Take a Walk on the Wild Side with Maybelline!
Maybelline Malaysia launched its new Cat Eyes mascara last week. It was a great opportunity for us to get creative with a product microsite!
What I love best about this campaign is the three different looks you’re taught to achieve with the mascara – Flirty, Pretty and Cool. We took this opportunity to ride on the wave of quiz-taking popularity on Facebook to propose a Facebook Quiz to the client – What Type of Cat Are You?
Flirty, Pretty or Cool?
Users answer a set of multiple-choice questions which will determine their personality, then they’re recommended a look to match. This campaign also uses sponsored blog posts for product reviews.
Working on this campaign was really tiring, but loads of fun!
Visit the site: http://www.maybellinecateyes.com.my/
Topics: What's That Site? |
Disabled-friendly website case study: The Nut Graph
In our years of developing and crafting websites, very few clients have ever put an emphasis on catering for the disabled - until we met the caring people at The Nut Graph. From the get go, Integricity was given specific instructions to ensure that after the site was stable, they would want to do as much as they could to make it disabled-friendly.
The current layout for The Nut Graph - the non-disabled-friendly view
After almost a year of working with their team, we have grown to see the world through their eyes and can see how much they care for the disabled. As such, we have put in much effort to turn their news site into one that can be traversed easily by the averaged disabled person. Cindy Tham and Jacqueline Surin even ran the site by the Malaysian Association for the Blind (MAB) and took into account all the feedback that was communicated to them.
As a result, we are now on the brink of launching one of the few Malaysian sites that caters for the disabled. Visit The Nut Graph tomorrow to see the changes.
Sneak preview of the disabled-friendly The Nut Graph
What we at Integricity have learnt through this process…
- It is very important to have <h1> tags to demarcate the title which is the start of an article. Some screen readers can skip all the navigation parts and jump straight to the content.
- Moving flash banners / .gif images can be disturbing and distracting.
- Positive contrast is generally the best (black on white).
- Ensure all images have alt tags, so that they can be read aloud to the website visitor.
- Tabular information should be put into <table>s rather than putting them into aesthetically pleasing jpg graphical tables, as the data cannot be read out from jpgs.
- The obvious: fonts must be larger.
- And very interestingly, for forms, instead of saying “fields in bold are mandatory”, rephrase it to “fields marked with an asterisk are mandatory” - the average screen reader will not differentiate bold and non-bold text.
For further reading, you may take a look at this article that proved to be a great resource to us.
Topics: Design-speak, Tips, Tricks and Howtos, What's That Site? |
HOW WILL YOU PAINT YOUR WORLD RED?
We supply the paint, you supply the creativity.
Re-invent yourself, even as we do.
Integricity is changing the way we work. We are empowering teams of leaders. Teams with pride in ownership. Teams with the natural drive to go further.
Thus, we are on the lookout for potential stars that will passionately take charge of their destiny in the following roles and excel beyond our (as well as your own) expectations.
Strategic Marketing Specialist
- Being a team leader comes naturally to you
- You are able to conceptualise and develop mid- to long-term marketing strategies for established corporate as well as start-up clients
- Experience in global brands and the branding process is essential
- Prior experience in online media projects required
Digital Usability Analyst
- With an uncanny ability to understand our clients’ business to ensure projects are focused on clients’ ROI and audience/user interface clarity
- Conduct usability reviews of content flow, usability testing and surveys
- Translate research findings into solutions that deliver real-value including sitemaps, wireframes or interface specifications
- Pinpoint subsequent usability problems and offer constructive design solutions. In short, you will be designing for the user
- Prior experience in corporate and consumer-oriented digital initiatives necessary
Flash Designer/Developer
- Fluent in Actionscript 2.0 / Actionscript 3.0 a plus
- Understanding of interface usability issues is essential and a grasp of proper graphic design knowledge will only help you to excel
- Ability to design independently without the creative lead when the situation arises
- Potential to lead a flash development team
- Resourceful and savvy about expanding the flash work environment eg. working without timeline, incorporating tween engines like Zigo and Fuse
- Experienced integrating with .NET, Java, or PHP backends
Web Developer
- A natural talent for discovery and exploration
- Expert-level ability with AJAX, JAVAScript, CSS and HTML.
- Candidates must have examples of complex, table-less layouts implemented using CSS and semantically correct markup
- In depth understanding of cross-browser, front-end development issues
- Candidates should be able to write custom JAVAScript functions and classes by hand
Mid-weight Copywriter for Digital
- Familiar with through-the-line from ATL / BTL Print to DMs to adapting for digital
- Good conceptual thinker to contribute to ideation sessions, complementing the existing creative team
- Well-versed in or willing to explore writing for digital channels like blogs, forums, facebook, twitter, review sites, etc.
Are you driven enough to fill these big shoes offered? Good, then talk to us and tell us what you intend to do to make them your own. Address your CV to Eugene at careers@integricity.com. Only shortlisted candidates will be notified.
Integricity is a 4A’s accredited interactive agency that has had a decades’ worth of experience in the digital channel. Our clients range from established corporations to vibrant start-ups. We value our partnerships with like-minded brands that recognise their growth potential online. Apart from bespoke web presences, we are a MSC-certified SEO vendor that increasingly engineers strategically optimized applications to your needs online.
Topics: Beneath The Red Hood, Biz Productivity |
Unconferences coming up…
What on earth is an unconference, you may ask… In a nutshell, it’s an informal gathering of likeminded individuals who get together for a participant-driven knowledge sharing time.
Integricity wants to be in the forefront to support raising the bar, and encourage more knowledge sharing. As such, we are playing host to two exciting events that will be held at the end of May, and early June. Both events are extremely varied and are known as #geekcamp and ShootFest 001: The Wedding.
Find out more on their respective websites and sign up for them! Places are limited…
#geekcamp is extremely… errr, geeky for the lack of a better word. An excerpt on the currently-still-being-built-website states it is for “Technologists and Enthusiasts. No marketers, *preneurs, social media experts”. Find out more when their website is complete, here.
ShootFest is an initiative that was primarily mooted by me, Alex TheBackpackr and Grace from Wedding Story / Integricity Visuals. We then got together a group of close photographer and videographer friends who were excited by the idea of knowledge sharing, and thus, shootfest.org was born.
Topics: Beneath The Red Hood, Tips, Tricks and Howtos, What's That Site? |
Campaign Case Study
Together with a client of ours, a campaign was recently launched where members of the public vote for one lucky couple to win a sponsored event worth RM100,000. The contest involved 4 phases of public voting, blogging, video streaming, picture galleries and mini contests, culminating in the selection of the winning couple and an event of their dreams.
Integricity was privileged to be part of the experience, and was involved throughout the entire campaign – from logo conceptualization to suggestions on contest mechanics to execution and marketing of the website. Working closely with the client, Integricity developed a solid online marketing strategy which involved creating a social network presence on Facebook and video on YouTube.
Facebook was the platform of choice, as it allowed Integricity to fully leverage its viral marketing capabilities. It was also the fastest growing online community, even though Friendster was the most popular social network in Malaysia at the time (Facebook has since usurped Friendster from the top spot).
Their Facebook Fan Page enabled the client to garner online support, and Integricity worked hand-in-hand to manage and grow the community. Audience engagement was an important element of the Fan Page – member-brand/member-member interactions helped to build affinity towards the brand and fans could spread the word easily, notifying their friends on latest contest updates by channeling traffic to the Fan Page. The couples’ blogs were also integrated with the Fan Page via RSS, allowing updates from contestants to reach the fan base almost instantly.
Facebook’s audience targeting feature was also highly valuable, and enabled Integricity to cater campaign ads to its target audience – 21-35 year old Malaysian and Singaporean women who were in a relationship or were engaged (Users who did not meet the criteria were not shown the ad). This allowed the message to reach its target audience quickly in a cost-effective manner. The ads were also combined with the Fan Page (a feature Facebook calls “social ads”) which produced higher resonance and trust with the crowd.
The results of the strategy were highly successful
• Over 3 million ad impressions (0.11% CTR)
• More than 500 contest entries
• Over 1 million total votes (122356 votes for the winning couple)
• More than 1,000 fans on Facebook
• Over 20,000 video views on YouTube
• Over 850,000 page views (23564 unique visitors)
Final statistics of the campaign. Note that the fans are extremely targeted ones.
Within the first few hours of launching the targeted ad, there were already about 5,000 ad impression views, with a hundred or so click-thrus.
This campaign was a groundbreaking endeavour that was rewarded with high user engagement and stronger brand affinity. What was even more remarkable was that the campaign was produced on a limited budget (media buy was limited to a 2 week print campaign in The Sun newspaper). Much of the contest activity was Web-driven – a strategy that paid handsomely for our client.
* Due to the request of our client, Integricity has been requested not to name the client
Topics: Design-speak, What's That Site? |
Wordpress automatic upgrade timeout
Are you plagued by horrible internet connectivity, and do you keep getting errors like this one, when you try to upgrade your Wordpress blog?
I kept getting the same error over and over again, and decided there’s a better way of overcoming this problem. Thanks to Nazham, he had some pointers on his blog to share on how you can edit the file (/wp-admin/includes/file.php) and modify this line:
$response = wp_remote_get($url, array(’timeout’ => 30));
to increase the timeout to something longer like 120.
However, this method apparently is overwritten when you upgrade your Wordpress installation in the future. Felix Ker has a plugin that permanently fixes this problem, perhaps you could try it out instead.
Topics: Tips, Tricks and Howtos |
Our BFM segment is on air
Last Friday, Jek, Fay and I trooped over to the BFM89.9 office as she was to be featured on the air. Here’s the two snippets from the day.
Fay’s not Fat but she loves her food.
Is Kuala Lumpur saturated with restaurants? What do you look out for when reviewing a restaurant?
Topics: Beneath The Red Hood, Biz Productivity, Green Without Envy, What's That Site? |
Integricity Press is on BFM89.9
Today, Fay Khoo our business partner was interviewed by Shazmin Shamsuddin on Malaysia’s business radio station BFM89.9 for the upcoming Best Eats KL book that is produced under the Integricity Press banner. The head office and broadcasting centre is a mere 1 minute drive from our office. Integricity is at Centrepoint, BFM is at BU8 - how convenient!
Fay spoke on the concept of the new and refreshed Best Eats KL, her penchant for food and the methodology by which she reviews restaurants. Shazmin ended by asking about the “top secret” project that is up and coming. Fay responded by summarizing theQguides in short, without giving away too much information, since the official launch is a mere 2 weeks away!
I’ve never seen the inside of a radio station before, and I must say their office is nice. Here are some shots from one of the studio broadcast rooms. (Photos courtesy of Jek Tan and his Nikon)
Here’s Grace reading a short news segment right before Fay comes on the show with Shazmin
Shazmin is a funny one - she’s wayyy cool! She’s kinda got big hair like Fay too!
Ahhh, job well done… 
Topics: Beneath The Red Hood, What's That Site? |
BarcampKL - a gathering of creative techie individuals
I recently attended BarcampKL which is primarily a participant-driven workshop event where people share knowledge and ideas and expand their social and business network. Topics could range from how to better utilize your netbook, to the art of appreciating espresso or even how to salsa.
Most of the participants were the creatives and techies who knew how to have a good time. Overall, it was great to be in the presence of likeminded individuals all wanting to learn more from one another and exchange business cards.
Since I had a video camera with me (for recording the departure of the Wedding Story team for Bangladesh), I also recorded bits of the Barcamp on day one. Here’s the video.
Topics: Beneath The Red Hood |
Lessons from Obama Magic KL
Photo credits: McCain Photography
The Obama Magic KL conference yesterday featured Roger Fisk, now ex-National Director of Special Events who spoke at length about his experience mobilizing Team Obama for on-ground rallies during the presidential campaign. Here are some insights I gained from the experience:
1. People, people, people – More than a presidential candidate, a charismatic leader, a brand, or the nation’s first African-American President; Barack Obama is a movement, and movements are fueled by people. In his book Tribes, Seth Godin theorizes that the most effective leaders are in fact, leading tribes: a group of people connected to each other, to a leader and to an idea (”Change we can believe in”). While President Obama may arguably be the most powerful Tribe leader in the world today, the success of his tribe will depend on his ability to keep the administration and the movement in sync.
2. Be the campaign – Team Obama’s rallying cry was both a motto as well as a challenge to all supporters. Using a combination of on-ground mobilization as well as online tools like Facebook and Twitter, the Obama campaign was driven by user-generated buzz and support from friend networks. The purpose-built MyBarackObama.com website allowed people to self-organize fund-raising events and promote them via the site. Any visitor to the site could simply key in their zip code and be presented with a list of local events happening in their neighborhood. MyBO also united Americans citizens living abroad and functioned exactly as how it did for the locals.
3. Local, organic, ownership, traction – All Team Obama rally events were built around local context, and that meant organizing gatherings at popular, meaningful or historical locations that the locals could identify with. Fisk is an expert in this, and he thoroughly explained his thinking process to the participants. His ability was to envision and create high impact head-on/cut-shots for use by the local press. Events were also highly organic: 2-way interaction between Senator Obama and the audience allowed him to build good rapport with the crowd. As a result, a sense of ownership grew amongst everyone who was involved - from residents to local authorities, everyone had a part to play in “being the campaign”. Gaining traction was naturally much easier, as supporters who were mobilized for volunteer work were already highly charged and emotionally invested in the cause.
4. Low-dollar contributions add up – According to Fisk, the Obama war chest was built primarily on small $10-20 contributions. The low barrier of entry allowed people to chip in and become part of the movement almost instantly. This was a great display of ownership and traction at work, because every supporter quickly became involved in some way or another. Each event drew huge crowds and the funds added up quickly, bringing his tally to a whopping $600m by October 2008.
5. Put your ear to the ground – Team Obama realized early on that in order for them to be part of the conversation, it was important to learn how the audience communicated. They found that online tools were hugely popular with the crowd and were most effective at reaching people quickly, so they created a digital presence on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. Similarly, brands that want to communicate effectively need to tune in to the pulse of the crowd. Although tough and sometimes messy, the return on investment is hugely rewarding. So, bend those knees, get down on all fours and put your head to the dirt!
6. Listen & learn as much as you talk – The Obama campaign was such a success because audience engagement always took centerstage. Fisk and his team always sought the opportunity to create an exchange with the audience at every event. In contrast, many politicians were conditioned to talking at the audience (about why you should pick them over the competition) that they often neglect listening and learning from them. Brands are guilty of this as well. According to Roy Tan (MD, Carat MY), a guest panelist at the event, every $100 million dollars brands spend on ads (1-way messaging) returns an average of 7 seconds of viewer attention. That’s extremely poor ROI for such hefty spending.
As marketers, we can all learn a thing or two from the Obama campaign and look at how we can integrate their recipes for success into our marketing strategies. Overall, a very good experience and hopefully a wake-up call for more brands to embrace digital!
About me
I’m the Interactive Marketing Manager at Integricity Corporation. You can connect with me via Twitter (@tjtee) and my personal blog: The Red Pill Manifesto.
Topics: Activ8te, New-fangled Tech |