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Knowledge, insights and expertise for the creative mind.
As if phubbing wasn’t a deep enough problem in our digital-crazy era, a ghost from the past has come back to haunt us. Nexon released a mobile version of their heralded PC game globally, Maplestory M, on Wednesday, 25th July 1pm. Maplestory M started their page on May 14, garnering more than 200,000 followers since. It is probably the most successful launch of a mobile game since Pokemon Go. So what can we learn from this?
If you value your Google ranking on the SERPs, then it’s time to get your page speed up. Go fast or go home.
In early July 2018, Google announced another significant change in it’s ranking algorithms – one of which will be of concern for many businesses hoping to rank their website in Google’s Search Engine Results Page. And this involves your site’s mobile page loading speed. Just early this March 2018, Google rolled out the mobile-first indexing which uses mobile version of web pages when it crawls, index and ranks them for mobile users.
This time, the focus goes deeper into the site speed, worrying advertisers and business owners all at the same time. Whether you’re in Singapore, Malaysia or any part of the world, this change will affect you the same.
When we talk about talking selfies and stories on our socials, which side are you on? Instagram, Facebook or… Snapchat? When Facebook attempted to buy Snapchat recently, they were rejected despite a whopping bid of $3 billion. In response, Facebook leveraged on their acquisition of Instagram to compete against Snapchat, by launching Instagram stories or what’s widely known at Instastories.
Talk about life’s regrets.
With the purchase, Instagram’s platform soared in terms of the number of users and ads, while Snapchat struggled to keep up. Facebook also launched Facebook Stories to add options for the avid social media users. From there, Snapchat started to look more and more like an Instagram copy instead of the other way around, as they struggled to innovate to pull ahead of its ‘successor’.
Until now.
Snapchat recently launched a gaming platform, similar to WeChat, in an attempt to improve user engagement and move ahead of their rival. They released a series of Snapchat filter games and Augmented Reality (AR) games that users can play on the platform.
Most notably, the AR Tennis game against Serena Williams is a clear sign that Snapchat’s advanced AR technology is going to become their selling point.
Y’all seeing this? Get your chance to battle @serenawilliams – you wont win 😂 but try your best and share your high score. pic.twitter.com/sXuxtImgJI
— Alexis Ohanian 🧠 (@alexisohanian) July 2, 2018
Credit: Alexis Ohanian Sr.
Snapchat games provide an additional tool for businesses to adapt. (YAY!) That is always welcomed for creative people (*wink wink*) to adapt for marketing.
Does Snapchat still matter?
Well, it really depends.
Snapchat numbers have risen steadily over the past year, with more and more youths adopting the platform. We’ve to admit, they’ve got really nice filters. Heh. This means any strategy or business targeting youths have to take Snapchat into serious consideration.
Incorporating gaming has given other platforms (aka Facebook) a boost before and it should do the same for Snapchat.
What can businesses do with this information?
Consider playing around with Snapchat’s functions and ads viewing if you are unfamiliar with the platform. Businesses can also start looking into adapting filters and AR games to help their own cause.
Do keep the demographics of Snapchat in mind while developing and utilising them and tie in to your branding. It will be a waste of marketing dollars otherwise.
If you want to utilise them, and you are having trouble with incorporating into your brand, consult an agency to help you.
Shout out to our local brands!
With all the hype surrounding big name international brands and their digital marketing strategies, we think it’s time to put our local heavy hitters in the spotlight. We may be a Little Red Dot but we still have massive creativity and talent!
After Facebook’s recent scandal with leaked user information and the US Election fiasco, the social media giants have decided to become more transparent with their platform. In early April, Facebook announced they were making ads transparent and marking political ads as special cases.
This has been a long time coming, given the chatter on Russian meddling since the US Elections fiasco ended 2 years ago.
How does this affect your business?
Ad transparency means anyone and everyone can now view all the ads you are running. This includes your target audience and unfortunately, your competition. The good news is that they can only see the content and the type of ad but nothing on the data and statistics that come with it.
So what should you do?
The FIFA World Cup 2018 is coming to an end and it has been an entertaining tournament to say the least. From upsetting favourites to Cinderella stories there were no lack of storylines this year. A quadrennial event, the World Cup unites people, even non-football fanatics and this lays the perfect opportunity for brands to leverage and showcase creative ads.
Some certainly caught our attention with the witty satires and endless shades thrown on some of the notable footballers. And of course, the smart perfectly timed ads – although some were blatantly jumping on the bandwagon.
Here’s some of our favourites!
Truth to be told, we’ve all had nightmare clients that descended from Hell, somehow unfortunately, snooping into our office space by a miracle of sorts. Rule of thumb is, if you come across angelic clients – cherish them. We’ve identified 7 types of clients that will bound to make you gag because… you probably can relate!
Get a kickstart ahead of your competitors with these tips!
With the advent of innovative smart phone solutions around every corner of the world, it leaves very little room for brands to lag behind with year 1997 type of websites in this adage of digital wave.
To proclaim the throne of the Search Engine Results Page (SERPs) , it takes a combination of a well-designed, structured and content-relevant elements. Google crawl algorithms may be changing ever so often, but there is a fundamental set of basic requirements that has not lost it’s importance to gain that coveted spot for the keyword that you’re ranking for.
Here’s a rundown of the elements that will help you get a boost in Google’s ranking.
Our rendition of A Dummy’s Guide to Search Engine Optimisation
What is all this buzz about SEO? SEO simply stands for “Search Engine Optimization.” And these days, when you mention search engine – Google probably comes off as top of mind. And that’s a great place to start. Forget Yahoo Or Bing, it’s Google that you need to care about now. In a nutshell, SEO is the practice of optimising your website’s quality and credibility such that Google deems you as relevant and trustworthy – trustworthy enough for them to rank you, and suggest you to consumers who are searching for a specific term, on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).
But how does Google decide which website should be ranked first? That’s the challenge. And Google crawl algorithms are always changing. So if any digital marketing agency ever told you, “We know SEO at the back of our hand..”, here’s an advice. Stay away! Because there really isn’t a fixed way for SEO – Google’s algorithms for crawling a website, changes faster than Justin Bieber’s relationship.
There really isn’t a hard and fast rule for a successful SEO strategy. A strategy can work incredulously well and the next day the same strategy might cause your ranking to plunge. While this happened in the notorious 2016’s Possum Update – we are certain it can happen again.
Here’s a little help from us to help you through understanding what Google crawl bots look for – and how to make your website SEO better.