have a great one.

Quick day trip for a couple of meetings. It’s turning out to be hectic end of year!

It’s that most wonderful time & our favourite time of the year. Just a simple message for all whom have given us amazing support and belief as well as the many great individuals and companies we’ve met this year:

We hope all of you have a fantastic & Merry Christmas. One filled with warmth, love and of course, lots of joy (the picture we’ve chosen describes the feeling we think everyone should have). May the amazing spirit of Christmas sweep you up over the weekend and into the New Year as well.

Have a blessed one all.

Love, The Sowing Seeds Team.

Been awhile since a trip up was made, gotta touch base with clients and potentials alike. Not a fan of the commute from the airport to the city though.

I always find it interesting when I hear someone remark ‘How can we engage customers in online conversations?’ or ‘What can we do to engage our customers in conversations that take place in social media?’

If we really have a think about it, engaging in conversations with customers in social media and online isn’t so difficult. As always, it’s same principles, different mediums. At the end of the day, customers, like you and I, enjoy a good conversation. SO if you wanna engage online, then do the same things you would in real life.

Be entertaining, have interesting topics and/or content, take time to listen to others’ opinions, give recommendations but not sell anything (have you met insurance sales people at a party?) too hard and well…you get the idea.

Just think about the first time you spoke to your first boyfriend and girlfriend on the phone for example. Did you make bullet points of what to say? Did you prepare anything interesting topics? Did you practice how’d you sound first?

Simple principles that have withstood the test of time. Just a new medium to do it on.

Singapore recently hosted the 2nd ever Formula 1 Night Race. It was a great weekend, lots of action, glitzy and definitely brought the city together as it did last year.

If there’s 1 thing we’ve noticed at large scale events such as these though, it’s easy for audiences to feel well…bored and listless when nothing much’s happening or lost in a big arena (though it could just be us ‘cos we’ve got A.D.D) even amongst groups of friends.

Clever uses of digital technologies could help with such a problem, whilst at the same time create revenue streams for the organizers.

We did see the Official Formula 1 App for the iPhone http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2009/6/9499.html but what about non-iPhone users though?

Here’s some digital technologies we would’ve loved to see at the Singapore Formula 1 Night Race:

1. Interactive kiosks around the track – these would also serve as transmitters. Users would be able to pull down via Bluetooth or be sent a SMS with information on where to retrieve the content. They’d contain content such as:

a. video highlights of each team from the season so far
b. maybe even highlights from practice and qualifying sessions on race day itself
c. up-to-date information of the ranking tables
d. information about the F1 points system
e. interviews with drivers
f. map of the entire arena which could leverage a phone’s GPS if available
g. celebrity spottings
h. merchandise available
i. surrounding F1 related events and parties available to them, that they could even be entitled discounted prices or privileges at

2. Digital displays showing teams and wishes from the crowds. A crowd member could text in wishes to the teams or ’shoutouts’. Or games that could have contestants send in replies to trivia for example and receive merchandise prizes etc.

3. Live feeds of the F1 race on the Singapore GP website that users outside of the race could follow

There are many other ideas, which I’m sure those of you reading would be able to come up with as well but these could’ve not just taken up the crowd participation and increased the reach of the race up a notch but could’ve even brought in some nice extra revenue for the organizers.

Of course with F1 though, rights and permissions are the issue so that makes it really tough for any of these to be implemented but worth a consideration nonetheless in our opinion.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-19882_3-10352848-250.html

AOL in itself is a great service/digital product.

But in this day and age of competition, it acknowledges it’s got a service which can add value but with little differentiation from others whom have overtaken it.

What it can do is let their service interoperate and be pluggable in nature to allow feeds from various other popular platforms so still staying relevant and adding value to its current customer base (so they don’t lose ‘em).

Ciara has a song (with Missy Elliot I do believe) called 1, 2 step and really if you think about many things when it comes to product marketing and business development, there’s always a 2 step process:

1. Build & offer a relevant digital product/service ur customers need or that adds value to ‘em.
2. Make it easy to access.

Sounds easy enough, but many marketers do get step 1 wrong. Of course some do get it right with good research, proper data gathering etc (note: proper customer research and not fuelled by media stories of overenthusiastic so-called ‘digital gurus’. secondary research can go so wrong).

But Step 2 is key to driving usage and encouraging easy sharing of the product/service btw peers. This is where having a value and adding it to customers’ lives really makes a difference.

If you’re a telco for example, offering a mobile phone and plan profiler on your website that helps people cut through the clutter, pick out a good phone bundle & phone plan + data plan without losing them in jargon would be awesome wouldn’t it. Both for retail and eCommerce.

So they could aim to build NASA-level digital product/service that’s 99% accurate in gathering customers’ profiles, information, historical usage trends, social media info (how many friends I’ve got, how often I tweet?) etc. and churning out exactly what they need for their phone/plan/data combi. That would add value, no? Increase sales conversions and value of retail and etail customers. (bonus: maybe you’d even get less complaints about your retail service staff)

Step 1 done. For step 2, restricting the service to your website would be silly. Many telcos do this well though, they extend that service to digital kiosks in their retail stores, brilliant move.

What else could they do:

1. Social media apps that can function the same way. But build campaigns around it to drive initial pickup (e.g. guess your friend’s dream phone/plan combi and both of you win it etc.)

2. Use digital kiosks and other interactive outdoor media to allow target customers in high-traffic places do the same. For example, if there’s a billboard at the train station, let users use SMS codes whilst waiting for the train to interact with the app and the billboard displays their combi to them at the end plus they get a short SMS code to redeem at the retail store to get some savings on their combi if they’re interested.

3. iPhone, Blackberry, Android, Windows Mobile apps, desktop apps etc that do the same.

4. Make it part of their TV commercial by putting a short SMS code which users get sent back info on how to build their own profile and combi via SMS once they send in their details to the initial code.

The ideas are abundant. Why do it? ‘Cos users opt to let you be part of their lives. But you’ve got to be there with an easy to open door, when they’re finally convinced and want to walk through one to meet you(or your service).

So don’t neglect the 1, 2 step. Boxers love using 1, 2-combis to knock out opponents, no reason why businesses shouldn’t have a killer combi of their own.