Tag: Communications

Influence? Wot influence?

According to a recent piece by Mark Wilson in @FastCompany, “Influencers are publishing more than ever. They published 15 times more editorial posts and eight times more sponsored ads on Instagram in 2018 than they did in 2016. Yet consumers are starting to pay less attention to what they post, according to a new study by social media metrics firm InfluencerDB.”

Shurely shome mishtake? Post more = attract less attention. Ironic really.

And earlier this week, the legendary Dave Trott writing for Campaign eloquently explained why so much of this stuff fails. Have a read here.

As he is fond of saying about UK advertising, 20 billion quid is spent a year. Of which only 4% is remembered positively. 7% is remembered negatively and 89% isn’t noticed or remembered. Not sure what the numbers are for Asia.

Here at Blak Labs, we try to create ideas and campaigns that cut through. Some people like ’em and some people don’t. But at least our work isn’t in the 89%.

Fresh from the kitchen

Blak Labs is delighted to share our latest campaign for our friends at Shashlik in Singapore. As a haven of classic dishes, Shashlik is something of a legend. Now being run by the second generation of Hainanese family members, this Russian restaurant has recently rebooted its menu, decor and its website. 

Our campaign celebrates favourites from the menu, by telling the story behind the original dish. Because as we all know nowadays, long copy is dead. But stories? They get devoured. 

Tasty work from the talented team at Blak Labs.

For reservations, http://shashlik.sg/.

For campaigns crafted with creative care, please get in touch

Client: Shashlik Restaurant

CD: Justin Lim

Copy: Praveen

Art: Regina

Photography: John Heng @ Da Photographer

Focus Interruptus

Interruption. Distraction. Miscommunication.

These three words seem to determine our working lives at the moment – indeed for some, even our personal lives.

With the proliferation of channels of communication and information, you’d imagine we would get better at getting our message across.

From the good old face to face meeting to the telephone call to the instant feedback loop that is WhatsApp messaging, chat and #slack, with emails in between, the reality is that we’re not.

Fractured conversations. Half thoughts and less than insightful text messages puncture our working days and nights.

Apparently after an interruption, “it takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back to the task” according to Gloria Mark, study lead at the University of California Irvine in a study released in 2015…

Instructions are fragmented. Ideas are ill-defined. In the pursuit of speed, we are sacrificing brevity for insanity.

Indeed, one blog recently talked about how every work block should be no longer than 10 minutes. Ridiculous as it sounds, that’s hardly enough time to clear your mind of any distractions, to barely scratch the surface of a particular project.

Nowadays a large part of our time is spent deciphering half-formed responses. Interpretation is often misunderstood and even misinterpreted. Context is everything. And nothing.

If everyone is as interrupted and distracted as we are, then we have a serious problem.

So let’s cut the chat and get back on message. Focus our efforts on clarity. And our brain cells on creativity.

For in the words of Bill Bernbach, “Is creativity some obscure, esoteric art form? Not on your life. It’s the most practical thing a businessman can employ.”

 

 

Thanks to https://digitalsynopsis.com/design/client-designer-whatsapp-conversations/ for the pic.

All quiet on the Blak Labs front?

It’s been ages since we last posted here.

Have we run out of good news to share?

Have we got nothing to say?

Are we at a loss for words?

Far from it.

In fact, as you can see, we’re pushing so hard that our Macs and phones seem to be having a hard time coping.

Since July, we’ve been heads down and hammering away at new projects for clients in both Singapore and Myanmar. B2B, B2C. B2B2C. And everything in between.

Suffice to say it’s all P&C. Hush-hush. Need to know. On the down-low.

Until we write again from the topsy-turvy world of Blak Labs. Where we do everything we can to deliver with Creative Care.

the upside of facetime

Degussa celebrates everlasting love for Valentine’s Day

Blak Labs’ latest work for Degussa appears just in time for Valentine’s Day. This year, we’re celebrating heartwarming true love stories. The first features Ash and Nora, a young couple who’ve stuck together through thick and thin. You can check the film out here: https://www.facebook.com/DegussaSG/

screen-shot-2017-02-01-at-18-19-38
Watch Ash and Nora’s story at: https://www.facebook.com/DegussaSG/

And then why not check out the Degussa site for your own Valentine’s gift? Celebrate your love with beautiful, high-grade gifts and jewellery, crafted only from the best materials and designed with lots of creativity and emotion. (FYI – the roses are real and dipped in gold and silver.)

https://shop.degussa-pm.sg/precious-gifts/gifts/roses

Watch this space for the next episode!

BTW, this is Blak Labs first new work for the year. So please do us a favour and give it some love!

Can anyone do what we do?

Every week at Blak Labs, we help our clients’ achieve their objectives.

giphy.gifWhether that’s promoting a new credit card in a young market like Myanmar or driving visitorship to the latest floral attraction at Singapore’s Gardens by the Bay or even launching a property in London,  the demands are the same.

To do this well requires a degree of creativity that is hard to replicate.

And as the esteemed Damon Stapleton so rightly says doing this well, day in, day out, requires desire and discipline. Otherwise the result is just bullshit.

Have a read and see what else he has to say. I have to say I agree with him.

https://damonsbrain.com/2016/10/16/in-defence-of-the-often-maligned-creative/

 

 

thanks for the gif Art & Graft.

Another historic campaign from Blak Labs?

Blak Labs new campaign for National Museum of Singapore rewrites history for today’s social audiences

It gives me great pleasure to share Blak Labs’ most recent campaign for “Treasures of the World from the British Museum”. It’s the latest blockbuster exhibition at the National Museum of Singapore and if you’re in the city and you have some time, you really should go and see it.

A knight at the museum
A knight at the museum. One of the Lewis Chessmen from the British Museum’s Treasures of the World exhibit.

It’s only taken a couple of million years to pull together. With an extensive collection of over 200 stunning artifacts from around the world, we thought we’d have some fun with it.

Thankfully, our client at the National Museum prides itself on keeping history relevant. They like to present things in a way that connects with audiences today.

FB Post for PR

Judging by the fact that the show has been extended by a couple of months, it’s good to see that the content is clearly connecting. The campaign runs across key outdoor sites in town, together with strategic social media initiatives. Blak Labs won the project via government tender last year.

So is the ancient art of copywriting alive and well at Blak Labs?

We like to think so. Because it sure as hell isn’t in our blog posts!

If you’d like to see other executions in the campaign, leave us a comment below. Hey, leave us a comment even if you don’t!

Always happy to get a response. Thanks for reading.

FB Post for PR

 

FB Post for PR

 

The power of email and good social content

I get a ton of emails every day, most which I just delete after a cursory glance.  But newsletters from the chaps at Bluewire Media always get read. The reason? I often learn something new. Plus they believe in the power of sharing and the “thank you economy”. They freely share their own social media planning tools and templates, which I find useful and they also do a bunch of podcasts, webinars and monthly giveaways. Which are also filled with good usable stuff. My advice? Check them out!
Yesterday Bluewire Media turned 10. So congrats to Adam (@Franklin_Adam) and Toby (@Toby_Jenkins) on achieving that milestone, from an independent agency owner here in Singapore! Your reach extends way beyond the shores of Oz, and your monthly competition does too!
Which is why I’d like to say thanks to Adam and Toby for letting me win their December competition.
The prize? Their top 25 marketing books, including their own publication.
Here’s my reading list for the next few months
  1. The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott
  2. Inbound Marketing by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah
  3. Permission Marketing by Seth Godin
  4. Trust Agents by Chris Brogan
  5. Platform by Michael Hyatt
  6. Crush It by Gary Vaynerchuk
  7. The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss
  8. Purple Cow by Seth Godin
  9. Epic Content Marketing by Joe Pulizzi
  10. Youtility by Jay Baer
  11. Jab, Jab, Jab Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuk
  12. Content Rules by Ann Handley and CC Chapman
  13. The New Experts by Robert Bloom
  14. Content Chemistry by Andy Crestodina
  15. Reality Marketing Revolution by Mike Lieberman and Eric Keiles
  16. Spin Sucks by Gini Dietrich
  17. What’s the Future of Business by Brian Solis
  18. Power Stories by Valerie Khoo
  19. Unknown to Expert by Catriona Pollard
  20. Love At First Site by Jon Hollenberg
  21. microDOMINATION by Trevor Young
  22. Become a Key Person of Influence by Daniel Priestley
  23. The 7-Day Startup by Dan Norris
  24. Engagement from Scratch by Danny Iny
And of course their own book…
25. Web Marketing That Works by Adam Franklin and Toby Jenkins
I’ve no idea how much this competition set them back in terms of book purchases etc. But I do know that Adam and Toby have created something of real value with Bluewire News. If you’re interested to learn from a couple of chaps who’ve done it for themselves, then you can sign up for the newsletter here. I hope you enjoy their content as much as I do. 
And here’s a couple of little flipagram thingies I made over lunch using nothing but an iPhone, a pair of scissors and some sticky back plastic. 
Here’s to learning more and being open to trying new experiments in 2015 at Blak Labs. Thanks again guys.

Happy new year and in the news!

ChairmanHappy new year everybody!

Hope you’ve made your new years resolutions.

We have and one of them happens to be about celebrating our successes.

To start 2015, we’re celebrating on a couple of fronts.

The first: a new project we’re working on in a new market. Can’t say where just yet. But all will be revealed once the work is out. It’s a big step for Blak Labs and we’re really looking forward to the launch. And seeing how the market reacts. But judging by the client’s response to our rough edits for two spots shot between Christmas and New Year, we think the work will work.

Her words exactly? “I’m very happy, thank you very much!”

The second: well, you can see it for yourself. A little bit of PR in the Business Times publication “Chairman 2015”.

We’ve received numerous comments and likes for this little piece. And while features a pic of me, it’s all down to the hard work of my partners, team and clients as well.

To paraphrase our client – “We’re happy, thank you very much!”

The IAN group seated around Mr Ian Batey

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