Digital Media supports Web Wednesday

Now that we have reached critical mass with an active community of 470 Asian digerati and are attracting over 100 people to our regular monthly gatherings, the newly arrived editor of Digital Media, David Tiltman, has kindly agreed to promote Web Wednesday to his enewsletter subscribers of 16,000 marketeers and 4,000 digital media executives across Asia. The latest copy is available here.

On top of this, the publisher Haymarket, is offering our members 4 free issues of Media magazine if you subscribe to Digital Media. To redeem, mention "Web Wednesday" to Jessie Ho-Avery, Group Circulation & Subscription Manager for Haymarket Asia, by email or call (852) 2122 5233.

The banner that appears in the enewsletter was created by Beansbox. Where would we be without you? Thanks again, Belle and team.

Web Wednesday sports a new logo!

Given that it has taken us 10 months to get a logo, you can tell that Web Wednesday is run on a "when we have spare time" voluntary basis!

To be fair on ourselves, we wanted to focus our initial energies on building up a community and regular monthly event. Now that we've achieved over 460 members on our Facebook Group and regularly attract 100 plus attendees to our monthly social mixers, the time was ripe to go "official" (or should we say, "out of beta"?) and launch our first logo. We like it's freshness and the fact that (a) it's to the point and (b) reflects our simple goal of brining people together to talk and share ideas.

Besides, we had the fortune of getting to know Belle Liu, the founder of Beansbox, who's "passion for design" convinced us that her team was the one to make it happen. Thank you, Belle!

Beansbox has brought us a step further up the professional ladder by creating a crisp and unique newsletter template (see below) that we will use to communicate with our opt-in mailing list 350 or so members. We will post a copy of the latest enewsletter here for those of you who aren't lucky enough to be on our list (please contact me if you want to subscribe).


A special thanks to epsilon for providing their Dream Mail platform to manage our email communications. We are happy to be able to promote their support along with our other sponsors via the new email template as you can see below.

Podcast of Toys R Us Interview

Finally found some spare time to edit and post the interview with Argha Sen, our guest at the last social mixer (V9.0).



Even though Argha is somewhat of a digital migrant, in his role as Head of Marketing & CRM for Toys R Us Asia, he has to deal with the harsh realities of selling products via physical outlets. In the digital arena, he therefore focuses his marketing activities on enticing customers back to the shops using targeted email offerings, and enhancing their in-store experiences with interactive touch screens and dance pads. RFID tags, 2D bar codes and Blue Tooth are being tested, but it all comes down to "what the customer wants".

Overall, Argha admits that Toys R Us has "just about scratched the surface with internet marketing" but feels that they are "advanced compared to other Hong Kong retailers". His predictions for the future of selling toys are "interactive, educational, electronic (i.e. battery operated) and 'back to basics' (as shown by the resurgence of the Rubik's Cube and Monopoly Here and Now)".

You can listen to the full interview by clicking on the play button below:

powered by ODEO

NB: All our previous interviews are available on our audio channel, Palava Podcasts, on Odeo.

We had two good questions from the floor:

• Jeremy Woolf, Managing Partner of Text100, "Will Toys R Us engage consumers via virtual worlds like Disney's Club Penguin?"
• Kinzie, founder of HeartBeat and respond123, "Are you not concerned that push emails will encourage consumers to purchase their toys online via other websites, especially in large countries like China where distance matters?"

And we mustn't forget Jay Oatway's Lifestream posted from his HTC mobile phone live from the event. "Oh My God! They are Hugging Giraffes!"



On his blog, Psychobserver, Nicolas Lassus felt that Argha was very much in contrast to the typical web 2.0 start-up mentality in that "his approach was show me the money, show me the numbers that supports me getting into that Web stuff and then I will think about it. Obviously the audience at Web Wednesday was not expecting this...but reality checks are always good".

Do sign up here for the next event, social mixer v10.0, on 5th March.

For those of you reluctant to join Facebook (too shy to admit it still, Michael?), I've set up a group on Flickr for us to share photos of the event and anything we find interesting to the Web Wednesday community.

Vote for HK's best mobile film

In their innovative drive to promote the "Fourth Screen" as a valid platform for the creation and viewing of video content, the Hong Kong Wireless Technology Industry Association (WTIA) and the Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) have combined forces to launch Hong Kong's 1st Mobile Film Festival.

There are several categories of awards, including "Best Drama", "Best Animation" and "Best My Hong Kong", but only one has been opened to the public, "Nokia Most Popular Film Award".

You can view all 15 submissions and select your chosen winner here. You'll need to enter your name, email and mobile number plus the first 4 digits of your HKID card. Some truly original works from a city that continues to prove that it is more than just a financial centre.

The votes close on the 23rd February (only two days to go) and the award presentation ceremony will be held on 20th March 2008. No indication of the venue yet. (I wonder whether they'll livecast the awards using a mobile phone?)

Baidu Basics Webinar - March 10th (changed)

Following on from their recent expansion into Japan, the folks at Baidu have set up a new international office, headed up by Grace Zhou, to interface with foreign companies wanting to reach Chinese netizens. Although Google is making aggressive moves, Baidu still dominates search in China, claiming over 60% of searches in this rapidly expanding internet market of over 210 million curious and connected people.


The webinar - login details to be confirmed - will be a panel format with Grace Zhou from Baidu, Lonnie Hodge from Culture Fish Media, Sam Flemming of CIC Data and a representative of ChinaOnTV and moderated by Christine Lu of China Business Network at 11:30 - 12:30 (Beijing Standard Time) on Monday 10th March (note change from 6th March in poster above). There will also be a live Q&A session held via Twitter and Seesmic (again, no account details released yet).

You can sign up for the webinar via Facebook or Culture Fish Media's website. As of 19th Feb, 88 people had taken the brave step.

DotAsia launch party - a new domain land grab?

In the heady days of the 90's dotcom boom, there were launch parties in Hong Kong every week. Then it all went quiet...for far too long! Now it's starting to trickle back, and this time they mean real business, or at least charity!


The folks at the DotAsia Organisation, a not-for-profit, incorporated in Hong Kong, are hiring the latest hot spot in town, Cliq, for a grand countdown to the public launch of the ".asia" Top Level Domain (TLD) registry. It's an invite only event, but you may be able to slip in if you can prove your geek credentials at 2/F On Hing Building, On Hing Terrace, Central (7-11pm) or alternatively write a persuasive RSVP.


Given how Asia is far from being a united continent, we're not sure how the domain will take off. (Note how the map on the website includes the Middle East and ANZAC countries). They could be seen as trying to emulate the ".eu" domain for Europe, which is a more "united" continent at least with a central parliament and currency.

Nevertheless, they aspire to lofty goals :

"The .ASIA domain aspires to embrace this dynamism in the Asia Century to become a nucleus, intersection and breeding ground for Internet activity and development in the region.

* To sponsor, establish and operate a regional Internet namespace with global recognition and regional significance, dedicated to the needs of the Pan-Asia and Asia Pacific Internet community.
* To reinvest surpluses in socio-technological advancement initiatives relevant to the Pan-Asia and Asia Pacific Internet community; and
* To operate a viable not-for-profit initiative that is a technically advanced, world-class TLD registry for the Pan-Asia and Asia Pacific community."

It will be interesting to see who will lead the charge into this new domain. Will it be the local organisations or multi-nationals seeking to prove how culturally-sensitive they are?

Post-launch update: the Landrush was kicked off last night, as counted down by a posse of glamorous starlets, and will conclude on 12th March 2008. For domains with more than one bidder, they will conduct an English auction to decide the winner. From 26th March, it becomes a free for all, with a first-come-first-served registration process. The list of authorised registrants is here.

Web Wednesday - Social Mixer V10.0

Happy Valentine's to you all!

If you were lucky enough to hug Geoffrey the Giraffe at our February event (Web Wednesday - Social Mixer V9.0), you would have gone home with more than a fistful of new name cards.

For ladies, we had plush roses and for men, if your bluetooth worked, Rubik's cube videos, ringtones and mobile wallpapers. And we mustn't forget the special 20% discount on lingerie purchases from Figleaves.com.

What else could you possibly want as this loving time of year?

A big thank you to Argha Sen, Head of Marketing & CRM for Toys R Us Asia, for explaining the true meaning of CRM, namely "treating your customer as an individual not a statistic", and sharing with us the challenges of incorporating the latest internet technologies into the marketing mix, especially for a traditional toy retailer.

We will be uploading the full interview here soon. You can listen to our previous interviews on our Odeo Channel.

Our next event, Social Mixer V10.0, will be on Wednesday 5th March and our guest speaker will be Kenneth Kong, Head of Digital Media for IMG Sports, the company that invented sports sponsorship.


We will be looking at how the sports industry has engaged the online world and how this is changing the promotion and coverage of global events, like the upcoming Beijing Olympics. Of course, with over 500 million mobile users in China, cell phones will also play a major role in promoting the sponsors link to the world most talked about Olympic event.

As per usual practice, the bar opens at 6:30 p.m. and we will start the interview at 7 p.m. Venue remains the same at Lotus Restaurant & Cocktail Lounge, 37-43 Pottinger Street, Central, Hong Kong.

Make sure you download the Lotus wallpaper from our mobile website (m.webwednesday.hk) if you want a free cocktail to help you break the ice. Lotus will also be offering us a discount on drinks, HK$40 for standard booze and HK$25 for soft drinks.

If you want to come along (entrance is free), please sign up via to the event invite on Facebook or just turn up on the night.

If you have a question that you'd like to ask Kenneth but are to shy to do so in person, please post it to our discussion board on the Web Wednesday Group on Facebook which now has reached a grand 455 members (as of 14th Feb 08).

A special thanks to the people and companies that support this event:

1. Outblaze - social collaboration software (behind the scenes).
2. Lotus Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge - venue, complimentary cocktail and finger foods.
3. The HyperFactory - SMS contest, mobile website and coupon download.
4. Epsilon Interactive - email marketing platform.
5. Beansbox - email design.
6. Asia Digital Marketing Association - official industry endorser.
7. Palava Digital - event organiser & web community pioneer.
   

Looking forward to another memorable evening of networking and sharing ideas!