Google tips for CNY

NOTE: This article appeared in Marketing Magazine's The Pitch HK blog on February 12, 2010. The Pitch HK is a marketing/PR  blog that features the ideas and opinions of industry experts across the region. I wrote the piece as a blog post credited to Isaac Shao, Google's Head of Hong Kong Online Sales and Operations.

Google wanted an article that showed the merits of online advertising, particularly its own AdWords service, without making the write-up look too advertorial. What we came up with was an anecdotal approach to a Google client story that had the Chinese New Year as the central theme to make the article timely and relevant. 


With Chinese New Year (CNY) a few days away, here in Hong Kong, everything is abuzz with activity as the city prepares for the Lunar New Year.

We Hong Kongers are renowned for celebrating the CNY in a unique way and that is why every year thousands of tourists descend upon our city to share the festivities with us. On the flip side, many locals take advantage of the holiday to enjoy a long weekend overseas.

CNY is one of the busiest times for businesses, particularly for those in the travel sector. Given the short window to sell CNY holiday packages, competition is rife among travel agencies. When you're selling almost the same products, it can be hard to differentiate your offerings. Without an effective marketing and advertising plan, standing out in the crowd can be quite a daunting task.

One company that seems to get it right is Macau.com, a leading online destination marketing and travel company. Its online CNY marketing campaign is generating a lot of high quality traffic to its web site.

I recently bumped into Carrel Ieong, Head of Marketing of Macau.com and the man behind the successful campaign, and we got to talking about the secret to his success.

According to Carrel to ensure that your online ad reaches the right people, it needs to appear and link to relevant sites. For instance, Macau.com's CNY ad appears whenever someone googles the keywords "ferry ticket + hotel" or "hotel show ticket". To maximize its visibility, especially in China, the company linked its CNY ad to both global and local popular travel web sites, such as flightstats.com, Qunar.com and Kuxun.cn through Google global content networks.

Macau.com's case is an example of online advertising done right. And it has the numbers to back it up. For instance, its online CNY holiday ad boosted its web traffic by 30% from December to mid-January. With a conversion rate of about 30%, the company has seen a 30% growth in online sales.

Local online advertising has really started to pick up the pace. The financial crisis, I guess, forced companies to assess where they invest their marketing and advertising budgets. Now, with the economy improving, companies have realized that what they need is a high-impact marketing option, one without a hefty price tag attached — and online advertising seem to fit the bill.

In fact, online advertising has seen the highest growth (19.3% in 2010) among all media in Hong Kong (eMarketer, December 2009). This year we have seen a 50% YoY growth on online ad spend from our top clients in Hong Kong compared to 2009. I think the desire to expand their client base globally without having to spend too much is what's pushing most companies to market themselves online.

Advertising online can be a bit tricky, though. You need to make sure that you reach the right audience in the right place at the right time. Otherwise, there's a slim chance of your ad finding its way to your customers.

For those in the travel business, here are a few tips on how to get the most out of your online ads:

• Create a user-friendly, well-structured web site that search engines can find and index easily is critical to amplifying your brand's presence on the Web. The more relevant your web site is to search engine users, the higher your page rank will be, and that will increase the chance of customers visiting your web site.
• Select keywords that are highly relevant to your business and make sure to include variations. You can check the keywords suggestion from Google tools. For instance, apart from "accommodation", use common misspellings such as "accomodation" or "acommodation" to maximize the exposure of your online ads.
• Study the market's buying behaviour via free Google Insights for Search, is critical. Always be on the lookout for the latest travel destination searches and be sure to customize your keywords, budget and geographic coverage in accordance with market response. For CNY, Hong Kong seems to be a popular choice, with keywords such as "travel to HK", "Hong Kong travel" and "Hong Kong hotel" dominating travel-related search queries.
• Don't forget to add popular tourist spots in your list. Key words like "Disneyland Hong Kong" or "Ocean Park" and useful information such as "香港天气" and "香港地铁图" can improve your page ranking too.
• Frequently update your keywords. You'll be surprised at what people are looking for on the Web. For example, Chinese tourists nowadays are searching for "i square Hong Kong". Do you have that on your keyword list?
• Always tell the truth. Don't say something is free if it really isn't and don't promise offers that are impossible to find on your web site. Drawing potential customers to your web site is only the first (and often easiest) step — you want repeat visits from your customers, too.

On a side note, here are some interesting trends Carrel and I have seen in the travel market:

• Local travel keyword searches in pre-CNY period increased by 47% YOY and even higher compared with pre-Christmas travel period in 2009 (up 12%)
• Holiday destination searches surged from December 2009 to mid-January 2009
• Online transaction is gaining momentum since mid-January 2010
• Hotel show tickets and entertainment options have become the most popular keywords from mid-January 2010 onwards

Kung Hei Fat Choi and here's wishing you a prosperous Year of the Tiger!

Web 2.0 redefines governments

NOTE: This article appeared in Marketing Magazine's The Pitch HK blog on March 19, 2010. The Pitch HK is a marketing/PR blog that features the ideas and opinions of industry experts across the region.

I wrote the piece as a blog post credited to Chris Tang, Managing Director of The Hoffman Agency Asia Pacific (HA AP). The intention was to highlight HA AP's social media expertise and market know-how, especially of China. We chose to tackle the issue of Chinese government and the Web 2.0 world as that was one of the more popular topics at that time.


As soon as social media started penetrating the business world, it was just a matter of time before the technology came knocking on governments’ doors.

But for an institution that is steeped in traditional policies and procedures, changing the way a government communicates with its constituencies is a definite challenge.

However, change is inevitable.

The era of a faceless, nameless government is slowly eroding and the days of top-down, one-way communications is almost obsolete. In its place are rising expectations for governments to be more transparent, accountable, effective and efficient.

So far, it remains to be seen how soon — and how well — governments adopt Web 2.0 technologies. What’s good to know is that they get the message loud and clear.

And it is obvious to me that governments are quite serious about learning and understanding social media.

As an advocate of the technology, I have been frequently invited as a lecturer in various social media marketing conferences around the region and, more often than not, the number of attendees from the public sector is quite high. That shows to me a certain level of commitment.

Talking to them gave me valuable insights on the governments’ perception of social media. Not only are they fully aware of how social media influences how the public regard government bodies, it is also compelling them to change their behaviour and response towards decision making and engaging people. Many of them, in fact, are already listening closely and actively monitoring online conversations where the government is concerned.

They feel that it is time to take it up a notch. The problem is where… and how.

Some government agencies in the region have “ventured out into the wild”, so to speak, and built their own social media profiles. Hong Kong CEO Donald Tsang has his own blog where he constantly shares his take on key local and international issues.

The Singapore Police Force has created its own Facebook page that focus on crime prevention advisories, public education and recruitment, while the South Korean government has launched its own YouTube channel with Lee Myung-bak — the Korean president — addressing the audience with subtitled speeches. The government also introduced a Twitter feed that provides information about the developments in South Korea.

And then there’s China.

Despite certain Internet restrictions, Chinese Web users still remain as one of the most active social media participants in the world. In fact, social media plays a central role in some of the most talked about business, social and environmental issues in the mainland. Who can forget CCTV anchor Rui Chenggang’s online petition to remove a Starbucks coffee shop in the Forbidden City? Or the blogger coverage about the Chongqing Nail House which led to the story becoming a national sensation?

Indeed, the adoption of social networks in China goes beyond building online personalities or playing Happy Farm. For the majority of the Chinese, it is a platform for them to express their opinions, voice out their grievances and, perhaps, alter certain government decisions.

Having seen the way social media empowers its citizens, the Chinese government initiated a program called the Government Portal 2.0 Era. At the core of this new initiative is the emphasis on putting people at the center of issues. It aims to push for government affairs transparency and use public participation as the motivation for an integrated e-government era.

As a gesture to show that the powers that be are keen to engage the public, no less than President Hu Jin-tao himself instigated an online conversation and willingly answered questions from the general public. While this act, I believe, is no more than just a show, the good thing about it is that the government knows that they should not underestimate the power of the public opinion generated in the Web 2.0 world.

Just like in other countries, the role social media play in China’s governments is still evolving. So far, it has proven itself as an effective method to mobilizing public opinion and acting as a watchdog for corruption. We are also seeing glimpses of how it can shape the government’s decisions and policy-making and in improving transparency and social equality.

Ultimately, I believe that what social media will continue to do is to propel the democratization process in China. Put it this way: China still has its very unique political system but things are changing gradually. To a large extent (thanks to Web 2.0) they are levelling the playground and increasing the level of transparency and pushing the government to make decisions that consider people’s well-being as the priority.