Review on startup Elevyn

Elevyn is a startup that i got to know whilst in startup camp KL. Interestingly enough, one its founders Devan turned out to be a old friend from Perth when we were studying together in 1997.
It's vision is :"A world of less poverty thru fair trade, because every buyer is a socially conscious one".

Elevyn is a social entrepreneur(s) startup that focuses on improving the lower economic class's standard of living through better commerce practices. You can read more about their business model from their website

In a nutshell, they search out rural entrepreneurs who sell home made wares or crafts to market their products on Elevyn's portal that acts as an international marketplace. Elevyn takes 5% profit whilst ensuring the majority of the profit returns to the actual maker of the product. They also allow any Elevyn member to setup your own online shop to participate in this exchange. (see their instructions and caveats here)

In a time where startups are looking for the quickest way to monetize an online brain wave, Elevyn represents a growing breed of social entrepreneurs who see monetization as a means to an end. Where the extra challenge lies for socially aware startups like Elevyn is that they don't just do CSR. Their entire sustainability is revolved around social responsibility. As such, they are wide open to ethical scrutiny such as

1. Transparency
2. Exploitation of the lower income gap
3. How much is too much?

Where does the line get drawn between revenue and profits? ( there is a difference and Elevyn has done an outstanding job so far in answering the above questions and i have the utmost confidence in their team's vision to carry them forward.)

But this does not lend any more weight to the debate in my mind on whether the notion of a social entrepreneur is inherently conflicting. The reason why many causes are non profit is to keep the profit line distinct and their agenda clean. When it's time to keep Elevyn afloat, will it come down to taking a larger profit %? Or will it be advising villagers to build cheaper and sell higher. Elevyn has a plan which Devan shared in KL where he outlined an expansion plan to earn by volume ( number of represented sellers). This tells me Elevyn did consider where the revenue would come from and that is a great start. ( They received a nice government grant for this idea. Good stuff!)

I wish Elevyn all the best ( i signed up as a member on monday) and Devan, if you're reading, are you still rocking out to Jimi?

What do you think about social entrepreneurship? Any good examples to share?

KL startup unconference review part 1

I went up as a Singaporean "invader" to attend start up camp KL over the weekend. I'm exhausted and back in the office but I'm really glad i went. I think it's imperative we as bloggers and social media contributors have a more global view of web 2.0's impact on each society. And since i don't have a global travel budget, i took a coach up with 2 friends to get a S.E.A 's perspective instead.

This post marks the first of a week long's review on specific start ups that presented in KL and observations i have noted down. But to kick things off, i want to blog about the differences i experienced in local unconferences and this unconference in KL. This provides a backdrop of perspective that hopefully will remain in your mind as i continue the series this week.

In my opinion, judging from the few unconferences i have had the opportunity to experience locally, Singaporean start ups generally are at a higher level of sophistication when it comes to revenue modeling and online business economics. Certain topics were presented in KL which honestly wouldn't go very far in terms of interest levels if presented in Singapore. (let me know if you disagree)

So, was it a waste of time?

The answer is a resounding NO. I found a refreshing sense of community. Real community within the KL participants. I experienced a frankness and openness about idea generation and sharing that went beyond criticism and evaluation. I stopped thinking like a "VC " (without the $$ of course) and started thinking like a team member. This is a stark contrast to the unconference in Singapore earlier this year where pitches were made to promote/announce and get share of voice versus feedback solicitation and community involvement.

Ask yourself, do you want to see a fellow start up succeed? If so, have you thought about sharing personal feedback with those particular start ups to encourage improvement? If so, have you done it? If not. Why?

I will be the first to put my hand up and say i'm guilty as charged. My kiasu nature compels me to analyze, critic and evaluate all from the comfort of my armchair. However, as my blog takes shape, i realize i should be sharing some of my ideas directly to these startups instead of using them as a content source to derive my own personal blog traffic.

This Kampung spirit i experienced in KL was worth far more than any killer app or startup pitch i could have hoped to discover. Are we here in Singapore truly a startup community or are we a community of startups?

I think we can do better and i'm gonna start doing my part by engaging the startups i have given constructive criticism ( see nuffnang post ) to at least give them my improvement food for thought.

What do you think about my opinion on our singaporean startup culture? Share with us your experiences and if you think i'm way off base.

Social Network Wars! Which side are you on?

Are you getting social network fatigue? This has been on my mind quite a lot recently when i analyzed the amount of effort and time i spend daily just trying to keep up with pokes and punches and updates and notifications etc. Customization sounds a lot like social networks telling us to "Have it your way" MY way . I am thinking about doing a more in depth piece on the impact of pervasive social media ( what do you think? Yes, do or No, don't bother) and this diagram popped out at me.


(taken from http://www.personalizemedia.com)

It's tremendously insightful and it summarizes the potential and fundamental difference of social media. It also made me suddenly very claustrophobic. I felt like a fly trapped in some social media web that i couldn't get out of. The fact that i'm blogging right now is pulling me deeper into this web. I needed some light relief and thankfully this video saved the day.



It's hilarious and i totally related to it. ( except for the 2nd life portion. Life is complicated enough without having to create a new one)

Meanwhile, i would like to take this moment to thank all the Ping.sg readers and my facebook friends who have given me such great support over this blog. Carry on reading and keep the comments and pongs coming. I hope to improve this as much as i can so any feedback as well is welcome

Tiger beer social network makes me thirsty

Remember the good ol tiger beer ads? "GIVE THAT MAN A TIGER" or "IT'S TIGER TIME!". It's been well replaced by some pretentious branding campaigns over recent times. From the ridiculous tv commercials like this one



to the really ridiculous ones like this ad where Jessica Alba asks for a tiger. Does anyone really believe Jessica Alba chooses Tiger beer as her lager of choice?



The beer market in Singapore has opened up in the last couple of years, from micro breweries to imported beer to brew your own beer kits. APB which owns, manufactures and sells a host of beers such as Tiger and Heineken to name a couple has really had to up it's game to keep the registers ringing. I suppose the upside of selling alcohol is the stuff sells during good times AND bad times. Sometimes more so in the latter case. Also, sending someone a virtual beer isn't exactly the same as experiencing your first cold beer running down your throat and waiting for that irreplaceable "aaahhh".

However, things look "good" with today's report on Just drinks.com stating

"Revenue for the 12 months ended 30 September rose by 12% to S$2bn, Asia Pacific Breweries (APB) said on Friday (14 November).

It attributed the growth to a strong performance from Heineken and Tiger beers, as well as its ability to adapt strategy in different regional markets"

Of course what this really means is these 2 brands have made most of their profits overseas in SEA markets like Vietnam etc. Locally, i don't need statistics to realise less Tiger is consumed at coffee shops, pubs and clubs. With a strong competition and frankly, poor marketing response from Tiger, could social marketing be an answer?

There are some alcohol social networking sites currently flourishing in this arena such as http://www.fubar.com/ ( over 50,000 members), http://chugd.com/, http://www.mustlovebeer.com/home.php etc. What these sites have all tried to accomplish is to provide an online home for the beer enthusiasts.

I doubt this will work in Singapore as for the majority here, drinking goes with pubbing/clubbing which goes with people watching which goes with supper which goes with good fun.
Wait a minute, let's look at this equation again from our perspective.

When i want to go out for a beer after work on a wed night, i need 2 things sorted out. I need to know "who" and "where". "Who" would include anyone from friends to friends of friends to friends of friends of friends. "Where" would be much more complex, Prices, convenience, "scenery" etc are all part of the decision making process.

There are many places we can source for the "where" although it's always the same few pubs listed and the promotions are rarely updated. Tiger beer has a large tap distribution network and they could consolidate the happy hour prices/promos of their partners. This would be useful for me to know where the promotions are at any given time.

Let's take it a couple of steps further and see if a tiger social network is useful. We could :

1)Setup Friday night drink groups and wait for friends and not so close friends to indicate interest. Thats the whole point of community yes? ( more is always messier which is a good thing)

2)Have a calendar function to remind you of pub events, celebrations etc. ( Tiger friendly of course)

3)Message the pub staff directly to arrange for reservations or make enquiries. (who wouldn't want to be pals with the owners/crew)

Ever lost a phone at a pub or got the wrong bill? The network would serve as a direct line to these pubs/clubs too.

Now, where and why does Tiger fit into all this? If it's pub centric, why should Tiger take the initiative?

There are many small reasons why but here is 1 biggie i think looms above the rest. Retail strategy i believe is key to consumption. You drink what the tap stocks. People follow action, not the brand. Remember, branding is only as good as the behaviour that is defined by each consumer. If Tiger makes locations stocking and selling APB beer, this is good news for their retail strategy.

They could cut back on piss poor branding ads and focus on social networking to promote going out in groups, drinking at APB taps and posting drunk photos the next day. Now, does this sound like a network you would get involved in? I know at least 50 facebook minor "friends" i don't really know of the female persuasion that i wouldn't mind arranging a drinking session with. I'm sure you could too.

Think this could work? Drop me comments, and if you work in APB, call me. :p

Social Media isn't the "IN" thing

In my work, i get alot of opportunities to work with branding managers, PR agencies and Sales executives who want to know how social media can improve their bottomline. I usually spend anywhere between 30 to 90 mins frustrating myself over conversations such as these.

"Will my brand getting involved in social media generate sales leads?
or
"I want a social media plan that will allow me to change my brand's perception."

I find it extremely distasteful that traditional marketers ( well paid might i add) in this country and time are still so far off the mark when it comes to social media. Yes, of course ROI needs to be justified and yes, of course you expect to come out looking the better after a bout of social media engagement, but many marketers are still approaching the digital medium as a channel to manipulate and the audience as potential consumers they can influence.

When i mention that choosing to engage with their audience online means having to relinquish control over their brand , there is usually an uncomfortable 5 seconds of awkward silence round the table. I generally defend this by explaining engagement can only be monetized by listening and communicating. You won't improve retail sales by engaging your audience with a 1 way sales pitch. Getting seriously involved in social media is like opening Forrest Gump's box of chocolates, although you never know what you may get, it's important to know who is giving them and why.

When a brand decides to launch a PR campaign to position itself differently, the online channel is usually the first port of call as PR agencies expertly tout bloggers such as myself as "viral brand ambassadors". When im involved in such meetings, i usually start by saying this.

"Your client's brand will not be changed, impacted or perceived differently in any channel you choose unless you change the user experience or customer behaviour of that brand"

My marketing perspective has been totally rocked by "Branding only works on cattle" by Jonathan Salem and i agree 100% that branding is defined by experience and behaviour and not by celebrity endorsements or the ambiguous tv ad or even the funny viral youtube video. Most local highly paid PR marketers still think they somehow have the power to change the way you perceive a certain brand by putting subliminal messages in as many advertising touchpoints as possible. I believe that social media engagement will not only debunk most of these mythical perceptions but actually bring to light the REAL branding most consumers think the product or brand is to them

Take for example the case of say this local ad by AllsWell

It's funny , pretty good as a talking point and to most PR agencies, a "success". They will say "Look, even this blogger Melvin Kee is talking about it". :) Well,let's put this in perspective. Any of you rushed out to buy a bottle of AllsWell after this ad? I know i didn't. Have i bought a bottle recently? Yes. Why? Because i genuinely like the drink and it's accessible. These are my user experiences and therefore my branding definition of AllsWell. To me, they make unique local drinks that are generally refreshing, reasonably priced and easy to pick up. It has nothing to do with any"Love" connection or some market position of reaching out to heartland consumers as "the common man's drink".

Assuming the above 2 were real PR objectives and Allswell wanted to use social media to achieve those PR objectives, i would have said why not engage the local community to give out 5,000 bottles of Allswell to community projects such as an old folk's home or an orphanage or hospice? Spread the word through a viral channel and get an engaged audience to be real ambassadors by volunteering to distribute these bottles. You could take the experience and film it and spread it virally, you could ask for signups for this exercise through widgets that bloggers could carry on their blog ( i would!).

What would be the outcomes of such a campaign? As a blogger and consumer, i would experience Allswell being a forward thinking, community focused and socially responsible brand. Would this affect my next purchase? I imagine that my being involved in the exercise brings me closer to Allswell as a consumer. REAL engagement. Plus the cost of this exercise would pale in comparison to the above production and media spend on TV.

This is an example of how social media can help reposition a brand and hopefully impact the bottomline. But marketers don't want to hear this do they? The conversation is still about comparing traditional media's ROI versus the online channel. Until these people involved in branding or advertising stop looking at their brand as THEIR brand and users as "CON"sumers, social media will never be an answer.

Comments? Thoughts? Drop me a comment

Which web 2.0 Superhero are you?

Superhero pop culture has been the big thing over the last couple of years. Some of us are following "Heroes" and will remember with fondness the awesome script writing back in season 1 where for an hour a day, it was possible for anyone to have abilities. As we speak, Wolverine is in production, as is Iron man 2 etc etc.

It hit me last night whilst i was on msn appearing "invisible" that i was a superhero! The ability to be invisible and to travel amongst unsuspecting friends and strangers was exactly what i was doing.

Here are some superhero abilities and how web 2.o has allowed us all to be more than just "normal"

Teleportation: With Webinars and video conferenc calls, you can have a "live" band performance with John in England, Chow in China and Uzbike in Africa. We can now "teleport" ourselves to basically any IP address in the world


Mind Reading or Telepathy: Similar to professor Xavier's ability to read minds, predictive search techniques or "recommendation" services offered by software such as itunes, attempts to read what we are thinking or looking for and sometimes tells us what we want before we knew we wanted it! This growing evolution of the semantic web is a small scale variation of superhero ESP.


Super IQ : Not sure about a topic? Well, superhero/villain Brainiac would just rattle off the information or fact from his super brain. We can do the exact same thing now with any working connection to wikipedia or search engines! Need to calculate the square root of 156,000? Google just answered that for me in 5 seconds,

square root(156 000) = 394.968353

Meanwhile remember, with great web 2.0 , comes great responsibility.

I'm sure there are quite a few more superhero parallels we could draw, can you name a few?

Drop your comment..

Does Nuffnang make sense (cents)?

Nuffnang is a local blog community portal that serves as an advertising platform for bloggers like myself to monetize my blog through their fuss free CPM/CPC models. To date, they have over "40,000 bloggers" signed up from Singapore and Malaysia. This number is commendable and i must applaud their initiative in giving bloggers an avenue to make some form of revenue otherwise unseen. If you are not familiar with their model, read this first.

In summary, you can either earn through signing up for global cpc ads which pays upon click through. Or if you qualify to sit in their CPM band, you can be targetted to earn based on the number of ads you serve on your site. Most of you are probably using Nuffnang as i write as it really is the dominant ad serving network for local bloggers like myself.

But, how robust is this engine? And are the pricing/qualifying metrics correct? I will approach this from 2 points of view, the advertiser and the blogger. Let's look at the blogger's scenario first.

Based on the CPC method ( since you have no entry control over the CPM method), you have no idea what the actual COST per click is until your cheque comes in the mail. This is an issue of transparency which is debatable as Nuffnang can choose not to disclose how much of the click they are earning from. But shouldn't we get to decide if the value of the click is worthy of the inventory we have?

For example, assuming advertiser A is paying 20 cents a click. Nuffnang may take 10 cents and pay you 10 cents per click. So if you know its 10 cents per click, you can decide if this is a worthwhile ad campaign to be a part of. Of course discretion is key but as with all ad networks, pricing should not be a 1 way process that is decided by advertiser and agency. Bloggers need to start thinking about the worth of their inventory space.

This brings me to my next point of inventory maximization, going back to my earlier example of Advertiser A's 10 cent per click campaign, assuming you have an excellent CTR based on this particular ad, (perhaps the ad speaks very strongly to your blog audience). Shouldn't you be rewarded with more ads thus giving you the opportunity to make more $$? This makes sense for Nuffnang and for you.

Random global ads serve as a very good measure of finding out whose blog is the most efficient use of the ad distribution, but then once Nuffnang susses out who's doing a good job based on ctr, then it makes more sense to serve this blogger more of the same. I'm not sure if Nuffnang already has this algorithm in place, if not, it's something to think about. Nuffnang will stand to gain as well as serving more effective CPC ads means they get to report better CTR to the advertisers.

Now, lets examine the nuffnang CPM method. I would like to suggest that evaluating a blog by unique visitors alone is an extremely crude way of determining a blog's relevance to a CPM campaign. CPM campaigns are mostly used for branding which is why eyeball traffic is the primary qualifier Nuffnang is using. However, from an advertiser's point of view, serving my branding ad to a site based on purely similar content and unique visitors is like standing in the middle of a crowded street shouting out to every passerby. Presence is NOT recognition.
Nuffnang needs to define their blogger bands much better. I suggest these inclusions

1) The number of people subscribed to this blog. This is an indication of audience loyalty. If i get 2000 unique visitors but these are all wayfarers, then the potential retention of the brand message isn't as high. If however, 500 of this 2000 come regularly then this tells the advertiser there is more engagement and involvement happening with this blog's audience.

2) Participation. This is also linked to point 1 but it can be measured by activity on the site such as comments, ratings, widget interaction. The interactive value of each eyeball is just as important as the number.

Also, back to pricing, if i were a blogger who qualified for a CPM band, i would certainly want to know what the price per ad unit is.

Lastly, i would like to say again that i think Nuffnang has done a good job so far and many bloggers have received money they would never have seen otherwise. However, like most things, it's always healthy to have the light shined on areas that can be improved and i hope my article has shed some illumination on this. Comments are welcome especially if i have made any factual errors on Nuffnang's operations.

Another great feel good pop song that radio will never play

Erin Mccarley is relatively unknown all the world over, this will probably change soon as this song is making steady rotation in the US midstream charts. It was featured on Grey's Anatomy and if this is an indication of the work, her album due in 2 months should be something to look out for.



I have a few friends who mentioned my 2 recent marketing posts have been somewhat negative and not particularly constructive so tomorrow when i talk about a new local startup that has caught my critical eye, i will try to be as constructive as possible. I promise. .... really.. .......hmmm.

Mediacorp is missing the point

So, i watch the occasional free to air television when i have some down time. I tuned to ch 5 last night to watch some meaningless tube and i saw some Mediacorp house ads. They were using the latest AC Nielsen results to brag about how much better they've been doing compared to their traditional rivals SPH. Let me state on record how absurd AC Nielsen, Synovate and the rest of these media index / research companies are. Most of their qualitative research comes from a "sample size" that somehow represents the rest of the entire population. Gee, i didn't know some sample dude out there representing me out right now, is thinking about how useless sample dudes are.

Take a radio survey for example, unless AC Nielsen is listening to every single person in a specified age group 24 hours 7 days a week over a period of time. How the hell do they suddenly stand up say "we have the answer to which radio station won in this age group and if you would like to know, here is the price".

Unless we are all living in some AC Nielsen bubble ala the Truman show, i don't think my radio activity is being monitored by some AC Nielsen monkey. So if you are in some a position of marketing influence, the next time AC Nielsen comes to present some "findings" to you, do yourself a favour and ask them this right at the end of the presentation : "I've listened to you and your colleague today and i have concluded you are both idiots. Now, assuming you are the sample size representation of your company, i have also concluded your entire company is full of idiots"

Anyway i digress terribly, back to Mediacorp. So, they have taken an aggressive stand against an old war horse to shout to the rest of the advertising dollar that they are somehow the better media of choice. Am i the only one who thinks Mediacorp is thinking like a MediaC**k? Helloo.. the real media you need to confront is the online media. We (collectively the upwardly mobile geeks) are spending more time watching shows via IPTV, we listen to music from live streaming and music portals, we read the news with live updates via digital readers or streamed video. We "discover" new topics by wikipediaing everything. So Mediacorp and SPH really need to redefine their market dynamics and realise they are both in the same position. I wont even consider Stomp or Razor TV or Mobtv initiatives that prove Mediacorp and SPH are embracing digital content delivery because the competitor is NOT the medium. Their increasing worry is globalization of the consumer and ease of access. Now that we have global options, we can choose not to endure lousy content no matter what the medium.

I would love to support what Ive said about increasing eyeballs glued to the monitors instead of the tv screens with some local media audience measurement stats but that would mean talking to Nielsen online to get the numbers and we all know who works for AC Nielsen. Idiots.

Plurk you twit.. or should it be Tweet you plurk!

Hello world..This is my first post as a social marketing observer. More about me i suppose in the future posts, no better way to know a person than through the passage of time.( and blogs)

Most of you on this humble blog site would recognize it as "that annoying music blog", well it still is; except now i want to annoy most of you further with my "outsights" on stuff that's happening in the world wide web of 2.0.

Plurk is a "free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send updates (otherwise known as plurks) through short messages or links, which can be up to 140 text characters in length.". Sounds alot like Twitter which sounds alot like a talkative friend whispering absolute garbage into your ear all day.

I haven't jumped on this micro blogging bandwagon as most see it as some license for non censored, unrepentant drivel to make your already boring day that much more meaningless with tweets that inspire one to watch their toenails grow.
What possible intelligent reply would you expect from me after you posted " just had a subway.. yumm".

I know i'm ruffling some twitter's plurks at this very moment but let's look at micro blogging in relation with the rest of the free world.
Yes, you can get opinions, answers, meet new friends ( this is debatable if you start questioning what qualifies someone from being a photo on your twitter wall to an actual friend) and importantly, connect with lots of like minded individuals.
But this is where micro blogging stops making sense.

The assumption that keeps twitters plurking is that there is "someone listening." And most often, there is. But WHO are these "someones" and why are they listening? In my brief fling with twitter and even shorter 1 nite stand with Plurk, i've come to the conclusion that aside from some purists, the majority of people involved in micro blogging are using it because they have to. If you are in web 2.0 at all and you don't own a twitter account, god help you with your virtual social standing. Guess who WONT be invited to the next plurk gathering. So, joining and using Twitter/Plurk/watever is really all about " Better to have and not need /use it than to be found out at the next unconference caught with your twitter pants down."

Most of us already spend way too much time glued to our mobile screens and laptop monitors. Lets use micro blogging wisely shall we? it's a great way to get traffic by tweeting updates, it's also fantastic as a broadcast tool for events, gatherings, its superb for asking for directions if you're in a foreign country. It's wonderful for group project live updates and WIP notes. But it is not a validation for you to tell the world how sleepy you are at 4pm in the afternoon!

Remember technology serves us. Not the other way around. If you're a web 2.0 junkie, get some help. And lastly, being a twit won't make you a "cooler geek" you plurk. Now, how do i convert this whole article in 140 characters?