My mum used to own a Yong Tau Hu stall. We used to put posters or banners around the neighbourhood for marketing exposure. I personally helped to give out flyers at the nearby mrt stations, bus stops where there were a lot of pedestrian traffic. I helped to come out with marketing strategies like doing food delivery to the nearby offices so people need not queue to eat and sweat in their nicely ironed shirts during the peak lunch hours. I had to cycle to deliver to their offices even if there is just an order of 2 packets where our margin is... perhaps only $3. All these were existing problems of the hawkers and restaurants then, rentals escalating higher and higher, competition becoming stiffer, pricing.. getting slashed...Everyone is trying their best to make the best they could make, even if it means getting another meagre sale of an extra 10 bowls through free delivery service to offices nearby, earning an extra maximum 20 bucks not forgetting all the efforts of delivery.
All these have changed. The problems remain but the solutions have been greatly eased through the introduction of technology- the internet. Advertising plays a critical massive role to any industry, not mentioning of cos the f n b industry included. Mentioning the FnB industry, easily one of the biggest and most important industry in any country, one can easily understand that they no longer rely on heavy advertising in newspapers, magazines, tv, radio media that much anymore. For SPH especially, that is a really unfortunate sad truth we all have to admit. Just another sign of the industry's ongoing decline. That downward trend started with TV competition 30 years ago, then this trend seemed to duplicate and way off accelerated by the introduction of Internet and seems to have solidified with the mobile explosion of the last decade.
All of a sudden, bloggers, social media agencies, youtubers, influencers of all sorts seem to be an upmarket trend. The surge in demand would mean the appearance of more bloggers, youtubers, instagrammers which obviously mean a surge in supply for such influencers. Restaurants, online shops, companies realise it's becoming more and more of a must to pay more via the social media marketing channels and agencies and those so called 'influencers' ; begin to realise their value surging up and up and they can now charge higher and higher with more merchants willing to fight for their services.
The cycle continues..... Suddenly I heard about a fren's bro who quitted his 5 figure banking job aspiring to be a successful youtuber, my fren's gf becoming a full time blogger as she realised she is getting a lot endorsements from companies, my frens' fren opening a social media agency with a few graduates so forth and so on.. every other fren seems to have a fren who is fighting to gain likes in their Instagram, gain followers on youtube channels, gain likes in facebook, all fighting to achieve so called "influencing" numbers in the various social media portal so they will be recognised as influencers and then they can start to make money.... ooooh if people are all doing that, then I am pretty sure the money in the industry is certainly attractive yea, no doubt about it. I read that an influential blogger can charge 4 to 8 k for a post, that's easily the pay of a uni graduate. A youtuber can charge 15 to 30k for a youtube video ! that explains why many youtubers nowadays can actually form a company with a team of people instead of being an individual. As income increases, they can pay more people, and guess whats best? all they need is to pull together a few people who have many followers and now they can gather their numbers together and show an even greater number of people they can influence and charge merchants even more.
They don't have to interview graduates, they don't have to employ people or anyone with any good academic results or pretty qualifications. To qualify, all you need is to be able to make youtube videos or snap beautiful pictures with captions that capture followers. Not good at writing- fine, not good looking- not a problem, not good at speaking eloquently- better even as long as u can speak singlish very well and swearing is also fine as long as u have many followers. As this market becomes bigger, the problems that associate with them soon followed. Many of my frens opened restaurants and they had paid bloggers, some of those they identified as "influencers". Many of them realised that the there isn't any pricing model in the entire market. Bloggers charge what merchants will pay, some ask for sky high price and some corporate companies even actually paid for it. Then that just somewhat becomes their market price or value!
There was even a big hoo ha about influencers unethically outsourced robots to "fake likes" and "fake followed" ! well if this market is that big, I am sure a lot of robot companies are going to ride on this market too. Years ago, this issue doesn't seem too much of a big deal. But now, massive companies like Singtel, cinemas like Cathay are even engaging social media influencers to do marketing campaigns for them. Individuals shot to fame, the so called massive followers bloggers have even more followers and social issues followed. When individuals posed videos of vulgarities, or blogs that went viral due to content that's culturally insensitive, if not, outright offensive, some merchants pulled out of the endorsements, some do not wanna engage them due to image issues etc etc.....
We read about so many issues about the industry. Recently, one very big issue is the split of one of the partnership of one of youtubers, Ridwan, originally a partner of JianHao's company, somehow fell out with his buddy and left the company, citing too little money too much efforts, unappreciated by the rest etc as reasons for leaving. The turn of events caused both sides to start posing videos, some outright offensive , some indirect sarcastic contents about one another. It became even bigger as other influencers became involved and started to take sides. Viewerships shot to averagely 300k to 1m ..... incredible numbers as people simply love to chase the tabloids. Whats the implications ? Why am I mentioning about this ? Simply, my restaurant owners frens asked me which youtuber is good and which influencers are genuine and which numbers correctly represent the market he wanted to target ? I have no answer... absolutely no clue at all after reading events after events... fake likes ... fake views, wrong audience etc.. I realised even though in such an advanced society with massive technology advancements, many merchants felt and can sense this 'disturbing' trend is a bursting bubble, growing bigger every single second...
Let me summarise the problems faced by almost every merchant.
1. Who is the right blogger?
ANS: This blogger has 100k followers, but are they Singaporean? oh yes, if they are, are they the right age group ? er... I sell ice cream leh... what if all her followers overseas, then wad if all her followers all aunties, she's a mum leh... eat icec ream meh??? NO CLUE!! Or maybe most are fake or robot followers leh... er or maybe all kids, cannot afford my product la!! so forth and so forth...
Moral of the story : This is a big flaw. No one knows who is the right person to engage, even if it is, no one knows how to measure the effectiveness.
2. What is the right price ?
ANS: From FOC to 5 figure pricing, it seems pricing is just a shout out number. pay if u like, don like move on to another cheaper blogger lo! many are free, just give free food tasting they will come... but all come for free food, actually their audiences like my food or not they also don care... free ones no good? paid ones then better?? paid ones come for money, free ones come for food ... haiz.... how ? NO CLUE!! Some merchants just refuse to pay. They claim their business is good, so why should they pay any influencer? But there are really someone there who can bring u more business and one should pay to achieve that. Yet there are also some merchants who always want to pay. Regardless of price, they say :" Get me the most followers one. We want exposure, how much just pay." Yet they have no idea if that particular costly one that they had paid is worthwhile.
Moral of the story : This is a big flaw. No one knows if that is the correct price, even if it is, no one knows how to measure the effectiveness.
3. Does he or she have the correct audience ?
ANS: I am selling baby product, do I engage her because she is a mum and has 3000 mum followers or another one who is not a mum but has 300k followers. I guess mum is better. I tried and realised I was wrong, went back to the teenager then realise she is more effective.. I ended up paying twice. Who has the right targeted audience actually ? NO CLUE!!
4. What kind of assurance can I get by paying? result guaranteed?
ANS: Can guarantee that there will be likes on your facebook, but no guarantee they will go your restaurant to eat. pay me 8k, I will write u a beautiful blog, then sure many people read and like one, but no guarantee go your restaurant eat ok? take it or leave it. u advertise newspaper 20k also no guarantee people will go your restaurant wad? I only 8k and many people paying me leh... all say good.
HOW MUCH? WHO ? WHAT RESULTS ?
I have a personal merchant fren who is willing to spend on marketing and he wants to reach out to the correct audience, but who is the right blogger??
There is this young beautiful gal who has 100k followers and she loves to blog about fashion, beauty and travel. My Frens restaurant sells ba kut teh. She charges him 5k for a blog post. my fren thought :"Should I pay?? Everyone says she is super famous and can help me reach out for sure but I am really not sure. But if I don pay her, where do I find a bah kut teh blogger leh???? " Confused and not knowing what to do, he ended up paying $800 only to a not too bad good looking food blogger guy. He took nice pictures and posted what he really liked... but not much effect in the end. Hence my fren ended up going back to the 5k gal and she managed to help my fren get a thousand likes in their restaurants facebook page. Not the best of deals but what other options does he have ?
NO MORE NEWSPAPERS ADS / TV ADS
"Americans' confidence in newspapers and television news has been slowly eroding for many years, worsening further since 2007," Gallup researcher Elizabeth Mendes wrote in the report. "By that point, newspapers and television news had been struggling for years to figure out how to adjust their strategy for a growing Internet audience. It was also around that time that social networking sites truly began to proliferate, causing news outlets and journalists to work to find their place on them and serving to expand the role of citizen media and user-generated content."
Not only in Singapore, this is happening around the world and has very much hit us and the more advanced countries. It will only go on to hit the developing ones. What can we expect and what can we do to help ease this situation if we cant entirely solve it.
BLAZZ
30 years ago, everyone wants a TV and phone in their home. 20 years ago, everyone wants a computer, a phone, a Tv in their living and other Tv's in their rooms. 10 years ago, everyone wants a mobile phone. Today, everyone owns a smart phone, be it an iPhone, Samsung or xiaomi. With that, apps become critical, selfie wefie becomes convenient, buying stuffs online becomes easier, getting food delivery is never a problem, getting cabs is without mentioning, every other guy seems to uber or grab.... This day can only be more than what we ARE now then to be what we were before. This is not just going to last but this is only going to FURTHER progress. Schools are teaching fintech, courses are tuned to the market requirements. Students are sent to internships to real life entrepreuneurs' tech companies. We are not going to go back 10, 20 years ago anymore where more people will read magazines again... sadly but that's the hard truth.
Blazz , a new startup company that foresee all these problems and all these issues that will soon hit every single country, is set out to change the world. This app recognises the fact that more and more merchants are not paying for newspapers ads anymore, they are not paying for radio ads any longer. Not due to the fact that they cant afford it, but more so because they are throwing their monies in the social media direction.
" IF EVERYONE IS DOING IT, OF COS IT MEANS I HAVE TO FOLLOW."
That basic rule is standard, a natural form of default human mentality we all understand. If taxis are run by the big boys it means we have to follow their rules. they say we flag, we flag. they say starting fare is $2.80 we take. they raised to $3.20 we have no choice. I wanted to go jurong, but taxi driver said no, they I have to guai guai move on and hope the next taxi driver will take me. Until Uber comes in, all these change. Nobody dared to say taxi must be flagged, nobody dare to tell me not along the way anymore. People rejoice ! Saviours emerge.. all of a sudden, retrenched people have a job. it helped the people, it helped the economy, it helped the nation. UBER changed the world.
BLAZZ WANTS TO BE ANOTHER UBER.
BLAZZ simply like it sounds, its a term where people blast out to their frens. Blast to your friend, Buzz for your brand. Very applicable name I think, relevant to what the entire app is about. Basically this app is a referral marketing app. People simply earn referral fees by referring their fren to any business. Sounds very mlm, it is some sort of multi level marketing in fact, however, when I say that, I don literally mean it is an mlm. But it does possess the essence of a mlm concept, except that its just one tier.
How does this change the world ?
ANS: U imagine my restaurant owner friend who doesn't wanna pay any bloggers anymore cos he doesn't know who is in fact influencial and who is the right person to pay. So the app helps him in a way. He arranged a food tasting, all the bloggers came to the restaurant, had their free food tasting, took out their cameras and started snapping away. Instagrams, facebook, twitter, blogs started to roll.
They simply INCLUDED this in their post.
Download Blazz and code queenblogger123 in the app and get 10% off !
One of the bloggers had 1000 people going to the restaurants and used her code. The restaurant then pay this blogger $3 referral per head that use her code. she made $3000.
Another not so influencial blogger brought 30 pax. she made $90.
Another only brought 10 pax, but she only has 50 followers, she also made $30.
Result : Happy paying merchant, Happy earning bloggers.
Implications
Merchants have no choice, that's why some paid 5k, some 3k some even 30k. Why would any merchant pay an influencer upfront 5k if they have an option to pay $3 per spending customer. If merchants have such an option, most would have gone for the latter. And rather then letting the influencer dictates her calling price, the merchant now decides how much per pax he wants to give. He calculates his own margin and decides the referral fee. The ball game has changed. No more at the mercy of influencers. This will be a new channel for merchants and it can help merchants save a lot on their marketing fees or rather this allows merchants to pay willingly the amount they decide as they know their returns on investments (ROI) as we call it.
"We all know the basic rule of thumb, if u can help me solve my problem, I will surely pay. "
With this, we solve the problems of who is a good influencer, who has the right audience, how much is justifiable to pay for your fame etc etc..
Now, we go back to newspapers and radio. Why are merchants not paying? They would all rather pay social media channels like Facebook for per click, or Instagram for per like etc etc. Again, does every click or like amount to earnings to the merchant. Nope, but that's the best they can get, surely more clicks and likes better than not knowing any result compared to paying exorbitant fees in newspapers or radio ads. Merchants are not paying simply because they feel it is too expensive and not worthwhile to do so. Spending on social media marketing makes more economical sense, relatively.
Note the word 'relative'. Relative all only because there is no other better options.
Imagine newspapers turn around and say " look, how bout u need not pay me 10k per ad anymore. Pay me $5 per pax and Pay me only if a spending customer goes to your restaurant and code "newspapers" as promocode ?"
If newpapers really can bring you 10k of people to the restaurant, they in fact can make $50k. the upside is not limited as compared to the 10k they charged. Imagine, if that's the case, a lot of merchants will start to be okay putting ads in the papers, as long as they don't pay so much upfront.
"I Pay only if paying customers come to me "
I am very convinced all merchants will follow suit, it is just a matter of time.. And I believe that is vision of the app. No more upfront marketing fees, everything results based from now. I am very sure if BLAZZ becomes bigger, they will be the new Uber, new Google, new whatever. Marketing trends will change, traditional marketing methods will reform, Paying merchants will not pay upfront, this will be a world of promocodes as it already is, just that its only half way there. Imagine, newpapers ads, radio ads, magazine ads that are all dying now will be revived again. BLAZZ can bring back all the pages of advertisments again, bring all the empty dying billboards back to life, bring back the traditional radio, tv ads, just that it is now in a system mode based on success based transactions. I can imagine how the world of marketing will be affected. Affected is probably really an understatement, a new marketing revolution will arise as I see it. Be prepared.
