Trends turning into essential tools, outlook 2015
Every year we deal with the trends of the upcoming’s season just to make sure we are up-to-date. We are looking forward for the iPhone 6 introduction; we can’t wait for the new Michael Kors bag-collection; we have to be among the first who try out the pop-up restaurant in town. Sometimes the latest trend catches us like fire and sometimes we rather wait to see if a trend establishes (and secretly hope it doesn’t). But why do trends have such an enormous impact on us? On society? There are a few possible reasons. One could be, that we want to belong to a group – preferably the popular one. We want to sit with them. We want to be belong the “the cool” ones.
Another reason might be that evolution requires change. Without the need for changes there would be no development and we would not be where we are today.
Last year it was trendy to implement content marketing instead of the usual branded commercials and to use storytelling as a part of it. Next year though, content marketing will be essential. Due to the information overload which consumers need to face these days, we need to reduce complexity of our information. Stories and visual content (images, videos etc.) are more likely to be remembered and raise emotions which allow a brand to bond with the costumer. In this context, brands grow more and more into the role of a publisher where they have to prove empathy. It is necessary to show the costumers we actually care and shift the focus from sales to dual and more human communication.
Another example for former trends which turned into fundamental tools is mobile marketing. Today having an APP or at least providing a mobile optimized website is a must have. But noticing that mobile is the most important channel and daily life instrument especially in China and to use the data which mobile provides and to redefine the strategy upon this data is smart. By analyzing your target group and finding out new insights, and growing a community around your brand will make your digital marketing strategy much more effective.
The digital marketing trends for 2015 are not ground breaking but yet very important – trends turn into essential tools which are going to be expanded and developed. I believe that the trends 2015 show pretty clear that the digital world is changing and that we have to adapt our strategies. Social Networking, Email Marketing, SEO and Mobile Marketing are gaining constant importance, although you should see these tools more like your little black dress which you can tune up with a statement necklace. Don’t follow trends just to belong to “one of them”. Analyze trends to embrace your potential and let the change make you grow into someone you never believed you could be.
Changes lead to growth.
The world doesn’t stop moving, neither should you.
Written by: Melani Nikolic
2 Open is Participating in Ad Tech China 2014 Exhibition!
If you are interested in the Chinese media and marketing industry, you should have not missed the Ad Tech China 2014 Exhibition on the 26th and the 27thof June in Shanghai, an event where the latest trends about digital marketing and brand advertising are released.
If for some reasons you missed it, no worries, 2Open was there, and we made for you a brief summary of one of Shanghai’s most attractive events to smart marketers and brand advertiser community.
The Exhibition was held in Kerry Hotel, and it was a 2 days meaningful experience about advertising technologies, the challenges and the opportunities brought by the digital industry.
Why 2Open could not miss this opportunity?
The Ad Tech China Exhibition is a precious event to learn about best practices, to take advantages of networking situations and attending high-quality conferences.
The dynamic scenario of the digital industry is calling entrepreneurs and firms for mandatory adaptations in order to keep pace with the recent changes and trends. Especially those companies doing business in China cannot avoid the challenges that the ongoing evolution of the digital world presents.
Companies need to re-invest themselves in order to remain competitive, and the key to succeed is to understand and react to the transformations that new technologies are bringing to the market and its customers.
The Exhibition Hall was a meeting of creativity, dynamism and innovation. Among the exhibitors, there were leading companies of the digital marketing such as eBay enterprise, comScore and Madhouse, which are an inspirational source of optimal practices. At the same time, established businesses, such as MavSocial or PapayaMobiles, and start-up entities, were proposing their innovative and digital services too.
The Ad Tech China Exhibition is an appealing opportunity to learn from the brightest minds operating in the digital industry. 2Open had the chance to listen to remarkable speakers such as Richard Cotton, Content & Creative Excellence Director of Coca Cola, Gerard Skybey, from the Chicago Business Intelligence Group, Jimmy Hu, the managing director of Chinapex and so on. They all shared their knowledge and experience about the challenges brought by working with advertising technologies.
The numerous talks concerned arguments such as Brand Content, Social Media Marketing , Programmatic Buying and E-commerce, Ad Tech Innovation, all aspects with which 2Open deals in its everyday operations. Our attendance at the exhibition allowed us to critically evaluate the current scenario of the digital industry, while enlarging and strengthening our knowledge and competence about it.
This is a just a short recap about 2Open’s fascinating and fruitful experience at the Ad Tech China 2014 Exhibition. What we have learned and what we have assimilated goes behind mere words and it is something that 2Open has integrated in its daily operations, in order to ensure to our customers successful and efficient services.
Written by: Federica Greco
Why key burocratic responsibilities are transferred from governement to companies in China?
In China, the employee is applying the resident permit, her company is helping her to do this. The company is proving that she has a proper job in China. To me, it seems that it is the government’s responsibility to check through all the documents
What’s the Best Project Management Tool for Your Company in China?
Sometimes it’s hard to manage a small company. Unlike a big corporation, with an already established pyramid, everything goes by the rules, departments report to the CEO, and employees report to department heads. In a small company, most of the times, CEO has to multi task to act as a CEO but also as an employee, backstage, or human resource. It’s very important for small companies to function and keep things moving, therefore a tool for project management is significantly important.
At 2 Open, we have being relying on Basecamp for project management. Most people are familiar with Basecamp, it’s a simply management tool to help companies organize and keep track of projects. But is Basecamp working well in China? Can we have better solutions?
When it comes to project management, what’s important to you? I guess everyone will have different answers, for 2 Open, efficiency and expenses are two big factors to consider. We have searched many possible solutions but most of them can’t meet our requirement. Here is a list of different management tools, and the first biggest reason we think is not ideal. You can see the biggest problems we encounter are price and speed.
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Since 2 Open is an international company, we need to ensure that our management tool also works well outside of China. As you know, this really depends on the host. For example, if a company is based in the United State, the best option for them is to find a tool with USA host in order to ensure the speed and delivery. But 2 Open has office in China and Spain, it’s hard to find a service that works well in both place.
Basecamp is a great tool, but it’s slow in China, we need to use VPN in order to work efficiency around Basecamp. I guess with international companies, it’s common to use VPN, because we are dealing with multiple countries at once. So if everything is working well with Basecamp, and we can solve speed problem with VPN, is it worth switching to another management website?
First of all, Basecamp has all the functions we need, viewing different projects, look up progress of each project and each employee, and the price is relative fair; there are couple options you can choose from, starting from $20 per month, but they charger by project rather than user, this is specially important for small companies, since our employee rate is increasing or decrease more dramatic than large corporations.
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If the company is Chinese employee based, tower.im is a great alternative, its very similar to Basecamp, but the host is in China. But 2 Open has foreign employees, and tower.im doesn’t have English version. If a company cares about functions, or growing into a bigger company, then maybe huddle.net is better solution. Of course they are more expensive, but in order to manage the entire worker, it’s necessary.
Since 2 Open is using Zoho mail, Zoho also has project management tools, is called Zoho Projects. It’s similar to many other management tools. It’s hard to tell whether Zoho Projects is a suitable solution for 2 Open. We have to try it out, test whether they are compatible with our company structure. Other than the obvious cost in a small company, time efficiency and time management is also an expense. Is it worse to invest the time into Zoho Projects, or is it better to use these time on somewhere else.
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With the unique structure of 2 Open, or if you are a company that’s similar to 2 Open, Basecamp is one of the best solutions for us, price is fair compare to the functions they have, a clear theme with English version. If you haven’t start Basecamp, Zoho Projects is another great option, price is similar to Basecamp with almost the same function, it’s also available in English but with a Chinese host.
2 Open at the Cross Border Ecommerce Conference & Exhibition in Shanghai (China)
2 Open at Cross Border Ecommerce Conference & Exhibition in Shanghai
What is Baidu Cloud?
Baidu Cloud is a comprehensive Cloud service provides by Baidu. It offers cloud storage service, client software, file managements, resources sharing, and Third Party Integration. After being created on one client terminal, the file can be synchronized automatically on other client terminals given that the Internet access exists. It was launched as Baidu WangPan on Mar. 23 2012, and upgraded as Baidu Cloud on Sep 3 2012. On Aug. 22 2013, it announces its offer of permanent free 2 Terabytes storage for users.
Baidu Cloud Personal Edition is for individual users of cloud services to meet the various needs of users working life has been on-line products, including Network disk, Personal home page , Address book , Photo album , Articles , Notepad , SMS backup, Mobile phones back .
Network disk
Provide a wide range of data storage services, which support the maximum capacity of 2T space. Users can freely manage network disk storage files.
Personal home page
Provide personalized quality resources sharing and aggregation services. Users can get a friend to share the dynamic by focusing on function, sharing of resources.
Photo album
Users can conveniently browse，store, share and manage their photos through the Cloud album, sharing the good life with photographs anytime.
Articles
Baidu cloud collection function: By adding collection tools without having to copy, paste or Save As. It is a one step function to save the text, images on the web to Baidu cloud.
Notepad
Baidu cloud network notes function. Users can edit documents online and save it directly to Baidu cloud which supports three types of memos: text, pictures and voice.
Contacts, SMS backup
Baidu cloud phone APP function: providing addresses book synchronization and SMS backup. IPhone users can realize the address book synchronization; android users can sync contacts, SMS backup and recovery. WP does not support this feature.
Mobile phones back
Android users unique function: after settings back feature when the phone is lost, the user can lock the phone to avoid information leaks through Baidu cloud, meanwhile it can raise the alert, track positioning to enhance the possibility to retrieve the phone.
Written By: Nancy Tang
2 Open Introduces Chidaojia－ a Full E-Commerce Solution To Sell Food in China, at SIAL
This was the first year Chidaojia is participating in the SIAL tradeshow. We’ve visited the show as visitors this year, but we’ve ameliorate our knowledge and breached our channels and perspectives on how we can improvise our service.
Chidaojia is a company under 2 Open services that brings solution for exporters; it’s an online platform that opens to the Chinese market to sale foreign foods and beverages. We believe to deliver delicious goods to every household in the Chinese family. Chidaojia is a one-stop solution for foreign companies to sell online in the Chinese market. We provide them a channel to enter the Chinese market, and a platform to scatter around the Chinese market and to determine what is the best solution for their future development.
Our proposal is to provide clients with anything they need to enter the Chinese market. The Chinese market is very competitive, and we want to help foreign companies to enter this competitive market, we are providing a platform for our clients to sell online, but in addition to that, we are helping them with advertisement, promotion, brand awareness, client engagement, and required talents needed for all operations.
In the SIAL show, Chidaojia has encountered good and bad from companies around the world. People have questioned our proposals, and debating weather its added investment for them, but at the same time, our belief has won many potential clients. We have given detailed presentations to some clients regarding how we can promote their brand in China, and how we can add value to their companies.
Overall, the show was a great experience for Chidaojia, we have a better understanding on client’s perspectives and expectations, we have given the opportunities to follow up with potential clients, and what we want is to go above an beyond their expectation, to provide them with a flawless service in the long run. We truly believe Chidaojia is a service that a win-win situation for ourselves and our clients, we cannot think of any better ways to provide Chinese family with food from all over the world, if it’s not on Chidaojia.
Chidaojia would love to participate again in the SIAL tradeshow for next year, and maybe we will have a booth in the show, and everybody is welcome to come by to have little chats.
