Retail News CRM

Tag: Marketing

  • How brands use short videos for marketing in China

    How brands use short videos for marketing in China

    As the luxury industry discusses Snapchat’s marketing possibilities and, more recently, Instagram’s latest filter feature, brands looking toward the China market are facing a completely different short video industry. It’s one that has witnessed rapid development thanks to the popularity of smartphones and upgraded communication networks in China.

    In March this year, Kuaishou, a popular short video app, was on the receiving end of a US$350 million investment from Tencent, and Alibaba put RMB 2 billion toward the transformation of Tudou from a large, formerly popular online video platform to a short video community. Also, Yixia Technology, owner of Miaopai and Xiaokaxiu, both popular short video apps in China, has already spent RMB 2 billion to encourage short video content creators and producers by building several video creation bases and providing professional studios.

    Short videos are perfect for young, tech savvy consumers who take their phone with them everywhere and use it to access social media or to fill in short breaks in the day between other activities.

    But which short video apps are the most popular in China? Who are the viewers of these short videos? How can brands market to them? What should brands take into consideration when launching short video campaigns?

    China’s short video apps

    Similar to short video platforms like Viddy and Instagram, there are numerous short video platforms and apps in China where users can record real-time short videos and share them with friends. As for users, there were 153 million regularly watching China’s short videos in 2016. This is estimated to reach 242 million by 2017, an increase of 58.2 percent.

    CIWEEK, an internet content magazine, released a list of their top 10 short video apps in China in the first half year in 2016 and Kuaishou, Miaopai, and Meipai were the most popular.

    Of these, there are actually two types of short video platform in China:

    1. Comprehensive platforms: professional short video platforms

    These platforms, such as Meipai, Miaopai, and Xiaokaxiu, provide a one-stop user experience. Users can use various shooting tools, effect settings, and formats while filming or editing a video. They also offer a community for users to share their videos with friends. Short videos uploaded on those platforms can also be shared with WeChat friends, WeChat Moments, and Weibo.

    2. Content recommendation: news apps

    These platforms, such as Toutiao, NetEase, Tencent News, and Yidian Zixun, focus on suggesting popular or professional short videos. These platforms were originally news-based and mass communication oriented. They have millions of viewers and short videos recommended on these platforms can get huge amounts of traffic.

    Who are the viewers?
    The main users of China’s short video apps are young. Most of them belong to the post-90s generation. According to a report published in March 2017 by JIGUANG, a big data provider, users ages 16 to 25 make up 39.7 percent of the total, while users aged 26-35 are at 33.3 percent. Meanwhile, over half of the users are female, making them 69.4 percent of the total number of users.

    In terms of regions, 66.9 percent of the total come from third-tier and below third-tier cities in China. The top 3 provinces for viewer numbers are Guangdong, Henan, and Shandong.

    How are brands using short video?
    Short video is becoming a new favorite marketing tool for brands for several reasons. Short videos can be used for various types of promotional materials, such as product reviews, product seeding, promoting brand culture and more. With interesting and meaningful content, short videos can deliver specific brand messages to a target audience while avoiding the annoyance that longer videos may cause. The production cycle of short videos is quick with great flexibility, which works well with brands’ marketing plans and budgets. Through audience interactions with short videos, brands can better understand their preferences, rapidly improve their user experience, and come up with effective marketing plans quickly. Integrated campaigns launched on short video platforms can be creative and diverse.

    Lees ook:

  • What retailers need to know about Artificial Intelligence marketing

    What retailers need to know about Artificial Intelligence marketing

    An influx of new technology and its impact on the retail sector in recent years has given rise to the use of artificial intelligence, bridging the gap between accruing big data and interpreting it for use as a marketing tool.

    According to research firm Emarsys, AI marketing will dominate the industry by mid-2017, meaning digital marketers should be using AI to build a clearer picture of their target audience, boost a campaign’s performance and ROI. And done correctly, it’s all without any extra effort. But, many brands don’t understand what AI is and how they can tap into it.

    What is AI?

    AI uses big data, or the aggregation of large data sets, which are then analysed via machine learning platforms to help identify consumer trends.

    These platforms identify insightful concepts and themes across huge data sets, via algorithms, and fast.  Essentially, the results are an interpretation of emotion and communication, “making these platforms able to understand open form content like social media, natural language, and email responses,” explains Lisa Manthei, marketing communications manager, Emarsys, in a blog post.

    This ensures “the right message is being delivered to the right person at the right time, via the channel of choice,” adds Manthei.

    What does AI look in marketing?

    A major function of AI is using data to break down and understand consumer search engine patterns and algorithms to help marketers identify key focus areas.

    As is, delivering smarter ad content to a brand’s target audience. With more data available, online ads can play off a “shopper’s key word searches, social profiles and other online data for a human-level outcome.”

    Thirdly, a target market –even with common interests and attributes – can be separated, and further targeted, at an individual consumer level. The data can be used to target existing and potential clients, delivering content that is customised to each person.

    Finally, AI plays a role in customer service and retention. Direct-to-consumer engagement channels, namely chat functions, can be run by Bots. Bot-run chat is more efficient and effective as the Bot has access internet data and learning algorithms, something that a human can physically tap in to so easily. With this, AI Bots save on a brand’s human resource power too, so it’s a win-win for brands.

    Lees ook:

  • Pizza Hut CMO Pankaj Batra moves on to new role after 11 years in Asia

    Pizza Hut CMO Pankaj Batra moves on to new role after 11 years in Asia

    Pankaj Batra, chief marketing officer at Pizza Hut Asia Pacific, has taken on a new role as chief brand officer at Pizza Hut, Middle East, Turkey and Africa (META). This was confirmed by him to Marketing.

    According to his LinkedIn, he will be responsible for sales and brand metrics, digital marketing and food innovation for the region. Prior to the appointment he held the CMO role since 2014, where he was responsible for brand equity and sales growth of Pizza Hut across over 2,600 restaurants in 13 countries.

    He was also responsible for marketing and sales for Home Service and Express channels. He also partnered with seasoned franchisees and a team of over 50 marketing professionals to develop regional and local programs to achieve targets and grow market share.

    Before that he was director of marketing and PR in Asia, where he handled brand marketing and sales leader for Pizza Hut Delivery across nine countries in Asia, including Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam & Brunei.

    Last year, Pizza Hut Singapore appointed See Seow Ying as senior marketing director, who was previously head of marketing at Burger King Singapore since 2013. She replaced Michelle Lee, who moved on to take on the role as head of marketing for SEA and Korea at Subway Systems Singapore.

    During her tenure, Lee was responsible for overall brand direction, brand sales, P&L and marketing strategies. She also drove product and service innovations along with menu development with food innovation, operations and supply chains.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • Burger King hands Lowe Lintas creative brief for the Whopper

    Burger King hands Lowe Lintas creative brief for the Whopper

    International fast food franchise Burger King has appointed Lowe Lintas Mumbai to launch a new campaign for its iconic sandwich ‘the Whopper’.

    The campaign brief is be mainly targeted at India’s millennial generation and will focus on strengthening brand awareness within this demographic.

    Describing Lowe Lintas’ team as a “talented bunch”, Burger King India’s chief marketing officer Kapil Grover said: “Creative agencies are like an extended marketing team. It’s important to have partners who understand the brand and share the same passion.”

    Lowe Lintas’ leadership recently underwent a reshuffle with the appointment of Arun Iyer to the dual role of agency chairman and chief creative officer.

    President and Mumbai office head Raj Gupta was also named chief executive officer.

    Lees ook:

  • UnionPay International’s Cross-Border Marketing Platform

    UnionPay International’s Cross-Border Marketing Platform

    With the May Day holiday approaching, tourism in Asia is set to experience another peak. In anticipation of the increased tourist arrivals around the world, UnionPay International announced the expansion of its cross-border marketing platform, U Plan, to 1,600 stores in nine countries and regions around the world.

    With U Plan, UnionPay Cardholders around the world can enjoy more savings when shopping with UnionPay Cards locally and overseas. To take advantage of the U Plan benefits, Cardholders can simply download the UnionPay International mobile app on iOS and Android phones prior to their travels. Through the app, Cardholders can access all the latest merchant discounts and promotions available at their travel destinations, and download exclusive U Plan discount coupons to be presented at the participating merchant’s point-of-sales counters together with their UnionPay Card (card number starting with 62), to enjoy additional savings on their travels.

    Since the launch of U Plan in July last year, the cross-border marketing platform has expanded to 300 stores in Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore and Thailand in November 2016. With this latest expansion, the platform now covers 1,600 stores across the globe, as well as merchants in countries including Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the USA.

    Some of the new merchants that have come on board U Plan include:

    Country/Region Merchant U Plan Benefits
    Thailand ShowDC Enjoy 5% and an additional THB100 off when you spend a minimum of THB1,000 with UnionPay Cards upon presentation of U Plan coupon

     
    Emporium, EmQuartier, Paragon Department Stores Enjoy 10% off with UnionPay Cards upon presentation of U Plan coupon
    Korea Doota Mall Enjoy KRW30,000 off when you spend a minimum of KRW150,000 with UnionPay Cards upon presentation of U Plan coupon

     
    Doota Duty Free Enjoy KRW20,000 off when you spend a minimum of KRW200,000 with UnionPay Cards upon presentation of U Plan coupon

     
    Japan Mitsui Outlet Park, Mitsui Shopping Park LaLaport (Toyosu, EXPOCITY), DiverCity Tokyo Plaza, Coredo Muromachi

     

    		 Enjoy 10% off with UnionPay Cards upon presentation of U Plan coupon
    Matsumoto Kyoshi Enjoy 7% off when you spend a minimum of JPY30,000 with UnionPay Cards upon presentation of U Plan coupon

     
    USA Macy’s Enjoy 20% off with UnionPay Cards upon presentation of U Plan coupon

     
    Australia JR Duty Free Enjoy 10% off with UnionPay Cards upon presentation of U Plan coupon

     
    T Galleria Sydney Enjoy AUD25 off when you spend a minimum of AUD500 with UnionPay Cards upon presentation of U Plan Coupon

     
    New Zealand JR Duty Free Enjoy 10% off with UnionPay Cards upon presentation of U Plan coupon

     
    T Galleria Auckland Enjoy NZD25 off when you spend a minimum of NZD500 with UnionPay Cards upon presentation of U Plan Coupon

     

    U Plan is the world’s first open cross-border marketing platform launched by UnionPay for Cardholders. By bringing together service providers in the finance, tourism and retail industries, U Plan provides a one-stop marketing platform for UnionPay and its partners to market products and services to Cardholders across geographical borders. Through the use of mobile applications and location services,U Plan enables a high-level of precision for UnionPay and partners to reach out to potential travelers prior to their travels, to promote special privileges and discounts that UnionPay Cardholders can enjoy at their travel destinations.

    To date, U Plan has been well received by merchants and UnionPay Cardholders around the world. Moving forward, UnionPay International plans to expand the platform to more merchants in Europe and the USA, providing a wider range of gifts, discounts and VIP shopping booklets to enhance the overall experience for UnionPay Cardholders.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • Burger King announced as the Cannes Lions Creative Marketer of the Year 2017

    Burger King announced as the Cannes Lions Creative Marketer of the Year 2017

    The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has today announced Burger King as the Creative Marketer of the Year 2017. The award will honour Burger King for embracing and encouraging creativity across their brand communications and for the inspiring global marketing of their products.

    Burger King has a hugely successful track record at Cannes Lions. The company has totalled 76 awards, including two Grands Prix in 2016 for the ‘McWhopper’ campaign, in Print & Publishing and Media. Burger King also took home a Titanium Grand Prix in 2007 and achieved their first win in 1969, a Silver Lion for ‘Skinny Burger’. Since its launch in 1954, the company has expanded to become one of the largest quick-service restaurants in the world, welcoming more than 11 million people in over 100 countries daily.

    “Burger King is a brand that’s built a reputation for marketing campaigns that are bold, courageous and innovative, constantly challenging the limits of creative excellence,” said Philip Thomas, Chief Executive of Ascential Events. “Burger King believes that being a brand with purpose can achieve long-term advantages and deliver strong business results. That’s why the company is making such an impact.”

    Axel Schwan, Chief Marketing Officer of Burger King, and Fernando Machado, Head of Brand Marketing at Burger King, will collect the award during the 64th Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, taking place from 17-24 June 2017.

    Axel Schwan commented, “Creativity is a critical factor when it comes to helping us stand out from the pack and punch higher than our weight. This principle is applied to everything we do, from the way we differentiate ourselves by flame-grilling our burgers to the ground-breaking advertising campaigns we create.”

    Fernando Machado added, “This award is a tribute to the consistently strong creative work done by the Burger King brand over time.”

    Cannes Lions celebrates the ‘Best of Burger King’ on Stories, the new editorial arm of the Festival. From classic campaigns that kick-started digital marketing to modern masterpieces of integration, find out more about some of Burger King’s most famous ads here: https://www.canneslions.com/stories

    Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity

    Cannes Lions runs for eight days from 17-24 June, in Cannes, France. The main Festival venue is the world famous Palais des Festivals. A ‘Complete’ pass includes entry to all official Festival talks, Awards shows, networking and evening events across the eight days. Passes giving access only to the specialist events – Lions Health, Lions Innovation and Lions Entertainment – which take place right next door to the main Festival venue, are also available.

    Lions Health 17-18 June

    Lions Innovation 19-20 June

    Lions Entertainment 21-22 June

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • Many businesses stop advertising on YouTube

    Many businesses stop advertising on YouTube

    Some major brands in Việt Nam had to stop advertising on the world’s largest online video site, YouTube, when these brands’ advertisements were linked to clips containing poor content.

    According to information from the Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information under the Ministry of Information and Communications, the authority received official dispatches from Vietnam Airlines, Mead Johnson Nutrition Việt Nam and Vinamilk explaining an incident in which their brands appeared in clips with pornographic, slanderous or anti-government content on YouTube.

    At the same time, businesses have also confirmed that they stopped advertising on the online video site.

    A Vinamilk’s representative told media that the company signed a co-operation contract with WPP Media Company Limited (Mediacom) to promote the brand to consumers through mass media.

    According to a commitment between the two parties, Mediacom has to conduct communication services in compliance with Vietnamese laws, as well as take responsibility in monitoring and reporting for Vinamilk, if there are problems affecting its images and reputation.

    After receiving the dispatch from the Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information regarding the incident, Vinamilk asked Mediacom to coordinate with YouTube to remove advertisements on clips with unwanted content, at the same time, suspending all advertisement plans on YouTube until the media partner and the site send reports to Vinamilk to find solutions for the problem.

    Earlier, the Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information sent dispatches to several large enterprises in Việt Nam asking for reports about these brands or their products appearing in clips with improper contents posted on YouTube.

    The authority found 17 clips with advertising inserted into videos on YouTube that had contents violating the country’s law.

    Additionally, the Ministry of Information and Communications has coordinated with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to decide upon a fine for YouTube for not obeying the regulations on advertising for cross-border advertising activities on websites in Việt Nam.

    The ministry also invited YouTube and Google representatives to cooperate in resolving these violations.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • Online marketing essential for enterprises in digital era

    Online marketing essential for enterprises in digital era

    Despite a large number of Internet users, investment for online advertisement in Việt Nam remains modest, a conference heard on Thursday.

    The Institute for Brand and Competitiveness strategy co-ordinated with the Việt Nam Internet Association and Việt Nam Digital Communication Association to organise a conference on building enterprise branding in the digital era in Hà Nội.

    Over the past decade, the Internet boom has had a significant impact on marketing activities, as well as the building and positioning of brands in the market.

    Internet has also created stronger brand awareness than ever before and increased the number of people who know brands. According to the Institute for Brand and Competitiveness strategy, Việt Nam ranks 16th among the top 20 countries with the highest number of Internet users, with nearly 50 million people, of which, 60 per cent are young.

    The Internet has become a popular source of advertising to users who want to search for product information. Seventy-three per cent of Vietnamese consumers seek out information on the Internet before making purchase decisions.

    Most consumers in Việt Nam choose products and services based on brand identities.

    Therefore, experts advised businesses to make changes to their business operations, adjusting brand identity to avoid falling behind compared to rivals.

    To build brands in the digital era, businesses need to increase interaction in different environments, including the online environment, said Nguyễn Quốc Thịnh, an advisor for the National Trademark Programme.

    “Businesses should not skip electronic branding, a strong interactive environment with low associated costs,” said Thịnh.

    Enterprises need to rethink the way they build their brands, not just their logos or advertising in the media, he said.

    Currently, the application of the Internet in general, and digital technology in particular, to create and develop brands is still limited.

    Data from Cimigo, a market research firm, showed that investment for online advertising in Việt Nam was only US$15 million in the past year.

    Meanwhile, according to statistics from TNS Media Vietnam, the cost of online advertising accounts for less than 5 per cent of the total advertising costs, while 95 per cent of advertising spending is still through television, newspapers, magazines, even though these forms are more expensive.

    Vũ Xuân Trường from the Institute for Brand and Competitiveness strategy said that many businesses were paying attention to profits and business strategy, while their strategies for branding remained “vague”.

    Therefore, businesses need a better strategy in branding in the digital era. In particular, businesses should focus on social networks due to their widespread use.

    Experts said that businesses need to take advantage of opportunities afforded by the Internet to build their brands. Enterprises also need to increase connections with consumers, while ensuring the quality of goods and services.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • Sunway Malls wins Gold Awards for Best Experiential Marketing Awards Malaysia

    Sunway Malls wins Gold Awards for Best Experiential Marketing Awards Malaysia

    Sunway Malls picked up two Gold Awards in front of 700 malls professionals, retailers and affiliated industries players at the inaugural Malaysia Shopping Malls Association’s (PPK) Best Experiential Marketing Awards 2016.

    Sunway Malls emerged as winners in two out of the three categories that saw 37 entries from 21 malls. The group beat competition from Mid Valley Megamall, Pavilion KL, Gurney Plaza and Gurney Paragon to clinch top spots.

    Sunway Pyramid picked up gold in Category C (malls above 1 million sq ft nett lettable area) for its marketing campaign “Captain America: Civil War” while Sunway Putra Mall’s “Kung Fu Panda Pawsome March” top Category B (malls with 500,001 to 999,999 sq ft nett lettable area).

    Both malls had teamed up with Disney’s Marvel and 20th Century Fox respectively to create various themed attractions that included out-of-mall activation, character appearances, life-size characters display, movie set inspired decorations and interactive sessions in their experiential marketing campaigns.

    “As malls become increasingly a focal place for the public, it’s imperative that they resonate and connect with shoppers at emotive and experiential levels,” said H.C Chan, CEO of Sunway Malls and Theme Parks.

    Malaysia mall industry is already facing intense competition as additional 27.28 mil sq ft retail space is being built to the existing 148.85 mil sq ft, bringing up the total retail space of 178.13 mil sq ft. in the country, according to National Property Information Center (NAPIC) data. This has resulted malls to adopt experiential marketing to stay competitive.

    For Sunway Pyramid, the campaign saw a 9.7% increase in traffic with 1.2 million shoppers interaction over the 24-day campaign period. Social engagement metrics scored 27.6 million reach with RM250,000 worth of publicity generated.

    Sunway Putra Mall’s footfall reached 800,000 during the campaign with RM200,000 worth of publicity generated while social media reach stood at 2 million.

    COO Kevin Tan said the Gold awards are a testament of the team’s hard work in the last few years. “The awards give us confidence that we are on the right path and doing the right things and we will forge forward with more confidence,” he added.

    The panel of judges included professionals from Branding Association from Malaysia, Tourism Malaysia, Focus Malaysia, Malaysia Institute of Architects and Lion & Lion.

    Judge Meredith Wallace, the Social Media Head of Lion & Lion commented “The entries were creative, inspired and showed a true understanding of today’s modern shoppers.”

    Malaysian malls over the years had gained recognition for their grand decorations and creative marketing campaigns that enhance shoppers’ shopping experience. PPK Malaysia’s inaugural AWARDS 2016 for BEST EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING were to honour these efforts for the best marketing programmes held in the past year.

    Qualified entries based on the malls’ marketing programmes held from 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2016 comprising experiential festival celebrations, themed events, sales promotions, public relations, advertising, new and social media, community etc. Judging were based on objectives and strategies, creativity, action plan, results, budget and cost effectiveness.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • New Zealand’s Spark warned off marketing Gigabit plans

    New Zealand’s Spark warned off marketing Gigabit plans

    New Zealand operator Spark has been cautioned against advertising its high-speed fiber services as “gigabit” plans by competition regulator the Commerce Commission.

    The ISP launched its fastest fiber service yesterday, labeling it “Ultra Fast Fibre MAX” instead of the planned Gigabit name.

    The Commerce Commission held that advertising the service as a Gigabit speed would mislead consumers into expecting speeds of 1,000Mbps, whereas the Spark service will deliver speeds of between 700Mbps and 900Mbps.

    As well as Spark, the Commission also plans to get into contact with other ISPs making similar claims, noting that it has received enough consumer complaints to deem the action necessary.

    The Commission hasn’t made a formal ruling, but said Spark had recognized the concerns the regulator had raised and decided to take action accordingly.

    But the Telecommunications Users Association has criticized the decision as being “pedantic”, noting that other markets advertise similar-speed plans as Gigabit services, and that technical constraints will mean services always fall below their full potential speeds.

  • Mobile marketing cuts printing cost for Pizza Hut

    Mobile marketing cuts printing cost for Pizza Hut

    With over 70 restaurants in the city, half of Pizza Hut’s business in Hong Kong is dine-in. This gives the diner a great incentive, but at the same time, huge pressure to improve its customer experience.

    In 2014, Pizza Hut started its mobile marketing campaign project. The primary objective was to better serve its customers. Additionally, it wanted to cut out a huge portion of its printing costs on direct marketing materials.

    Pizza Hut has been a customer of Salesforce. “When we started the mobile marketing campaign project in 2014, however, we didn’t know that Salesforce Marketing Cloud could help us to manage marketing campaigns,” said Ravel Lai, group IT director at Jardine Restaurant Group Hong Kong and Macau, in an interview with Computerworld Hong Kong. Jardine Restaurant Group operates Pizza Hut and the KFC restaurants throughout the city.

    Lai’s team studied different marketing solutions and decided to adopt Salesforce Marketing Cloud. “We considered other marketing tools such as those from Oracle and Adobe. We had even approached IBM, but they didn’t have a marketing solution,” he recalled.

    Evaluating a marketing solution was different from that of an IT solution. “This was not a traditional ERP solution, but something new to the IT team. We invited the marketing people and bosses at Pizza Hut and KFC to view the solution demo, and then we let everybody vote,” Lai said.

    Extra 7-10% revenue

    “We were not trying to solve a particular technology problem, but to improve on our marketing campaign management,” said Lai.

    In the past, Pizza Hut used to mail cash coupons to its customers. This involved different stages of production, which were all time-consuming, such as graphic design and printing, before it can finally distribute and mail out the coupons.

    With the new solution, conducting mobile marketing campaigns has become much easier. Now, Pizza Hut would only need to involve an in-house graphic designer to design the digital marketing material, which could be ready for distribution in just two hours.

    “Last year on one rainy morning, I asked my team to send a mobile message along with a coupon to our customers. After preparing the customer segmentation, we decided to send the message to 15,000 housewives and office workers at around 11:00 am to catch up with lunchtime at noon,” said Lai. “The results were good, as we generated an extra 7-10% in revenue for the day.”

    90% printing cost savings

    In the past, Pizza Hut used to distribute paper coupons to customers. The printing and mailing costs involved had been 10 times higher than if the marketing campaigns were conducted on Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

    “This is a very good tool for us to do the job. Instead of sending physical leaflets, we now use the mobile marketing platform, which incurs just 10% of the original printing cost,” said Lai.

    “Besides, the replacement of physical leaflets with mobile marketing messages makes Pizza Hut more environmentally friendly, too.”

    Express ticket

    According to Lai, many restaurant groups have developed their own mobile applications, but their primary function is largely limited to remote ticketing. “When everybody does the same thing, we ask ourselves, ‘How should we do it differently?’”

    To distinguish its restaurant mobile app from the competition, Lai borrowed the idea of “Fast Pass” from Disneyland theme park. A Disneyland Fast Pass allows a visitor to shorten his or her waiting time by getting a pass in advance for selected attractions, and return within specific timeframes.

    Using Pizza Hut HK’s mobile app, a user can obtain a queue number before they even reach the restaurant. This cut down the time and money required for us to issue queue numbers.

    By doing proper customer segmentation on Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Pizza Hut can send messages to customers whose last visit was over one month. The typical message would read: “Dear customer, you visited us one month ago and purchased a meal in our restaurant. We are so sorry that you had to wait for 15 mins. Here is an express ticket for you so you can jump queue upon your next visit. The express ticket is good for two weeks,” Lai suggested.

    Loyalty points reward system

    Pizza Hut HK’s mobile app also provides a points rewarding system. With every HK$5 of purchase at the restaurant, a customer gets one point. “With 50 points, our customers can redeem four pieces of chicken wings,” Lai said.

    Pizza Hut’s loyalty points are transferrable. “When you come to the restaurant with your friends, you and your friends can combine the points together to redeem the reward, for example, 50 points for a pizza,” said Lai.

    Social CRM

    With Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Pizza Hut’s mobile marketing campaign platform has enabled the restaurant group to tap on social CRM. “When I sold the idea of social CRM to the management, I emphasized not just on the benefits, but the improvement on the customer journey,” Lai said.

    Regarding Pizza Hut’s implementation of mobile marketing campaign project, Lai summed up, “If I do it now, I am the pioneer. If I do it later, I would just be a follower.”

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • McDonald’s social media blitz: 200 staff added to Tweet & Like

    McDonald’s social media blitz: 200 staff added to Tweet & Like

    Gearing up for a McDonald’s social media blitz, the fast food giant has recruited 200 staff from tech-savvy online companies.

    The new recruits have come from companies such as Amazon and PayPal and are stationed in the McDonald’s head office in Oakbrook Illinois, in Singapore and London.

    Their challenge is help the iconic burger brand catch up with rivals in using social media to monitor customer experiences, engage with customers and monitor what is trending online.

    Just two years ago, McDonald’s was not even following or responding to online comments on its brand or products – yet its name is mentioned every one to two seconds.

    “We seemed deaf and mute,” Paul Matson, director of social and digital engagement at McDonald’s US, said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.

    Matson believes the expanded team will help win business from social media-addicted millennials – some 78 per cent of whom visited a McDonald’s restaurant at least once a month during the first quarter of 2016.

    Besides improved monitoring and communication, the company is using social media to test market products and concepts – replacing more traditional focus group research. The spin-off from that is increased exposure of the concepts, wider engagement and a far great sample base than focus groups allow.

  • Wonderful Indonesia promoted in Qatar

    Wonderful Indonesia promoted in Qatar

    The Indonesian Embassy in Doha, Qatar, has promoted the countrys tourism brand “Wonderful Indonesia” by introducing its culinary richness to mark the 40th anniversary of the two countries diplomatic ties.

    The event to promote Indonesias traditional snacks featuring the culinary richness of different ethnic groups was attended by representatives of the diplomatic corps in Doha, the embassys spokesperson Boy Dharmawan informed ANTARA News here Friday.

    Several snacks served to the guests were Ketan Srikaya, sweet custard with sticky rice; gethuk cake, traditional snack made from cassava; onde-onde, glutinous rice flour balls; wajik sticky rice; jalangkote, fried pie filled with chicken; Lemper, steamed sticky rice cake with beef or chicken; and apem, rice flour cakes, he remarked.

    “The cakes served are delicious,” Thai Ambassadors wife Benj Chaiyindeepum said when asked to comment on the taste of the served snacks.

    Benj was one of the 16 spouses of ambassadors of different countries in Qatars capital city who attended the event, he added.

  • ‘Wonderful Indonesia’ campaign boosts tourism industry

    ‘Wonderful Indonesia’ campaign boosts tourism industry

    The government’s efforts to promote tourism in the archipelago with its Wonderful Indonesia campaign have had a positive impact, the president director of tour and travel company Panorama Sentrawisata said on Tuesday.

    Budi Tirtawisata said that in the first six months of this year, his company booked a 19 percent increase in gross revenue to Rp 2.38 trillion, from Rp 1.99 trillion in the same period last year, as more foreigners were drawn to Indonesia.

    “The government’s free visa policy is also contributing to growth in the tourism sector,” Budi told reporters at a press conference in Jakarta.

    Budi was upbeat the company’s business volume would increase, and possibly double, in the second half of 2016, compared to the first half, because more tourism activities were expected to take place in the period.

    “The peak season for tourist visits to Indonesia is during the summer, which occurs in the second half of the year,” Budi said, adding that more tourists would also visit the country during the Christmas holidays in December.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • Google rolls out Accelerated Mobile Pages for ads

    Google rolls out Accelerated Mobile Pages for ads

    Google first unveiled and rolled out its Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) project in October last year in a bid to allow content to load faster on mobile devices. Last week the company announced a solution designed to address the problem of slow loading ads.

    For the uninitiated, AMP is an open-source project that allows a mobile browser to load web pages much faster by simplifying the underlying HTML code for faster loading. In a way, the new AMP for ads (A4A) does the same by allowing marketers to create optimized ads that will load as fast as AMP-formatted content.

    “With AMP for Ads, we’re bringing everything that’s good and fast about AMP to ads. Unfortunately, most advertisers’ campaign creatives are not fully optimized for mobile experiences,” wrote Paul Muret, the vice president of Display, Video and Analytics at Google in a blog entry.

    “AMP for Ads allows advertisers to build beautifully-designed ads in AMP HTML so that the entire AMP experience, both the publisher’s content and the advertiser’s creative, load simultaneously at AMP-speed,” he wrote.

    The performance speedup is achieved by separating ad requests from ad rendering. This allows for faster ad rendering at no impact to the client CPU or memory cost. AMP pages will continue to support non-AMP ads at the moment.

    “From the client’s perspective making the request itself is super cheap, but its side effect (the rendering of the ad) is expensive,” explained Malte Ubl, who is the tech lead for the AMP project in a lengthy update. “By separating the two, A4A achieves much faster ad rendering at no additional CPU and memory cost.”

    Speeding up the loading time aside, A4A will take advantage of AMP’s features by minimizing resource impact. This is achieved by only animating display elements that are only visible on the screen, and throttling refresh rates in cases where the device is unable to achieve a specified target.

    There is no question that slow load times can drive users away, and is especially important for mobile devices. Like AMP, there is no reason that A4A will not meet with similar levels of success with marketers.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook: