Power of Social Media!

The saying "being at the right place, at the right time" definitely hit the spot on this viral video!

A store manager from across the street came over to video record this busker busking to his own song outside a supermarket. First, came a guy who did his impromptu jambeat to the song. Then, along came another random passer-by who just happen to know how to rap.

The result? .....The Amazing Jam Session, which garnered about 13 million views to date in one week on YouTube!

Jimmy Kimmel took to his show to help promote this amazing trio, not missing this chance to add in too, a little bit of his flavor (with a saxophone, haha) with surprise guests: Trey Songz, Juicy J and Aloe Blacc!

I bet the busker Jesse is over the moon with thos once in the lifetime opportunity. I hope he goes far from here!

xoxo

No Layover, more like a Hangover : Heineken does it again!

Travelling and Interior Design: will always be my greatest passions. One brand that manage to capture the essence of these two interests of mine. A total dream. Actually, not really. Heineken did it!

Check these brilliant videos out!

Heineken | Departure Roulette

Heineken | The Switch

For some reasons, I have always been very interested in alcohol brands ads, ESPECIALLY Heineken. Well it IS almost the weekend... and I'm starting to feel thirsty ;)

Ever wonder how the Internet first looked like?

In the midst of reading loads and loads of interesting marketing articles to help me come up with an interesting dissertation topic for my MSc Marketing course, I suddenly wondered how the Internet first looked like when it was first introduced to the world. So here are some examples ;)

ESPN. 1995

ESPN. 2014

Look at how different they look! That was 19 years ago. The internet definitely looks much more "touch screen", simpler and cleaner now than having all those ugly 3-D  pop-up looking buttons on the webpage. So now when anyone comes across any webpages that have similar features as ESPN's 1995 webpage, we know they are about 19 years behind time.

I thought I would also share one of the projects that I have recently worked on with my teammates for a charity organisation, Headway. When we were first introduced to the project, the first issue we encountered and felt like need a major change was the company's website. Outdated was the word I would give to describe the website. It apparently hasn't been updated since it was first created.

Part of our marketing strategy was to give the company website a total face-lift. And this was what we came up with. Definitely much better looking, and current!

Wander(lust) : AirBnB & Travbuddy

    How digital marketing.....is transforming the tourism industry

This has got to be one of the biggest revolution in the hospitality industry. Like many start-ups owned by new business owners, Airbnb was on the verge of bankruptcy in 2009. But they manage to turn that around by putting their heads together and looking at what was not working for the business at that time. It definitely has a great and inspiring story to tell. In 2014, it has become one of the fastest growing and innovative travel revolution as of date. 

Airbnb, however, already has quite a strong social media presence. Today, I will just be looking into the usage of one of the modern communication technologies by this mega-trillion company, yes, our trusty mobile phone device, that seems to be glued on to our hands 24/7 daily.

Airbnb has indeed embraced the social media trends and launched its new mobile apps streamlined for the hosts. The employees of Airbnb are quite hands on in keeping in touch with their hosts' feedbacks and concerns, getting straight into business with fixing whatever issues that arised. In this case, hosts registered with Airbnb has raised some concerns regarding the previous mobile app that was too complicated to use and that they had to get home to access and complete a transaction. To simplify this situation, Airbnb understands that conveniency is the key to keeping everybody "Pharrell happy". It has aimed to create a convenient mobile experience for hosts called "Host Home" that would allow them to accept bookings, manage guests, and request professional photography of their homes when they are out and about. Another featured Airbnb mobile app, Host Groups, enables hosts to create online neighbourhood-based groups for them to communicate and share their hosting experiences with each other.

I personally have not booked any accommodation via Airbnb yet but I am definitely interested in experiencing the travel stay in my future travel plans.

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Another travel related social network that I'm interested in looking into and researching on is Travbuddy. I was first introduced to this website by another travel junkie friend of mine (as you may call us) who is interested in being adventurous and travelling solo. This site allows individuals to meet like-minded travel addicts to sync up at a matching destination at one point at a similar coordinated time. However, the digital marketing of this site is pretty much non-existent.

Keeping in mind that these two travel social networks have two unrelated and completely different business model. For my course project purpose only, I would like to look into how Travbuddy could benefit itself on the social media better.

Aristo-Cats, literally!

I'm sure once upon a time everyone has seen the wonderful Walt Disney animation, The Aristocats. 

Agency Grey London has created a funny print campaign on 2014's "Rich List" for UK's Sunday Times (May 11 edition). Agency London has commissioned a well-known animal photographer Tim Flanch and has gotten the celebrities' faces digitally enhanced onto felines' bodies. They turned out pretty amazing!

Simon Cowell

Elton John

Richard Branson

A popular face and a known celebrity status combined with business-smarts can get you a powerful personal brand. Even with cat bodies, these faces are still easily recognised. The quality of these powerful individuals can be distinguished by the following 6 personal branding lessons (from Forbes Celebrity 100 Women) which can, of course, be applied to everybody.

1. Master your craft first
2. Be known for something
3. Leverage what you have
4. Transform the personality into business
5. If it doesn't match your personal brand, don't do it.
6. Use social media to keep your business brand personal.

One of my favourite quotes, surprisingly, is by this famous rapper entrepreneur, Jay Z, on his take of his personal business brand.

Dom Perignon x Instagram

Dom Perignon has reached out to their younger consumers by creating an Instagram page to show off its collaboration with artist Jeff Koons.