How do you ‘hook’ potential leads to your product and event? How do you rally people to support your campaign? What is the right way to market a technical product? These were questions that participants were curious about as they listened in to three invited speakers at the third run of the COMMotion speaker series held on 17th March 2017.
Specially organised to provide education and networking opportunities for communications practitioners – particularly alumni of the Master of Science in Communication Management (MCM) degree programme – the COMMotion series offers insights into Public Relations (PR) campaigns from the public, private and non-profit sectors. The third run of COMMotion, moderated by President of the MCM Alumni Group, Mr Terence Quek, invited the following three panelists to share their insights:
1. Lieutenant-Colonel (LTC) Ang Ai Hua
Head National Service Outreach and Engagement Branch
National Service Directorate
2. Mr Kenny Eng
President, Kranji Countryside Association
Director, Nyee Phoe Group and Gardenasia
3. Mr Mark Tan
CEO of Way Fengshui Group
The three speakers acknowledged that there was a myriad of tactics to reach out to the target audience, but opined it was important to first raise awareness of one’s product/service.
Mr Kenny Eng made it his business to raise awareness of local farming, as his campaign intended to establish a united voice and platform to protect and further farmers’ interests. To do so, he and his team worked on raising the Kranji farming area’s educational and recreational value, to cast the spotlight and public interest on the topic of local farming. This lay the groundwork for him to provide a forum for Singapore’s farmers, nature lovers, and conservationists to discuss and appreciate the related issues for further conversations and discourse.
LTC Ang, whose campaign was intended to encourage more businesses and organisations to become National Service (NS) Mark accredited, made it her core responsibility to forge good relationships with business owners and organisations. This facilitated on-going communications with them so they could understand the importance of supporting NS. By doing so, she and her team successfully convinced many employers to pledge their commitment and sign the Declaration of Support for NS and Total Defence to attain the NS Mark.
The speakers also suggested considering which are the best platforms to reach out to one’s audience and the best formats to message one’s content. While Mr Eng and LTC Ang explored education and direct outreach methods, Mr Mark Tan experimented with communicating technical information through infographics. Observing that fengshui masters were running complicated charts and diagrams, he advocated condensing the essence of these into impactful zodiac infographics, and found that these were very well received by the market. He also hired young employees who knew how to use alternate social media platforms such as Snapchat, to reach out to younger demographics – which were potential untapped market segments.
Is it necessary for PR campaigns to always use the latest technology to hook potential leads? Mr Eng said that this depended greatly on one’s target market, and he advised against blindly chasing technology. Mr Tan added that one’s community needed to like one’s idea, and the builders of the product needed to like what they were building too. Mr Eng suggested simplifying the product, building up the community and that the rest would fall in place after that
The main takeaway from all three speakers: Be sincere and persevere. Walk the ground and understand the fear. Build relationships.
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