New Strategies in Digital PR

CultureFish Media’s CEO Lonnie Hodge and and Sam Flemming, founder of CIC, China’s first Internet Word of Mouth research and consulting firm, are the featured speakers at the New Trends in Digital Media Conference in Shenzhen, China. Topics to be discussed include: Benefits of Online News Releases, Myths and Realities of Digitization, Trends in Digital Online Ads, applications of Internet word of Mouth and Online Reputation Management methods. The event will give attendees a competitive advantage over the competition by revealing information needed to catapult a company, event, brand or website to top positions in search engines world-wide.

The conference is part of a trio of charity events designed to entertain and inform while raising money for important charities. The three events include a golf tournament, a concert with Virgin records star Che’Nelle and the Digital Workshop.

Veteran and apprentice PR, Advertising, Online Reputation Management and SEO and SEM specialist will equally benefit from the half-day seminar to be held at the famed Mission Hills Resort. Known for being the world’s largest championship golf complex Mission Hills is also a 5-star conference facility.

All proceeds from the workshop benefit two literacy projects: The Library Project in China which builds facilities in rural villages and orphanages and the Reading Tub which supports opportunities for under-privileged youth in America.

Cost for the workshop is $200 USD and covers lunch and dinner at the resort. All attendees can bring their families and discounted rates up to 50% for rooms and activities will apply.

To register for the events simply pay online at the Dream Bash: http://dreambash.eventbrite.com

The workshop is sponsored by Digital PR and Marketing Specialists CultureFish Media.

—You may also attend ONLINE. The workshop begins at 1:00 PM China Time

Created by The Greatest Living American

This is a don’t miss event for anyone looking for  the best talent anywhere for movie, flash, or digital animation. Suzhou, a gorgeous “water town” near Shanghai, is playing host to the event:

Take a look at the media industries and you’ll find animation everywhere. In TV, film, education and training, games, mobile, advertising, and online. It’s also one of the strongest youth market categories in digital media.

X|Media|Lab Suzhou concentrates on this “wealth of animation” bringing together a stellar range of animation experts from all over the world.

The Keynote Conference Day focuses on four themes: Animation Industry Development; International Business Opportunities; Quality Assurance and Management; and Technologies and Skills.

The Business Matching Forum focuses on you. It’s your opportunity to meet up with the animation industry experts, directly discuss your own animation ideas, network yourself right into the heart of the China animation industry, and explore business matching and partnerships with the other international participants at the Lab.

International participants include:

- Raman Hui - Director of Shrek 3
- Michael Johnson - Motion Picture Lead, Pixar Studios
- Duncan Brinsmead - Chief Research Scientist, Autodesk (Maya Software)
- Suresh Seetharaman - Founder and President, Virgin Comics and Virgin Animation
- Sue Erokan - Supervisor, Character Animation, Dreamworks
- Dan Scott - Head of Global Production, Nokia Games
- Masakazu Kubo - Executive Producer, Pokemon Film and TV Series (Tokyo)
- Xavier Nicholas - Managing Director, Lucasfilm Animation Singapore
- Heather Kenyon - formerly Director of Development, Original Animation at Cartoon Network
- Dale Herigstad - 5-time Emmy Award Winner, Schematic (LA)
- Nickson Fong - Founder, Egg Story (Singapore)
- Paul Steed - Founder, Exigent Studios (Los Angeles)
- Madhavan - Founder, Crest Animation (India)
- Michael Stevens - Board Member, Park Road Post (Wellington)
- Tatiana Kober - Founder, Bejuba Studios (LA and Toronto)
- Anand Gurnani - Founder, Animation ‘Xpress (India)
- Tim Brook-Hunt - Head of Children’s TV, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Sydney)
- Alan Lindsay - CEO, Vue DC Group (Perth)

China participants include a ‘who’s who’ of the China animation industry including: the Dean of Animation, Beijing Film Academy; President, Great Dreams Cartoon Group; Executive Deputy Secretary General of China Animation Association, and Head of Digital Media Technologies, Beijing Institute of Technology; Executive Vice President of China Animation Association; Deputy Director of Digital Animation Creation R&D Centre, China Art Academy; Secretary General of Mobile Animation Industry Association; CEO of China Animation Association; Managing Partner of China Renaissance; the Vice President of ID Tech Ventures; and many others.

XML Suzhou will be the perfect place to make contact with some the best animation people from all over the world – whether you are interested in creative development, best practices, or business opportunities internationally or in China.

Suzhou is one of China’s animation centers of excellence, about 90 minutes north of Shanghai - and it exemplifies the “New China”: hundreds of huge new buildings springing up out of the ground, great vitality, and a commitment to developing the digital media industries.

X|Media|Lab Suzhou “Wealth of Animation” International Participants

Places are strictly limited to both the Keynote Conference Day (300 maximum – 120 already sold) and the Business Matching Forum (80 participants – 30 already allocated).

For Chinese head here: Animation Workshop

English: Animation Suzhou

Online digital advertising and reputation Management firm  CultureFish Media is a new International Marketing Partner with X|media.

Original story here: XML Suzhou: China Animation Spotlight Event

I have been thinking a lot about brand and reputation management (Yes, really!) in light of events in China over the last few weeks that I addressed in an earlier Onemanbandwidth post. Companies in the west tend to overlook reputation management unless there is a crisis and then it can be incredibly costly and I guarantee time will stand still during the repair.

It is especially hard on a multinational brand when negative publicity threatens them in a foreign country, like China. Suddenly every available bi-lingual marketer, search engine optimization specialist and online digital maketing company is called on to rebuild an image. A company should not have to ask, “Can we rebound from this?” Stock prices, and jobs will depend on the outcome.
Companies like CIC, the Internet Word of Mouth Research Company in Shanghai are called, after the fact, to assess damages and recommend strategies for leveling the Internet playing field again. If a brand’s good name is threatened a company should use (to exploit the metaphor) every play in the book to come from behind:

• Online Videos posted on popular Chinese video sites like Tudou and Youku and 56.com which may already be more popular here than Youtube.
  For examples of success, look no further than the videos put out by Mattel and in America remember how Obama countered criticism of his pastor via Youtube and Facebook.
• Buy Paid results in Chinese Search Engines. The first four search slots are for sale on Baidu and they have an incredible no-brainer tool I will mention later for branded terms and products. Partnering with Companies like Online Digital Marketing provider and Baidu partner Culture Fish Media, is a good idea. They will help you choose and translate, with help from CIC, the right keywords in the right local dialects. Armed with information and adwords they can then geographically target them for the right regions and toward the correct demographic profiles so you don’t waste advertising revenue with panic spending.
• SEO interface: Start looking again at keywords and language interface pages again. And be sure to hire a company in China that gets reputation management and IWOM.
• Because Bulletin boards (BBS) comments have such great authority in organic search results in China is is essental for a native team to continue to incorporate reputation monitoring as a regular business strategies. Ideally this is best done before a crisis.

Here are some facts compiled by the marketing pilgrim:

• 80% of adults are “very” or “somewhat” more likely to consider buying products recommended by real-world friends and family.
• 78% of executive recruiters routinely use search engines to learn more about candidates, and 35% have eliminated candidates based on the information they found.
• 52% of survey respondents from developed nations said they find “a person like yourself” to provide the most credible information.
• 87% believe the CEO’s reputation is an important part of a company’s reputation.
• 90% of consumers trust recommendations from others.
• 83% of companies will face a crisis that will negatively impact their share price between 20 and 30%, during the next five years.
• 100% of those reading this post have either a personal or corporate reputation to protect.

I would add that the stats for China, save the last one, are all higher. IWOM has far more impact here.
Some companies say full recovery from a PR trauma can take 4-41/2 years. That is a long time in the life of many stock portfolios. There is no need to get initial that situation in China in the first place. Baidu has a very inexpensive tool tailored for brands. It is called a power link:

Should your company have a trademarked name or branded service you can buy the entire first page of search results. On that page, a company can include up to 15 left-side links and a right hand display ad.

Think about that for a second: Owning your own page/keywords means a 100% click-through rate and 100% of the listings that are seen on the first page of results belong to you. It is the ultimate no-brainer for advertising.

Especially for a difficult to understand market like China it is important to begin SEM with a company, prior to an emergency, that can guide, nurture and maintain your online reputation.

—————–

Note:

Culturefish Media is currently working and with ad agencies, SEO firms and Independent marketing consultants to tailor solutions for online digital advertising and reputation management in China. Inquiries about partnerships and services can be made here: Culturefish