Finding The Missing Jigsaw Piece

Paddy has always been a great person to be conversing with, for one who never fails to light up any discussion and share his opinions/ideas. We met over Sunday and while on the way home, we began a short topic regarding the low sustainability of new media in Singapore. It wasn’t comprehensive but if time permits, I am sure we are able to spot a lot more deficits in our small industry.

We constantly saying how slow Singapore-based companies are adopting new media but we never quite got around to the root of the problem. Apart from being traditional largely, the lacks are mostly found in service providers than adopters. Indirectly, it also led us to question how sustainable it is for any company working into this particular arena. Sure, we see new companies springing up all the time but how many will eventually remain standing at the end of the day?

Identity. Many companies have yet to establish a true identity for themselves. Are you an advertising agency? Are you a PR agency? Are you a marketing firm? Truth be told, many are still lost out at sea despite how much they are trying to define themselves. We are looking at Web 2.0 companies proclaiming to do PR. We are looking at banner-ad companies proclaiming to do marketing. They come in all shapes, sizes and formats. But, what truly are you?

Is providing non-interactive banner-ads good enough to be known as a marketing solution provider? Is providing a platform for bloggers to congregate sufficient to sell yourself as a PR agency? Well, little guessing why potential adopters are being confused. The service providers are confusing themselves equally.

Diversity. There is no way a company can survive solely on banner-ad or blog advertising. Diversity becomes the key to sustainability, not taking into account the providence of services that complement the core business. Yet, to diversify simply meant you need to bring on additional manpower with expertise beyond the usual hyped-up technology. For a simple fact, having the technology alone isn’t enough. You got to know how to maintain the technology. You got to know how to sell your technology. You got to know how to expand your technology. You got to know how to service your customers using your technology. The list goes on and on.

Expertise. Your best capability is your best survival. Far too many new media entries are managed solely by technologists and not unless they are trained in (or at least exposed regularly to) marketing/PR, many of them are absolutely horrendous. Doing something that you’re not trained to do is definitely shooting yourselves in your own feet. That is something you cannot blame clients for.

Climate. Know your environment well and don’t expect local market to adopt new media as quickly as other countries. You know your stuffs, but more than half the stuffs you know do not apply here. New media is still largely irregular, and in a way, that also fails to provide a definite direction on where it’s heading. It’s even more mocking when Web 2.0 companies hand out proposals citing to understand the local consumer trends when they have not done marketing/PR for all their lives. To arm yourself with only technological knowledge and proceeding in such manner, it’s liken to be wearing a XXXL shirt when you’re only 1.55m tall.

There could be more lacking factors, feel free to share with us. Tentatively, the above are some common deficits that most companies are - apparently - not too willing to explore and define. With a wide array of services replicated from other sources, we are fast becoming another China that thrives on replicas.

Singapore is definitely not big enough to substain so many companies too. The demand is low, while every other company is said to be attacking the same market. How sound is the prospect? It’s hard to tell for now. However, what I am pretty sure is most companies which we are looking at will eventually die of natural causes. The few companies which will survive will be those who are able to cater to the ever-growing needs of clients.

Having said so, we are still waiting to see a rare breed of individuals who are able to think big and deliver more than any current players we have. That is where they are still ailing in, anyway.

By Ed | September 23, 2008

Filed Under New Media

 


Comments

2 Responses to “Finding The Missing Jigsaw Piece”

  1. Marc on September 24th, 2008 12:33 am

    hi Ed

    An interesting piece, but humbly I disagree.

    In terms of identity, does a company have to choose to be one narrow stream in the torrential river? A group of talented people can be more than the sum of their parts… and there are some exceptionally tallented groups of individuals in Singapore.

    And actually that goes for the Diversity and Expertise too.

    Perhaps you haven’t looked around recently, but there are a bunch of companies here who are on the cutting edge of what is going on, with both local and international knowledge to pull it off. Adwright (www.adwright.com) springs to mind, but there are many, many others.

    I think you’re seeing the down-side, but there is a huge upside here. There are a many savvy, fluent, on-the-mark agencies doing clever things. I don’t think (as you mentioned in Diversity) that they are thinking banner advertising or blog advertising is their entry. There’s some well-read and savvy players in the Singapore market now, make no mistake.

    And the big agencies aren’t far behind either. If you talk to any of the decision makers there you’ll find that they’re all talking fluent web 2.0, far beyond “blog advertising” and well into engagement, conversation and experience.

    Your perspective is interesting… but I think you’ve been talking to the wrong people. Web 2.0 is alive and well here… and it’s as advanced, if not more-so, than many other countries around the globe. Check what’s really going on… you’ll be surprised and delighted I think.

    =) Marc

    [Reply]

    Ed replied on September 24th, 2008 12:45 am:

    Hi Marc,

    Great to hear from you and I agree with some of your opinions. I do agree some businesses have done good in the circuit.

    However, if we are taking a conscious comparison between companies who made significant impact and those who are still struggling, we should be able to see some critical mismatch.

    Companies like AdWright and other household names in the industry have been around for ages. Their individual brands and identities of their expertise have already been forged long before new media came into the picture. Those who doesn’t fare as well as these big players primarily belong to startups which barely got into the scene. A long standing reputation is what startups do not have to bank on. As we know, this “reputation” can be a selling point in itself.

    I am not saying Web 2.0 is dead. I am pointing out how startups should align themselves in an upcoming industry where bigger companies are also competing in. Especially in areas where banner-ads are obviously non-interactive, we cannot proclaim to be doing PR.

    If they’re thinking of going any bigger than they had or even to get themselves out of a deadlock, then they will have to figure out their true identities like how the bigger players have established for themselves. :)

    [Reply]

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