Discovering Bali like a local

Visitors are bound to have heard of the beautiful beaches at Kuta, Nusa Dua and Sanur, but there are more to Bali's soft sand and clear as glass water. Here we share some of our favorite local activities that will surely beat your jet-setter friend's sunset selfie!

1. Get a suntan like a local
Everyone knows that Bali has beaches; it's one of the main reasons people travel half way across the world to visit the Island of Gods. Whether it's the exotic black volcanic beaches of the west or the soft white sand beaches in the south, there's sure to be something for every type of beach-goer.

Forgo the overcrowded tourist spots and opt for one of these gorgeous hidden gems instead. It may take a little longer to get to but it's well worth the effort!

 Green Bowl Beach

Auto Beach (via Manbutur Photography)

Geger Beach

2. Eat like a local

One of the ways to truly experience Bali is definitely through its cuisines. The two things that you have to definitely try are the Babi Guling (open-fire roasted suckling pig) and Nasi Campur (literally means "mixed rice" where 4-5 different vegetable and protein dishes are served on a bed of rice). Our top picks for warung (wahr-roong)—small, traditional food establishments—to go to are listed below. 

Bonus: if you're hankering for some great seafood, look no further than the rows of seafood cafes at Jimbaran Beach. This area is perfect for sunset watching and it gets even more beautiful at night.

Babi Guling Selingsing Cepaka

Warung Made (Photo by @gunturutama)

Jimbaran seafood cafes

3. Keeping busy like a local

Immerse yourself in all the artistic mastery Bali has to offer. Learn how to do Batik—a painting technique to do prints on a piece of material, go try out pottery making, or practice your photography skills while biking through paddy fields.

Widya's Batik Studio (Photo by barelyprimitive)

Sari Api Ceramic Studio

Bali Eco Cycling

5 Do's of Digital Marketing

Today marked the 10th week (and 10th blog post!) I've delved into the Digital Marketing world. To commemorate it, I've compiled some of the highlights of what I think are important points for marketers to understand when dealing with the ever-changing world of Digital Marketing.

5. Think Digital, Be Personal

In trying to be technologically advanced, marketers often lose sight of who they are speaking to. Make sure you put your customers on the forefront of all of your marketing endeavors, most importantly Digital. The digital space is probably where you are closest and most connected with your customers. Make sure you are communicating in the most human way possible. Keep your tone and voice of your messages personal and respond to the feedback they are giving you. Take away the "machine" out of digital and let them know that there is a real person at the other end of the line.

4. Explore and Experiment

More flexible and susceptible to change than offline, and in many ways carrying lower risk, online is the most incredible opportunity to experiment with new ideas. Having an online presence should not be a burden, because it is about having fun, wondering ‘what if’ and exploring possibilities and nurture creativity. The ever-changing nature of the online world  will keep you on your toes. When it does give you a push, you want to be as agile and nimble as possible to avoid tipping over completely.

3. Turn Insights Into Inspiration

The most successful digital initiatives typically don't start with the idea for a cool new digital experience. You don't want to force fit a piece of technology into your marketing arsenal 'just because'. Start with doing your homework and get that consumer insights. Get to know them, get into their psyche, walk in their shoes for a day. Know who they are, what they're all about, how they interact with technologies, and what they want from you and your brand. (See Mountain Dew's approach in shaping the insights they have into a meaningful marketing tool)

2. Don't Tell A Good Story, Tell A Compelling One

Don't get caught up with trying to come up with a good story to tell. What you want is to tell a compelling one—A story that piques interest, sparks conversations, and inspires change. This goes back to my point about having key insights to drive your campaign. Insights help you paint a picture of how a day in the life of your product and your customer is like. Most often than not, there is something there you could dig and utilize to tell a compelling story.

1. Know your brand, THEN let others know about it

Last but not least, be clear on who your brand is, what it needs, where opportunities lie, and how to capture those opportunities. You can't start an effective marketing campaign without mastering your brand inside out. With audiences spanning the entire nation (even the world), the digital platform will amplify your brand message a hundred fold, so you want to make sure you are communicating in a coherent, clear-cut manner. Evian did the job wonderfully with their ongoing "Live Young" campaign.

Is Your Privacy Even Yours Anymore?

The term "Big Data" have gained a sharp popularity in the past few years. It's garnering a lot of following in the marketing industry because it's seen as a high-impact, low-cost difference maker. Done right, Big Data has proven to help further company growth. 

As the name suggested, Big Data are collected from a big pool at the end of billions and billions of data pipes. These pipes can originate from pictures and videos you've uploaded to social media, it can start from your transaction records, GPS signal transmitted from your phone, even the things you've searched on Google. 

Big online marketers such as eBay, Amazon, and Netflix are the obvious front runners in implementing the concept into their marketing efforts. eBay revamped their homepage and introduce a data-driven feed that constantly updates suggested items to customers based on their past purchases and preferences. Customers can also "follow" categories of items and stay on top of the most recent listings. Amazon and Netflix utilize Big Data in their algorithm to suggest products and film lineups that you might find interesting based on your past behavior.  

Privacy Concerns: Big Data's Biggest Roadblock

Despite the evident benefits of its use, not everything is sunshine and rainbow in Big Data Land. When it comes to their personal data and how it's being used, people generally don't like surprises. The leaks of several NSA surveillance programs a couple of years back highlights just how much of us and our lives are actually out there. 

The rapid growth of Big Data makes me wonder: when did I even disclose such informations? What are the rules and regulations between companies to use and share my information? As a marketer, where is the line drawn between collecting data and creeping on customers? It presents a greater need for data collectors to provide full disclosure on what they are planning to do with customers' data. 

My general feelings toward the idea of my data being collected and shared without my permission.

When implementing Big Data into your marketing effort it is crucial to be transparent with your customers. As Jeff Bertolucci wrote in his blog, "The promises of a data-driven society will fail to resonate with the public if they fear the result will be more dystopian than utopian." Realize that you will have more to gain by keeping your customers' trust, than by being sneaky and risking a perfectly good relationship.

One of the ways you can proactively make data collecting more transparent for your customer is by adapting the "email culture" concept. Make it easier for your customer to opt in and out of having their information used in any marketing efforts. 

It might be hard to say what is and is not creepy when it comes to customer data usage. As a brand, a good way to start is by acknowledging that there is no privacy and accept the fact that your customers should have just as much access to their data as yourself! It is not a fact made for the faint hearted and yes, it will still upsets some of your audience, but it will also dampen the outcry and possible backlash. Be accessible when asked to justify your need and use of those data. 

With or Without U2

Who doesn't know the legendary Irish rock band, U2? Aside from their many musical accolades, the band is also known for their acts of charities across the globe. Combating issues in poverty, disease, and social injustice. The band is as big as any band could have hoped to ever be. They probably have a higher approval rating than any United States president past or present.

Unfortunately, I am not here to write about their amazing successes (what's the fun in that?). The latest headline the band made in recent memories is about the Social Media disaster following their recent album release. 

In September 2014, the band—in partnership with tech and music giant, Apple—released its 19th album to the masses. The campaign coincides with the release of Apple's latest gadget, the iPhone 6. This marks the second time the two brands partnered up in an advertising campaign (the first being the iconic "Silhouette" campaign to promote the iPod). 

While the "Silhouette" campaign goes down the history book as one of the most iconic (not to mention profitable) campaign, Apple and U2's second partnership failed to capture any of the intended attention. 

Still haven't found what I'm looking for (the How to Delete instruction!)

The album, called Songs of Innocence, was being launched via iCloud. For most people who opt to automatically sync their iTunes library with their iCloud, this means that the album would be sitting pretty on their playlist without their consent.

Clearly the well intended "gift" does not sit right with the audience

The sudden appearance of the album's 11 songs was viewed by many as an aggressive marketing assault. The Twitterverse quickly blew up with complaints and gripes. Some even goes as far as saying "I'd rather have food poisoning on Christmas". What's even more frustrating to these people (including me), is the fact that there are no clear way to delete the album from their iTunes library. I had to resort to independent online forums in my effort to dump the album.

The backlash was so bad that Apple needed to issue a dedicated page on its site the very next week, to help people delete the unwanted "virus" off of their phones. Furthermore, both U2 and Apple are being seen as having a negative impact on the music industry as a whole. As reported by The Telegraph, Paul Quirk, chairman of the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) said: "... giving away hundreds of millions of albums simply devalues music and runs the risk of alienatingthe 60pc of the population who aren't iTunes customers"

To no one's surprise, the album only sold less than 7,000 copies, with fewer than 60 albums sold on the high street. To say that Songs of Innocence had performed horribly is an understatement.

"Beautiful Day" to learn from our mistakes

The band's frontman, Bono, apologized to a fan during a Q&A session held over Facebook. Despite that, he refused to issue an apology to the larger public stating that it remains "..one of the proudest moments in U2 history". He admitted he was unaware of the automatic download method their album was launched on.

Personally, I don't need a formal apology from anyone. At the heart of it, the campaign was a well meaning gift U2 and Apple thought to offer their loyal fans. I can just picture a brand manager over at Apple (who shelled out a cool $100 Million for the campaign) pitching the idea, probably saying "who doesn't like free stuff??". And being a creative who's job is to constantly suggest wild ideas in order to sell products, I know for a fact that the aforementioned line is a) true for the most part, and b) works almost 99% of the time in harnessing loyal customers.

The only missing cog is the "offering" part. It would have been nice if they had frame the whole marketing effort as a genuine offering where people can decide for themselves whether they want the album or not. Music is universal, but music genre is not—Not everyone is a U2 fan. Could the incident be avoided? Of course. Like I've stated before, providing your audience with option to receive a free album would probably agrees more with the general public. People loves free stuff, they just don't want free stuff shoved down their throats. 

Given the option, this would most likely be the general public's reaction towards U2's Songs of Innocence

Had the campaign still within its ideation phase, the Marketing managers would be the ones responsible to clean up this mess (read: not letting it see the light of day. Ever.) They should have had the common sense of at least coming up with a contingency plan, which includes the "how to delete" instructions. But after the campaign had launched, the responsibility shifts over to Apple and U2's PR agencies. They would be the most equipped in handling public meltdowns, especially in this magnitude. Would they be able to fix the problem entirely and improve the album's sales? Maybe not. But they could've figured out how to tame the fire a lot sooner.
 

Shimmy-ing into Virality

First come babies..

Evian had maintained a close tie in with babies in their marketing communication over the years. The idea had started in 1935 France—Evian was touted as THE mineral water for babies due to its mineral composition. 

Seems like it was only yesterday Evian launched it's highly successful web-centric "Roller Babies" campaign. That's the appeal of an online viral campaign—it keeps being shared over and over that one piece of creative seems to not have an expiration date. The Danone luxury water brand is one of the first brands to use Youtube exclusively to deploy its campaign back in 2009. The clip is being highly regarded as one of the first viral videos in the web 2.0 era. Its reputation being cemented in the Guiness Book of Record as the most viewed online advertising ever, racking in more than 25 million views in less than two months of its release. 

What's even more impressive, the Nielsen research found that a whopping 95% of those who saw the ad had not seen it on TV, but rather through online shares, 

..Then comes a string of viral hits

The campaign had since evolved into its current "Live Young" message. Evian built the global campaign with the sole objective of strengthening its existing brand relationships while also driving awareness to its audience all over the world in a fun and innovative way. The focus on digital medium is not without its reason—the brand isn't very popular to most population outside of France. Utilizing a medium that could reach millions on the other side of the world seems like a logical choice. The brand keeps churning viral videos featuring cute CGI babies doing impossibly dynamic activities, depicting how young you'll feel on the inside after taking a sip of their water. (You can see an array of hilarious executions of the campaign here, here, and here.)

In 2011, they introduced a pretty unique integrated marketing campaign, bringing the active CGI babies to live with a fresh new interactive take. The campaign was launched in Chicago, where Evian outfitted five bus shelters with an interactive digital panel featuring their "Live Young" creative. 

The digital billboard allows the consumers to interact with it through the touch screen panel. When pressed, the baby's body would start dancing to a catchy tune—capturing the undivided attention of the otherwise unoccupied audience waiting for their bus to arrive. How clever!

The campaign is a smart mixture of traditional, guerrilla, and digital. A QR code located on the ad gave consumers the opportunity to further engage with the brand through its (now defunct) microsite and "LetsBabyDance" app. The microsite even offered a personalized baby t-shirt for customers who wants to further engage with the brand.

Not stopping there, Evian rolled out the Baby & Me mobile app in May 2014. The app allows users to baby-fy their photos, revealing the inner child within, and share the pictures across social media accompanied by the hashtag #evianbabyandme.

In a world where most digital media campaigns are one hit wonders, it is truly fascinating how Evian's baby campaigns never seems to get old. At the end of the day, it all comes down to a strong brand identity and brand message. 

Treat digital media as a vehicle and interactivity as its wheel. The combination of both will steer you and your brand message securely to the intended audience (while bulldozing your competitors flat).

7 Deadly Sins of Mobile Marketing

From last week's gaming app post, I thought I'd explore more Do's and Don'ts of mobile marketing. This time, while flexing my graphic design muscles a little. Check out this info graphic on  what I think are easily avoidable missteps marketers often do when launching a mobile campaign. 

Gaming Apps: DEW-ing it right

A common mistake Brand Managers make when it comes to digitizing their brand is treating mobile apps as a check box. I've encountered this misstep too many times at work. Having an app isn't just about having a mobile presence. 

With the evolving technology, comes an evolved audience. Consumers get even more selective when it comes to who (read: what brands) they're welcoming onto their doorstep—much less inside the house! With the way consumers are interacting with their mobile devices, the mobile space has been elevated to such a prime real estate for brands to build their consumer relationship in. It's not only about getting on to consumers' mobile screens, it's about staying on. The key is to provide an app that offers a true value to your customer. 

There are countless different ways to engage with consumers in the mobile space. Most offers values such as utility, information, or entertainment—or even a combination of all three. 

Mountain Dew® Baja or Bust

Mountain Dew might not be as big a name as Pepsi or Coke in the carbonated beverage category, but it sure knows how to play to its strength. Mountain Dew has a large following in the male 13-25 year old category. It's been focusing its brand messages around being active and outdoorsy. A big chunk of their marketing spend usually goes to action sports athletes sponsorships (think skateboarding, BMX biking, motocross). In 2007, they expanded their marketing efforts to include sponsorships of indie game designers and players, in attempt to capture the video-gaming subculture.

Mountain Dew launched the Baja or Bust app to accompany the release of its Baja Blast flavor (previously only available at Taco Bell—another ingenious brand strategy). The app allows you to essentially play motocross challenges and earn points that can be redeemed for Mountain Dew merchandises, drink, and even a free trip. You can get extra points by checking in to Taco Bell, by inviting others to play via social media channels, or by putting in codes available in Mountain Dew Baja Blast bottle caps.

The app has been rated 4.5/5 stars, and received over 1,200 reviews on the app store. Not a small feat considering Candy Crush's popular sequel game, Soda Saga, had also received a similar rate and review. So what did Mountain Dew do right in developing this captivating app?

Stick with a familiar gaming mode

This type of racing game module has been around since video game was invented. There is not much of a learning curve aside from familiarizing ourselves with the controls. Remember, your audience has a very short attention span, so sticking with something they already know would ultimately lead to a positive brand impression.

Give your audience a real incentive

Mountain Dew actually offers real, tangible prizes people can trade in their points for. The prizes vary from a beach ball (48,000 pts), hoodies (375,000 pts), to winning a trip to Arizona (17,000,000 pts). These are all great incentive to spur sales and usage of the app. In addition to that, the game itself is actually challenging enough to motivate people to come back and play. Remember, it's not just about getting on the screen, it's about staying on.

Intuitive UX and Branding

At the time of writing this blog, I have only had the app for less than 6 hours. I've managed to complete 1 out of 12 worlds in the game (each has 10 sub-levels), and collected a meager 1,350 pts (I blame my poor hand-eye coordination skills). Point is, I know enough to operate the game the way it's intended solely through good User Interface design. Sure, the game provides an initial walk-through, but I decided to skip through all that to really put its UI and UX to the test. I have to say, the game passed with flying colors. I immediately know where to find rewards information, where the close button for each overlay, where the settings are, etc. Everything was labeled correctly, and designed with the user in mind. 

In terms of branding and design of the app itself, I have to commend their creative team. They managed to wrap the game in Mountain Dew branding without having to jam it down your throat. The game feels like it could stand on its own, yet you also can't help but sense the brand presence. Aside from the main page, there are no pesky brand message pop-ups riddling the gameplay. As a marketer, you need to know when to push and when it's better to pull. In this case, Mountain Dew lets its brand message shines through the game itself.

Ultimately, it all comes down to a good understanding of your own brand. Where is it standing in the market? How do you want to position it? What is it that you want the consumer to take away from their experience with your brand? Mountain Dew double backflip its way to hit these sweet spots with the Baja or Bust app.

Make sure you spend the necessary time to build on brand strategy before deciding to launch an app for your brand. Know who your audience are, what entertains them, what leaves them wanting more. An under developed app will only leave a bad taste in your consumer's mouth, and it sure will affect the way they perceive your brand.

Stick with the kiddie ramp until you're absolutely sure launching an app is a necessary marketing step your brand needs to take.

Dasani.com: A Tall Glass of Water

Part of my job as an Art Director is to find clever ways to deliver mundane brand messages. to attract consumers to consider my client's products. One of the tools a brand should have in their marketing toolbox is a well-designed website. 

Websites that are poorly designed will not only perform poorly and have sub-optimal Google Analytics data, it will hurt a business. In contrast, a website that is thoughtfully built, will reflect its results in the amount of repeat users and in most cases, number of sales.

Design is not just about how it looks and feels like.
Design is how it works. — Steve Jobs

Let's take a look at Dasani® water. 

Dasani® water is part of the Coca Cola company. They pride themselves in their crisp tasting, purified water, and plant based bottles. Their website demonstrate just that. As soon as I arrived at their homepage I was stopped dead on my track because of its strikingly refreshing design.  It displays huge hero shots of the products, keeping the surrounding layout thirst quenching-ly clean. It utilizes water splashes, droplets, and stream in such an elegant way that you can't help but be soothed by it. They keep the amount of colors and fonts used to a minimum—which is crucial in designing an effective website because it resulted in less visual clutter.

The Dasani® Sparkling page—Dasani® clearly understands their purpose and core values well evidenced by this refreshing website layout

Dasani® also offers their website in two language: English and Spanish. The option is accessible through the language button placed right next to their main navigation.

The Espanol button will take you to a version of the website that is completely built in spanish. You can opt-in or out of the two languages through the same button

The presence of this bilingual button shows Dasani's effort to reach the hispanic demographic of their target market. It shows that they understand the demographic is a large part of their business and wants to create a relationship that would cater specifically to them. It shows goodwill, and goodwill creates advocates.

Dasani® make sure to put forth their most important messages up front. Content they want their consumers to know about them and also content that might be relevant to their customers. Every links on their website are fully functioning and pages are accessible within one clicks. Another evidence of good UX at work.

Environmentally and socially friendly

Dasani® bottles are made of up to 30% plant-based material that replaces the fossil-based resources used unconventional PET plastic that makes them 100% recyclable. Furthermore, Dasani came up with a recycling initiative called Twist®. Their innovative bottle design can be twisted down to half its original size to reduce the amount of overflowing recycling bin. Not to mention, it is a fun way to remind you to recycle your empty bottles! Dasani® made sure that this environmentally friendly message does not get lost in their website, and made Sustainability part of the site's main navigation.

Speaking of being friendly, Dasani's website also includes social media widgets that links out to their Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube page. Each link opens on a new tab so that user don't have to lose their place on the main website—another great UX practice!

Overall..

I find Dasani's website to be truly engaging. You would think being a brand that sells something so mundane like water, their website would be a little ho-hum. But they have proved that great understanding of their own brand and of the marketing medium (in this case, the website) can and will result in great things. 

What happens when you don't understand how to utilize the tools in your Marketing Toolbox

They have definitely turned me into an advocate. Now if you'll excuse me, all this writing makes me a little thirsty. 'Til next week!

Facets of Fascinations

It takes me longer than I would care to admit to start writing a beginning to each blogs I wrote. I would write a couple of sentences, mull it over for hours, only to delete it and start anew. The process would take multiple days until I arrive at something that is just right.

Concept sketches, digital composites, poring over contact sheets after a photo shoot.. I spent a ridiculous amount of time to make sure I deliver consistently great products. I am a perfectionist to a fault. It's like an itch that won't go away until I'm completely satisfied with what I put forth. I've never really thought about it, but the Sally Hogshead's Fascination Advantage Assessment Test, revealed that one of my strongest characteristics is Prestige—I strive for excellence and push myself to achieve higher and higher goals. 

Another thing you need to know about me is that I have never liked rapid changes. I prefer sticking to schedules, manuals, tried-and-true methods—a routine. I've always thought of this as a negative quality. Most of the times, it prevents me from being spontaneous. My friends have yet been successful in dragging me in an impulsive road trip. 

Unless someone has all the rest stop locations memorized, no impulsive road trips for me!

I calculate my moves—only going forward once I've made sure that the road ahead is clear for me to effectively do my job. On the flip side, the Fascination Advantage test have ruled this as a characteristic I need to embrace. This Advantage has made me dependable. I easily gain other's trust by being a constant force of stability and familiarity. This characteristic is being described as Trust. According to the test, it is my Primary characteristic. I have to admit, this assessment is also right on target. Now that I think back, when my friends and I do go on a road trip, I'm usually the one they entrust with the map.

The Diplomat

The combination of Trust and Prestige culminates in what the Fascination Advantage Test refer to as "The Diplomat". Described as "methodical and steadfast", The Diplomat delivers high quality results and has a clear sense of where they are going in their personal life and career. 

I enjoy taking personality tests such as this one. Buzzfeed quizzes are my life. While those are mostly lighthearted in spirit (and meaningless at best), Hogshead's test has a huge impact on how I view myself and how I might use my strong assets in the workplace. These assessments are so eerily accurate and detailed in highlighting facets of me I didn't even realize having. Something others have recognized in me way before I do.

As the ancient Chinese philosopher, Lao Tzu once said,

"Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom.
Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power."

Til next time!

"..is Coke, Ok?"

I'm sure most of you have heard the old adage/brand marketers wet dream "the two most recognizable word in the world are 'Ok' and 'Coca-Cola'." The brand is so widely popular it is almost impossible to find anyone who hasn't heard of it.

The company owes its global success to its devoted brand loyalists—which, let's face it, most likely includes you (yes, you!) or someone you know. Sure, there are plenty of factors that contribute to Coke's success, such as:

• Substantial distribution network. As fellow blogger sopinon8ed had expressed in his post about Coca-Cola's business model, Coke has a massive distribution system, so much so that it is not uncommon to find a nice, chilled bottle of Coke in the middle of nowhere in Africa 
• Cheap production cost, which ultimately leads to mass-market appeal
• Large marketing spend. Coca Cola's advertising budget in 2010, came just shy of $3 billion

But all of these mean jack squat if the market demand isn't there.

Started in the US, Coke has built its brand on heritage. People identify the brand with the feeling of comfort, of joy, of timelessness. In other parts of the world, it is seen as such a perfect example of iconic western brand that people aspire to be a part of. One of Coke's allures, especially in developing countries, is the fact that it is seen as an affordable luxury. People relate to the brand, no matter where they're from. 

An outdoor campaign created by Ogilvy Shanghai showing the dynamic Coca Cola ribbon as two hands passing a bottle of Coke. A powerful imagery illustrating how the Coke brand exist as part of our everyday lives, bringing people together.

So how exactly do Coca-Cola harness the power within its ever-growing evangelists? 

Coca-Cola constantly churns out creative marketing stunts, one more outrageous than the next. Stunts that makes them relevant, that keeps them buzzed about around the water cooler. As an established brand, building an audience isn't an issue for them. But where Coca-Cola shines is in the way they make sure each campaign sings harmoniously with each other.

They constantly innovate ways to tell their story, not the story itself.

Share A Coke

Let's take a look at the Share A Coke campaign for example. The campaign was first launched in 2011 in Australia. It's about taking the global brand and making it personal to its consumers. Letting them share a Coke with their name adorned on the bottle, creating special moments of shared memories between people. Its success in the land down under triggered a global launch in more than 70 countries, including a US launch earlier this summer. 

In Australia—where the campaign originated—Coca-Cola actually let people type in the name/word they want to see on their Coke can. Broadening their reach to include people with unusual names (such as yours truly.)

It's a brilliant marketing effort wrapped in a warm, personalized, and engaging blanket. People are not only sharing their Coke in real life, they are creating an online frenzy. Sharing pictures, tagging friends, utilizing the #ShareACoke hashtag. The campaign is responsible for the first sales growth the company had seen in the last decade according to the Wall Street Journal.

The Dancing Vending Machine

Another great brand engagement Coke has done comes in the shape of a Kinect-activated vending machine. This campaign was launched in 2012 in South Korea. The premise being people are rewarded for completing dancing tasks presented by the vending machine. 

The campaign was a part of their "Share Happiness" project. Have you ever seen a sad person dancing? It is physically impossible  to do. Without explicitly stating the message itself, they managed to convey the idea of joy, of sharing memories and moments of happiness with loved ones.  

                                                                             Nope, no sad person here.

Coca-Cola has been great in making sure to evolve their brand story using Dynamic Story Telling methods. They converse directly with customers in many social media networks. From keeping up with the volume of Twitter mentions, to tailoring their marketing efforts to  fit the unique online medium that is Tumblr. Coca Cola evolve their way of quenching our thirst without losing sight of what they are all about.

Coca-Cola understands the importance of positive brand engagement in Social Media such as Twitter.

So the next time somebody offered you Coke in lieu of your soda pop of choice, say "OK!" and know that you're about to be on the receiving end of happiness.

How to Stump an Art Director

There are a lot of ways one can answer the above question. A few extremely effective ways are:

1. Ask them to make the logo larger

                                                           How about.. No.

2. Tell them the client asked for Comic Sans/Papyrus font because "it's fun!"

                                                                              Enough said.

3. Instruct them to write—headlines, body copy, a blog (!)

                                                                          Please don't

Hi there! I'm Intan. An Art Director by trade, a Marketing student/victim/enthusiast by choice. Growing up, I've always been gravitated toward colors, shapes, illustrations, and drawings—art has always been my escape. 

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind writing the occasional "How I Spent My Summer" composition (you know, the ones your teacher asks you to do at the start of every school year).. but it just doesn't come as easily as putting pencil on paper and drawing it out.

Being an AD, I get to constantly surround myself with design and typography. I also get to get a taste of the world of Marketing—both traditional and digital.

Which brings us to.. this blog. I will readily admit that I am terrified of writing as a medium to express myself. I am even less excited about the fact that it is going to be out there on the inter web (do people still say that? "Interweb?") and possibly being read by people other than my immediate family members. AAACK!

                                                                My general feeling towards writing

But, I see this as an interesting challenge. With Art·Keting, I hope to be able to shed some light to the fascinating, ever changing world of Digital Marketing through the lenses of an Art Director. So please join me while I embark in this exciting journey!

PS: You can follow me on these platforms as well!
instagram: @intangramm
Twitter: @benntrenggana