A Marketer's New Secret Weapon: Peeking Inside Google Gemini's Brand Insights

As digital marketers, we're constantly juggling a million things. From crafting the perfect social media post to analyzing campaign performance, staying on top of how our brand is perceived online can feel like a never-ending task. Wouldn't it be great to have a quick and easy way to understand what's being said about your brand across the vast digital landscape? Enter Google Gemini's Deep Research – your new secret weapon for a quick and insightful brand pulse check.

Image credit: Techrdar.com/Shutterstock

I’ve been using this tool quite a bit of late for brand research, competitive analysis and getting a sense of brand sentiment. Let me tell you, this is a game changer! Think of Gemini's Deep Research as your always-on virtual assistant, sifting through the noise online to give you a clear snapshot of your brand's performance. It's not about complex data analysis that requires a PhD, it's about getting a feel for the overall sentiment and key themes associated with your brand – whether it's on websites, social media buzzing with opinions, or even how your app (if you have one) is being received.

Why is this so valuable for us marketers? Imagine launching a new campaign for a brand. Instead of manually scrolling through countless comments and reviews, Gemini's Deep Research can quickly give you an overview of whether the initial reaction is positive, negative, or neutral. This allows for swift adjustments to your strategy if needed. Furthermore, the tool excels at uncovering key themes. Are people raving about the new flavor you just launched? Or are there concerns being raised about the delivery experience for your product orders? Gemini's Deep Research can help you identify the recurring topics and conversations surrounding your brand, highlighting what's resonating and what demands your attention. It serves as a starting point of knowing what to fix.

Image credit: Google Blog

While your primary focus is your own brand, gaining a broader understanding of the market is always beneficial. You can use Gemini's Deep Research to get a general sense of how your competitors are being discussed online, providing valuable competitive insights without the need for overwhelming data. Moreover, catching a negative trend early can be a significant advantage. If there's a sudden increase in complaints about the user-friendliness of your mobile app, this tool can flag it (as it crawls through and aggregate ratings and comments on Google Play and Apple App store), enabling proactive measures before the issue escalates. Finally, knowing what your audience is talking about and their experiences can be incredibly useful for shaping your content strategy. If customers consistently praise (or complaint) on the affordability of your products on social media, this could be a powerful starting point for your next marketing campaign.

Think of Gemini's Deep Research as your initial exploration. It provides a broad overview, a feel for the online atmosphere surrounding your brand. It's not intended to replace in-depth analytics platforms, but rather to offer a quick and accessible understanding.

For example, if you're managing the online presence for a local restaurant chain like Nando's Malaysia, you could use Gemini's Deep Research to see what people are saying about their new menu item across various platforms. Are the reviews overwhelmingly positive? Are there any common criticisms regarding the spice level? This initial insight can then guide your deeper analysis and inform how you tailor your communication.

The beauty of using Gemini for this purpose lies in its intuitive design. You don't need to be a data scientist to interpret the results. It presents information in an easily digestible format, highlighting key trends and sentiments without overwhelming you with intricate charts and graphs.

In our dynamic digital landscape, staying informed about your brand's online presence is essential. Google Gemini's Deep Research presents a potent yet user-friendly method for digital marketers in Malaysia to conduct a rapid pulse check, pinpoint significant themes, and acquire valuable insights to refine their strategies. So, why not explore its capabilities and discover what it can reveal about your brand's online narrative? It might just offer the fresh perspective needed to elevate your overall marketing strategy.

What do you think? Is this a game changer?

Things Not To Do On Social Media #243: Do Not Take Sides

Usain Bolt, currently the fastest man on the planet is also probably one of the most marketable athlete in the world. With brands around the globe just lining up for his endorsement, there are just some things that you cannot do on social media - taking sides.

Though it's not a crime to express a liking for a particular football team, you cannot down play or "insult" the other opponent's team as it is often seen as disrespect and cheap.

In this case, Usain Bolt who just posted a picture of him together with Arsenal legend, Thierry Henry.

The problem is, Bolt cheekily mentioned that he was a fan of Manchester United, one of Arsenal's fiercest rival in the English Premier League and how Henry "played for the wrong team". Although this picture got a lot of "likes" on Instagram, there were a couple of comments from followers (presumably Arsenal fans), who were not too impressed.

The only plus is that this is on his personal account and not for a particular brand. Imagine the PR nightmare the brand has to go through if this were to happen? However, personal or not, if you want to be a well respected ambassador for brands, you should not take sides let alone belittle the competition.

All You Ever Wanted To Know About McDonald's

Ever wondered how McDonald's burger patties are made? What goes into making the perfect Big Mac? What are Chicken McNuggets made of? These are some commonly asked questions about McDonald's globally and I bet even you would like to know the answers to them as well. Well now you can. McDonald's Canada (@McD_Canada) gives their customers to ask everything and anything about their food.

I first came across this when a colleague of mine shared a video which showed Hope Bagozzi, Director of Marketing of McDonald's Canada going down the field to answer a customer's question on "Why does your food look different in the advertising than what is in the store?". Bagozzi went to a McDonald's outlet, then bought a burger and brought it back to the photo studio and made a comparison to explain why that the ad and the real burgers are different.

The thought of opening a question forum like this, is always subjected to pros and cons. In this case, McDonald's as a brand seemed "more caring" especially when Bagozzi went on ground and took effort to shoot a video to answer a question posted by one of their customers. Customers do appreciate the effort for doing so and in turn, they will trust the brand more for it's transparency, honesty and effort. However, things like these could also lead customers into posting stupid things or using it as a channel to complain or to vent hate about the brand.

Q: "When you say 100% beef, do you mean whole cow: the organs, snout, brain, kidneys, etc or just plain beef we buy @ the grocer?"

Nevertheless, it's still a very good thing McDonald's Canada did. I love the campaign for the fact that they do not rely on a Facebook page for customer interaction, and I do hope that customers would use it for getting answers rather than for malicious intend.

Campaign site: http://yourquestions.mcdonalds.ca/
Note: You can only post questions if you're residing in Canada as it detects your IP address

BeerBeary: Jaz Beer Viral Videos - Part 2

A couple of posts back, I posted some viral videos done by Jaz beer to promote beer drinking tips and tricks. Again, they did a very good job to promote the beer brand here where the main target audience is obviously male beer drinkers. It's very cleverly done as they don't over promote the product. All I can say is a hot girl and beer somehow always seem to go well together.

Episode 4: How to Freeze a Beer in 10 Seconds!

Episode 5: How to "Bottoms Up" a Bottle of Beer in 11 Seconds!

Episode 6: How to Brew Your Own Fresh Beer

Why Are Some Companies Not Keen In Social Media?

This is a problem I commonly face when dealing with some companies. Apart from additional budgets needed to maintain Facebook pages or corporate blogs, it all boils down to lack of resources and knowledge about the media channel. Recent stats by Meltwater Group shows that 38% of corporate companies lack resource and time to devote to social media.

With the rise of social media, it is up to media / PR agencies to take the lead and advise corporate clients the benefits of using social media as part of their marketing and branding strategies. One collective issue that I can gather from the chart above is that corporations lack the knowledge simply because they lack the monitoring tools for them to understand and to monitor as well. Unknown to many, there are a wide range of free buzz monitoring or social media monitoring tools available that can be used to keep tabs what is happening in the social media space.

Online tools such as Socialmention can monitor trends as well as positive or negative sentiments about a brand in the social space or using a tool by Momentus Media to conduct a Community Health Check to see if your Facebook page is "healthy". Both of these free tools are amongst the many available free tools that corporations can use to do surface level monitoring as well as keeping tabs on their competitors. Although these tools only give surface level numbers and information, there are of course more in depth analytical tools which are only often available to agencies who purchased them.

The role of a media / PR agency would be to then to come up with social strategies to support their business and marketing objectives. But before anything else, it is important that corporations need to be educated and understand how social media works plus the benefits that the monitoring tools can bring to their company/brand before anyone goes to pitch to them on a social media strategy.

BeerBeary: Jaz Beer Viral Videos

A colleague recently sent me some links about some local viral videos which I personally think has been really well executed. The videos feature a girl speaking in local Cantonese about beer. In the first episode, she talks about how many beers before one fails a breathalyzer test. I bet not many people know (not even myself!) that all it takes is 2 bottles of beer to exceed the local alcohol limit of 0.05%.

In the second episode, she teaches one how to cheat on a breathalyzer test during a roadblock after a night out. I really can relate to the fact that all the methods shown are commonly used by drinkers to make them think that they can cheat the breathalyzer test on their way back home. Key message at the end of this video is that no matter what method you try, you can't cheat on the breathalyzer test and is always better to call a cab, or ask a friend for a ride home if you have drank more than you should. A clever way to entice you watch the video to begin with.

In the third episode, she give tips on how to open a beer bottle without a bottle opener. I think that this is probably my favourite video because I find it useful and not to mention, you can show off to your friends as well.

In summary, I think these videos are brilliant because of:

1. Local content which people can appreciate and relate. The way the girl presents it makes it seem natural and unscripted to a certain extend.
2. Clever product placement and branding. Very minimal and not "in your face", but yet people notice the brand.
3. Content is surprisingly educational. Who would have thought you can educate the public about the dangers of drunk driving this way.
4. The hot girl...obviously

The "Perfect C" Viral Campaign

I was researching through some online viral campaigns to get some ideas that I stumbled across this brilliant viral video campaign.



If you don’t understand Cantonese, the video above shows a young girl who is pissed off at her ex-boyfriend for dumping her 3 months ago. Before they started dating, he used to pay for everything, and once they got together, they went Dutch, but she was still cool with that. The final straw was when he dumps her because her breasts were too small (AA cups). Later, she went for a boob job and now has C-cup breasts and taunts him that no matter what he cannot get to touch or get anywhere near those C-cups ever again.

Now, I must say, this is a very “hook, line and sinker” style of marketing. It build so much talkability and hype that it generated 700k+ views in just a matter of 10 days. The girls’ main intention here is obviously payback for him stereotyping girls with small breasts…or at least that’s what they want you to think. The second part of the video shows the ex-boyfriend who “responds” to her video.



Noticed I used the word “they”? “They” as in the company.

Now in retaliation, the ex-boyfriend looks a bit annoyed at what she has done (who wouldn't?). However, he does not believe she has C-cup breast and asks her to prove it. He says the only way she can get C-cup breasts in 3 months is if you take this (he then whips out the product that “they” were trying to sell). The Perfect C Breast Enhancer! That’s the product. At the end of the video, he even tells you where to get it by giving the website. Brilliant marketing don’t you think? It really shows that online viral marketing really does work!

By the way, the website is http://www.perfectc.com.hk/

The Brand Quiz

Try taking this brand quiz. It's a clever way to see how people associate color and imagery with some of the world's biggest brands. Each question will show 2 colors, which are the brand's corporate colors, an associated picture and a cryptic clue to enable you to guess each mystery brand. There is also a timer for you to answer all 21 questions in total. I only managed 15 out of 21. It's not as easy as it sounds trust me.

Click here to take the quiz

Brand Yourself Online

Whether you like it or not, you are a brand. How you behave and how you react is what makes each person unique. Having said that, whatever you say or do in the online world is a reflection of who you are. People who like to rant a lot on blogs or via status updates on social media sites are usually whiny people too in real life. In social media is all about the power of influence. It’s therefore very important to note that you need to be extra careful and witty on what you put up on Twitter and Facebook because the general public might not necessarily perceive it the way you really meant. And if you’re a fairly well known individual, it could be rather damaging to oneself.

Similiarly to consumer and service brands, people might lose confidence should they have a bad experience with a particular brand. So the next time you update that "status message" of yours, do remember to put extra thought to your content and also put yourself in your intended audience's shoes and see it from their perspective.

Branding Fashion Through Sports

When you ask someone to name some brands in fashion, well established and brands like Versace, Armani, and Yves Saint Laurent are amongst the few names that will come to mind. These brands have a long heritage and have been in the fashion industry for generations. But when you mention “fashion” about 2 decades ago, brands like Nike, Adidas and Puma don’t seem to fall in that category. It is not until the early 1990s that sportswear have been associated with fashion brands.

Photo from current.com

Sports fashion today is often associated with lifestyle, attitude and fame. Sportswear makers nowadays make use of the latest in clothing and fabric technology. It therefore makes sense that eventually these technologies are likely to filter down into every day wear. The technology used cost money to develop and investors and companies can gain more profit by offering the technology to a wider group of individuals.

When a celebrity endorses a particular brand, often times it gives the perception to the consumer that the brand is good enough to be worn even by celebrities. Oversized sports clothing like basketball and baseball jerseys are often associated with hip-hop or rap artistes. Music celebrities wear them because they are comfortable, but to the consumer it is often viewed as a fashion statement and lifestyle symbol rather than clothing for sports. Although brands still have collections designed exclusively for athletes and sports enthusiasts.

In recent years, there has been growth in what is known as "luxury sportswear". These “new breed” of sportswear are often times limited edition items which are designed by fashion designers such as Stella McCartney for Adidas; and Philppe Stark and Yasuhiro Mihara for Puma. These lines of clothing are usually special made collections that cost more than the regular sports wear. Consumers will spend on these lines of clothing even though it’s a bit costly as they brand it to be at the same tier as the Armanis, Versaces and YSLs; or that’s what the manufacturers want you to think at least. I for one am guilty of buying limited edition sports wear; simply because it’s “cool” to be seen wearing one and you have bragging rights owning one.

In addition to this, brands are also banking on sports superstars to inspire their line of clothing. Golf celebrity Tiger Woods and basketball legend Michael Jordan did a very good job in building the Nike brand to what it is today. Again, it’s always the consumer’s perception that if someone wears Nike, they will be able to perform as good as both Woods and Jordan.

To sum it up, sportswear has gone through a whole lot of transformation over the years. The perception of sportswear brands became more fashionable, luxurious and marketable in recent years due particularly to the interest in sports personalities and well known celebrity fashion designers used by big brands.

Sources:
http://www.nundroo.com/archives/000008.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sportswear_%28fashion%29
http://www.fashion-era.com/sports_fashion_until_1960.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nike,_Inc

Don’t Use Social Media If You Don’t Know How

In today’s digital world, online presence has become a necessity in order for companies to survive and to reach out to their customers and clients. Social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter has provided everyone with a platform to do just that. As with everything else, there is always a tendency for companies to want to use these tools, simply because it’s the current “in thing” and that everybody is doing it.

Based on my personal experiences, many companies here come to me to ask if I can incorporate these tools as part of their online marketing strategy, but they have no clue whatsoever on how these tools function. My job is to educate them on how these tools work and how it will benefit their company. The first question I always ask my clients, “Who is going to maintain it?” Often times, I will get blank stares from them as though that I’m speaking in some foreign language. But the truth is, unless there is an appointed PR company or a qualified spokesperson from within the company to manage and maintain the use of these tools, I wouldn’t recommend companies venturing into them as yet. Here are 3 reasons why:

1. Tools such as Facebook pages and Twitter require constant interaction between companies and their customers. The whole idea of using these tools is to add a “human touch” to the company or brand. Unless of course you have an automated robot intelligent enough to answer questions and respond to each customer directly.
2. Updates. One major use of Facebook pages and Twitter is to push promotions and updates to your followers. If the page is just there for the sake of being there, followers will get disinterested very quickly just like how no one likes visiting a website that hasn’t been updated in a long time.
3. Being professional. I have personally seen some companies on Twitter that often times respond to their customers with lame jokes and casual conversations totally irrelevant to the nature of business. In my opinion, while I agree that companies need to provide a “human” response rather than a template one, they also need to know where to draw the line. Responding to questions casually is still acceptable, but it’s totally unacceptable if it’s got nothing to do with the company product, service or whatever they are set out to achieve. Companies need to know their boundaries on how they respond as it represents the company or their brand as a whole. Which is why I highlighted that it’s very important that these tools are managed by a qualified person who understands clearly of what the company’s objectives are and how they want the public to perceive them.

To sum it all up, my advice is not to venture into social media just because everyone else is doing it. I think companies who are serious into social media must first know how to use it and understand the mechanics of how it works. Only then, social media will be beneficial to the company, otherwise few months down the road, they will be wondering why is there no ROI or participation from the public even after using these social media tools.

David Armano on Brand U.0

David Armano, Senior Vice President of Edelman, talks about Branding U.0 and branding on a personal level.

Key points:

• "A brand is a person's gut feeling about a product, service or organization." - Marty Neumeier
• Branding is about building trust and interactions.

• Everyday people like yourselves are brands - publishing, creating content - having the ability to share and influence others. Celebrities like Oprah Winfrey who is highly influential, are brands.

• Everyone on the web has influence.

The 5 B's of Buliding Brand U.0

1. Be Ubiquitous: Create multiple streams of "you"
   - If you're really serious about building a personal brand, you got to figure out which one works for you. If you're going to be on Facebook, how are you going to use that? If you're on LinkedIn, how are you going to use that?
2. Be Social: Effectively manage your "social systems"
   - You got to figure out how to effectively use these social network and these tools to create our own social system, that aligns with our personal brand and make the most of it.
3. Be Interesting: Write, photograph, share, give
   - Share what you know. Write and share the things that you see to make it interesting.
4. Be remarkable: Do something worthy of a remark
5. Be yourself: Let your personality shine through
   - Personality has to be true to who you are as an individual.

Sources:
http://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/about-me.html
http://www.slideshare.net/darmano/brand-u0-presentation

"Backside" Bad Sites

I'm sure all of you have encountered visiting some really horrible looking websites that made you go:"OMG! What were they thinking?". Whilst there isn't any specific rule or law that governs what a website should look like, I do however feel strongly that there is a need to have certain quality control and standards; especially if it involves international brands.

I have two examples of international brands: Kotex by Kimberly-Clark and Krispy Kremedoughnuts, that have been bastardized by our talented Malaysian web designers. You would think that these large corporations (or brand guardians) will spend more money in hiring better quality web designers rather that getting it cheap by outsourcing to freelancers to do the job. Now I'm not sure if these websites were outsourced to a freelancer, but if you ask me, it looks like an assignment by a first year college student.

Kotex Luxe microsite (http://kotexluxe.com.my/)

1. There is this annoying animation that swipes across the product box. It's suppose to give the box a shiny gloss effect...WTH for?
2. You probably require 3D glasses to read the footer text. It's so blur, you might end up getting a headache trying to read it.
3. This site doesn't cater for large screens. The design here is tiled and my guess is that the designer was using a 15 inch screen while working on the website. My screen size is only 17 inches, which is small by todays standard.
4. There is this annoying background music that loops and sounds straight out of a porno video. I'm not kidding!
5. The flash animation is so slow. The designer probably animated the website using an older version of Flash or at a very low frame rate. My guess is...this website was done using a very old machine - 15inch screen, old Flash version, cannot support high frame rate animation.

Krispy Kreme Malaysia (http://www.krispykreme.com.my)

Seriously...it's NOT HEALTHY to look at this website for a long time. Not because of the doughnuts they are trying to sell you, but the website itself. Look at the background. It can make your eyes bleed and give you a headache. The worst part is, the background is not even tiled properly. Look at the third animated GIF button on the right...I mean..who uses animated GIFs anymore?? Again I feel this website was done by an amateur or it was done very last minute.

International brands or their brand guardians in Malaysia at least, should really put more thought and effort into a website design and how it would affect their company's image and brand. I feel there should be at least someone who needs to be checking and giving the "thumbs up" before making these websites live on the web. No company would want to make their brand look cheap.

I am actually saddened by the fact that many large corporate companies in Malaysia don't pay attention to how their brands are perceived online. Sure they have massive budgets for print, radio and even television ads, but online budgets here are often limited, that I sometimes do not blame the designers or agencies designing and producing such bad websites and online campaigns. It's because of budget constraints and the lack of knowledge on how important online media branding is; one of the reasons why companies in Malaysia are behind our neighbors like Singapore in terms of international brand penetration.

Unless corporate companies put and importance and change their perception of online media and branding, I do foresee more websites such as these two popping up in the near future. As the saying goes: "You pay peanuts, you get monkeys".

The All New Apple iPad

Photo by Gizmodo

Early this morning around 230AM Malaysian time, Apple unveiled its long awaited tablet dubbed the iPad. So what so special about the iPad you must be asking? Well, it's exactly that...NOTHING! To me, Apple has always been a trend-setter, a lifestyle changer and for arguement sake, some say makes the best operating system in the world. I've never really been an Apple fan for starters, and yes I believe after this post I probably get some hate mail, but lets be honest here; do we actually need the iPad?

As I mentioned, Apple has always been the forefront of trend setting devices; from the iPods, to the iMacs, to the iPhone. I got to admit it did a pretty good job in getting consumers to buy their products by making consumers feel that it's "cool" to own one. But "cool" does not always neccesarily translate to good functionality and features. The iPad for me is just an oversized iPhone on steroids. Many consumers and pundits were anticipating a breakthrough with all the hype building around the iPad, but yet features and capabilities are no different from the iPhone if not less. There is NO CAMERA in this device, which makes web cam and conference calls impossible. It DOES NOT OUTPUT HDMI (source by Gizmodo). Of all the features, I actually think this would be included by Apple as a standard. And most importantly, It still CANNOT MULTITASK which is a very big let down. Imagine you cannot listen your favourite music while writing an email nor can you Tweet and browse the internet at the same time. Multitasking is the very fundamentals of mobile computing, and unless Apple does otherwise, I don't see laptop or even netbook sales decreasing just as yet.

As for the name iPad, Apple with all it's "coolness" could really have came out with a better name than that. Other products that were unveiled at the launch includes iBooks and iWork, which is a stripped down version of Microsoft's Office. How original is that? For what it's worth, I see the iPad as a permanent replacement of the Amazon Kindle, which if you ask me...is not as "cool" as the e-reader on the iPad. But if you ask me if it's a replacement for mobile computing?...maybe not just yet.

Sources:
http://www.apple.com/ipad/
http://gizmodo.com/5457757/apple-ipad-first-hands-on
http://i.gizmodo.com/5458382/8-things-that-suck-about-the-ipad