Tim Ho » Thomas Crampton

What I learned from the University Students

Tim Ho — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 08:53:41 +0000

University is always a fun place to be, I went to Hong Kong Polytechnic University to give a presentation on how Social Media is changing the advertising industry last Friday.

As I told the students, I was THE bad boy when I was in University. Never liked to be in class, drank at the bar during “5-minute breaks”, and of course, never paid attention to guest speakers. These students are very different, I was very surprised how fun, active and curious they were about social media and I really enjoyed the discussion with them. Below is what I learned through our discussions.

Is Advertising Dying?

Since they are advertising students, concerns came up during my presentation around the topic on whether the knowledge they are getting now will still be relevant when they graduate. I think traditional advertising agency model is dead, but advertising is not dying, it’s just changing and companies/ agencies are now forced to integrate everything to come up as a strategy to adapt to the new media landscape. Advertising students have to understand how the media is changing and how this “one big idea beats all” theory doesn’t exist anymore.

Learning VS thinking

I think education is only like a tool to get people start thinking, not necessarily about what it will teach. Although education systems from some countries were poorly designed that kill students’ creativity, education wasn’t meant to make people think in a certain way. The key is really to learn how to develop an interest over certain things, then learning will come easy.

What do the Pros think:

When preparing for this presentation, I asked a few experts on digital media and advertising about “How new media is changing the advertising industry” and these are their responses.

Thomas Crampton (APAC Director of Digital Influencer at Ogilvy PR):

“Formerly, companies bought media. Now they are media.”

Matthew Leem (Regional Account Director at Ogilvy & Mather):

“It’s killing advertising (agencies)”

Paul Lam (Account Executive at Ogilvy & Mather):

“Social media is changing advertising because it is directly reinforcing the emotional connection between the consumer and the product.

In the past, traditional advertising would simply sell a product to a consumer. But now the consumer has a direct input in what they experience with the “idea” of the product, which can be shared to anyone openly. It has become more than just some tangible product… Social media has created a direct relationship, where the consumer can express what they feel. This movement has made brands more honest and grounded.

No more glitz and glamour, but simple truths”

Nic Tinworth (Digital Director at Fluid Design + Marketing):

“A common challenge for both advertisers and marketers alike has always been identifying and connecting with the right target audience. Recent trends in Social Media use have caused an unparalleled business paradigm shift, and recent studies have pointed to as much as 80% of ‘decision makers’ finding their own vendors, rather than the other way round. Social Media use is now so mainstream, that if as an agency you aren’t using and engaging with it yourself, you’re not just missing opportunities for your clients, you are also wasting opportunities for new business. To put it into layman’s terms, agencies now have to ‘walk the walk’ and not just ‘talk the talk’.”

Poly U Students:

Thanks for the fun times, I really enjoyed it and it made me miss uni so much! Please free feel to contact me if you need help on your projects, or maybe a beer or six between and after classes.

You can download the pictures with this link.

Goodluck to you all!

If content is King, visualization is Queen

Tim Ho — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 14:52:24 +0000

When there were less competitors in every industry, consumers purchase only for the functions and usability of products. Companies then realized they had to differentiate themselves when more and more competitors came up and shared their profits in the industry. Similar thing is happening in social media.

As the graph above shows, the importance of branding and packaging grew since production era. Many companies these days set prices higher than it needs to be in order to cover their marketing expenses. Although I do think that quality of a product is what matters, many consumers still buy products that they don’t really need, thanks to the smart marketing campaigns!

When people started to build content, visuals/ graphics didn’t matter, all people cared about was text content. Similar to the previous case, increasing amount of social networks and blogs forces content creators to attract attention in a different way. #FFFFFF background and #000000 text don’t impress people as much these days on the Internet.

I had a conversation with Thomas Crampton and Nic Tinworth about data visualization, they are both visualization gurus and we all agreed that many people get overwhelmed by all the blog postings they get directed to each and everyday. Visualized data worth a million words when it is created in a creative, and simple way.

Ogilvy + Dopplr Lunch with Marko Ahtisaari

Tim Ho — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 07:58:36 +0000

I’m glad to have a chance to be at the lunch with Marko Ahtisaari (CEO, Dopplr), Stephen J Marcopoto (President, Turner International Asia Pacific), Yew Ming Lau (Senior VP, Turner International Asia Pacific), and of course, Thomas Crampton, Jean-Francois Amadei, Sean Rach, Adam O’Conor from Ogilvy and other great people from Shangri-La and CNN. Took away some interesting insights from the lunch!

During the lunch

Marko Ahtissari explained in detail what Dopplr is, as well as the business model of it and how Dopplr differentiate themselves from other social networking sites, and trip planning tools.

One interesting Insight

In the discussion, we came across a very interesting insight by Adam O’Conor that people always look for bad comments/ gradings online. I completely agree on that. Online shoppers always look for negative or “one star” comments on the products that they’re about to buy. I guess it is a common, and natural psychological action that human try to do to avoid risks. We want to learn from people who have already taken the risk and have regretted, so that we don’t make the same mistake.

Because of the trend of online grading and commenting, the only way for companies to survive these days is to provide products/ services that offer true values to targets.

Picture worth a thousand words.

Great table setting

From left: Me, Marko Ahtissari, Sean Rach

From left: Sean Rach, Yew Ming Lau, Adam O'Conor

Fantastic Appetizer

Delicious main course

...and dessert

Photo Credit: Jean-Francois Amadei

“A Coffee” with Michael Anti

Tim Ho — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:11:14 +0000

There was a huge discussion 2 weeks ago on China blocking Twitter and other social networks for June 4th Tienanmen Anniversary 2009.

I don’t think we need further analysis and opinion on that issue, but today, Thomas Crampton, Jean-François Amadei and I were lucky enough to meet Chinese journalist and political blogger, Michael Anti (Chinese: 赵静 or 安替), who gave me a new angle on the social media environment in China and how Chinese behavior on Twitter different from most of us.

China has No Citizen

As Michael Anti mentioned at the beginning of the meeting, Chinese people think that there’s “No Citizen” in China, only “Netizens” because people can only freely express their point of view online.And Michael Anti believes that the growth of Netizen will eventually turn Chinese into Citizens.

Heaven or Hell?

There are two sides of media in China. Traditional media (TV, newspaper, radio) in China make China heaven, while social media in China make China Hell. Michael Anti also kidded about how it takes only a day for most Chinese people to turn anti-government if they get on social media like Twitter.

The meaning of “Coffee”

Learned from Michael that in China these days, “having coffee” refers to how police ask netizens to have coffee and chat with them at the police station for hours when found posting sensitive content on the Internet.

Twitter is more than 140 in China

As we all know that “simple” is the whole point of using Twitter for it only allows 140 characters for each status update, which is around 30 words in English and other major lanuages, but not in Chinese. 140 charactors = 140 words in Chinese, which is already long enough to be a paragraph with the 5W (Who What When Where Why) and it completely changes the form of Chinese Tweets. Michael Anti believes that Twittersphere (in English) would be totally different too of it offered 350+ characters.

Say Yes to Retweets (RT), but No to @Replies

Unlike most of the Twitter users who interact, Chinese Twitter users see Twitter as more of a news sharing/ grading tool. It is powerful because posts/ pieces of news are basically rated by human, which means the more RTs they see, the more important that piece of news means to them. Most of them don’t write tweets like “I am on my way to work” or “@username: what are your plans for tonight” because they have other platforms to do so. (Facebook, Xiaonei and IM platform like QQ).

Thomas Crampton did a short video interview with Michael Anti, and will be posted on his blog. Also, thanks to Jean-François Amadei for the images below.

Thomas Crampton and I listening to Michael Anti

Michael Anti talking about Social Media in China

“Passion” will beat Education in the future job market

Tim Ho — Sat, 23 May 2009 02:46:52 +0000

Since we were young, most of us have been told that education/ knowledge was everything. Although many people still think that education is the key to success, I do think there’s something which is way more important than education, and it is passion.

I will show you why I think employers in the future will focus on job seekers’ enthusiasm rather than their education background.

Upcoming trends

As shown in the graph above, many marketing positions from the past were preferred to be filled by people with better education background. HR managers cared about the University Degree and the school results more than anything, and passion was just a plus.

As more and more positions require creativity and “love”, as well as overtime work at the office, employers seem to weight Passion slightly heavier than Education history these days.

When the percentage of University Grads continue to increase, while social media platforms keep on developing into a common lifestyle, employers will try to measure candidates’ Passion rather than just looking at the piece of framed paper from a University.

Why Passion wins?

Passion is everything, and knowledge comes after. When you are passionate about something, you basically live with it. Everything you see, hear, or think can relate to what you love. For example, a graphic design lover and a social media addict would have different approach to the same thing. This style of learning is way more powerful than how people learn from school.

My own experience at Ogilvy

During this Internship at Ogilvy PR Hong Kong this summer, I have been working closely with Thomas Crampton (@thomascrampton) ; Asia Pacific Director Digital Influence Ogilvy. From my observations, he cares about “what people love” more than “what people know”. Which makes perfect sense because it’s easier to collaborate with people who have the same passion and goals.

Mr Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs dropped out from school, lost power in Apple during 80′s. If he wasn’t passionate about what he did, it would be impossible for him to have his current success. He is a revolutionary person, and he wouldn’t be able to make it with only a brain full of knowledge, but also creativity which only comes with passion.