WorldMarketer

What’s the latest in gaming? How can I start using gaming in my learning strategy? These are the hottest questions in the industry and viaLearning aims to give you answers! Our highly-anticipated new booklet, Game On: How games are transforming corporate learning is now available for download here. This free resource is designed as a primer outlining helpful tips to improving learner engagement and retention.

The interest in game-based learning has accelerated considerably in recent years, driven by clear successes in military and industrial training as well as by emerging research into the cognitive benefits of game play. Developers and researchers are working in every area of game-based learning, including games that are goal-oriented; social game environments; non-digital games that are easy to construct and play; games developed expressly for education; and commercial games that lend themselves to refining team and group skills.

Organizations are faced with numerous challenges, including: training their staff quickly on product specifications, features, and benefits. The tips in this Game Guide help organizations learn how to engage, captivate, and educate their teams by delivering the right information at the right time through gaming. Companies around the world depend on viaLearning’s game-based training initiatives to build creative learning solutions that drive organizational performance. This short guide explains what game-based learning is, and what it can do for your organization.

Happy learning,

Julie

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Take note, if the recent moves by a pair of major Spanish-language content producers are any indication, online video is expected to be big for Hispanic audiences in 2012—and those that serve them.

At the end of 2011, Univision, the leading Spanish language network in the U.S., announced that video streaming website Hulu will start offering Spanish-language content. Meanwhile, Telemundo announced it will launch new Telemundo and mun2 channels on YouTube.

The partnership with Hulu includes the popular telenovelas as well as content from a host of sources from Galavision and Estrella TV to TeleFutura Butaca and Caracol Televisión. Most is available only to Hulu subscribers, but some programs are also available on the free Hulu site. The site also plans to expand its Hulu Latino property.

The new YouTube channels from Telemundo will feature clips and short-form programming, promotional videos, and original bilingual content. And for the first time, weekly novela summaries will be available with English subtitles, designed for the Spanish and bilingual novela fan.

These are significant announcements. Consider that Spanish-dominant Hispanics, although largely online, are less so than bilingual and English-dominant Hispanics. And according to ComScore, Spanish-dominant Hispanics spend about 50 percent more time watching online video content than do English-dominant Hispanics.

Given the relative scarcity of online Spanish video content at present, these numbers are poised to explode, which should be a great interest to both content producers and multicultural marketers.

Darren Megarry
viaLanguage

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Here’s another one for the multicultural marketing “Should We Have Known?” file. One hopes that at the very least the language translation in a given communication is managed effectively. Too often, it’s a failure to consider the cultural nuances that ambushes your message.

And it can happen to the best of them. McDonald’s, surely among the most experienced multicultural marketers in the world, may have recently tripped up to the tune of $1.8 million. The claimed misstep was made in Brazil in the seemingly innocuous package of the traditional Happy Meal, or, as they call it in Portuguese, the McLanche Feliz.

As it turns out, some in Brazil have a slightly different opinion of the toy McDonald’s likes to include with its burger, fries, and drink. A nonprofit called the Instituto Alana filed a complaint with the government’s Department of Justice and Defense of Citizens contending that the toy “distorts values” and promotes “unhealthy eating habits.”

The burger behemoth is appealing the fine, and a final decision is not expected for another three months. In the meantime, the company is faced with all the complications that attend an issue of this kind. Would they have been able to avoid it had other steps been taken before launching the campaign?

It’s hard to know. But what we do know for sure is that the chance for a blunder multiplies exponentially if an assessment of cultural subtlety is not part of your multicultural plan.

Darren Megarry
viaLanguage

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

There’s that old expression people use when attempting to convey the skill of a particularly talented sales person: He/She could “sell snow to the Eskimos.” Nike would like to change that to “He/She can sell running shoes to the Chinese.”

As it turns out, that is a particularly dicey multicultural marketing challenge. Because as Nike learned, for the majority of Chinese running is considered too hard and too painful to be fun. In most cases, they’re only exposure to running is from forced school drills. And then there’s the issue of the smog-filled, traffic-choked cities. Not exactly an enticing combination.

So the company is taking a grassroots approach by focusing on ordinary people who choose to flout prevailing opinion and jog through the city at night. The campaign, called “Run For,” invited runners to share their stories via the microblog platform Sina Weibo. Videos were then created from the best submissions.

And to up the cool, fun factor of running, Nike also hosted night runs (Lunar Runs named after Nike’s Lunar Glide shoe) in select cities with fitness instructors, live music and celebrities. The runs as well as a four-day sports festival helped Nike connect with 35,000 potential converts.

Nike admits it’s a long road, but just as with running, you only get there by putting one foot in front of another.

Darren Megarry
viaLanguage

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

What makes a standout multicultural marketing campaign? The association of National Advertisers recently answered that elusive question at this year’s Multicultural Marketing and Diversity Conference in Miami. The first must-have is a no-brainer, while the second can seal the deal but is really only possible if you’ve achieved the first.

Cultural insight and humor, these two ingredients proved the distinguishing features of this year’s winners. Scott’s Miracle-Gro took home the award for best Hispanic campaign for its first Hispanic TV spot ever. In the humorous ad, a flip-flop used to dispatch a cockroach decides to take out the entire cockroach population.

Target won best radio campaign, which included a spot in which a Mexican band sings the store’s sales items with the tagline “At Target, sales prices sound like a serenade.” The humor was recognized by conference judges as being especially effective with the audience.

Toyota turned a keen cultural insight into a very targeted effort that earned them the best digital media award. The automaker turned to Hatsune Miku, a computer-generated pop star in Japan, to help reach young Asian-American women.

As Dipika Hemdev, assistant manager of multicultural marketing at General Mills and one of this year’s judges, put it, “We were looking for a campaign that was insights-driven and delivered a culturally relevant message.”

Cultural relevance. Every effective multicultural marketing message, funny or not, starts with that one non-negotiable ingredient. Visit the AdAge Hispanic blog to see some of this year’s Multicultural Marketing and Diversity winners.

Darren Megarry
viaLanguage

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

When trying to reach your multicultural audiences, it’s just as important to know where they are as who they are. As a result, a critical piece of any successful multicultural marketing campaign is identifying the environments your audience prefers.

Recent CREST foodservice market research conducted by the NPD Group revealed that Hispanics made some 5.8 billion visits to restaurants in the first half of 2011 alone. Perhaps more striking, greater than 40 percent of those meals included children, compared to about 30 percent for non-Hispanic diners.

The research also reports that Hispanics prefer to visit restaurants alone or in larger groups; about 45 percent of Hispanic restaurant visits involve groups of three or more. Unlike other groups, Hispanics seem to seldom go out two at a time.

Much has been written about the importance of family in the Hispanic culture. The CREST research suggests that that commitment is also expressed in their dining-out habits. Those surveyed said as much, claiming they would visit restaurants more often if the establishment were inviting to and accommodating of children.

Not surprisingly, success in this effort has a great deal to do with language. The Spanish language is an important feature of nearly 90 percent of U.S. Hispanics. More than 25 percent of that population is considered Spanish language dominant, and it is this slice that is most likely to bring their children with them when they go out to eat. Great food for thought.

Darren Megarry
viaLanguage

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

No matter what you are selling, you want to make it as easy as possible for shoppers to find and buy your product. That is about as fundamental as it gets. Much of what we do as multicultural marketers is intended to meet that goal. Translation, technology, partnerships, these and other tools are brought to bear in that effort.

Now, the world’s largest marketer, Procter & Gamble, has combined those elements to give shoppers yet another way to fill their shopping cart. P&G recently launched a series of four “virtual” stores in busy subway stations in Prague. With nothing but your phone and few seconds before your train, you can now purchase a number of essentials, including razors, shampoo, and diapers.

It’s as simple as using one’s phone to snap a picture of the QR code of the product you would like to purchase from a wall display of choices. Orders are then immediately sent to Mall.Cz, the biggest online store in the Czech Republic, which responds with a message identifying when the order will be delivered to the shopper’s home. P&G is guaranteeing second-day delivery.

Others are trying their hand at the same idea, which is based on a concept introduced earlier in the year by South Korean store chain, Tesco. Chinese retailer Yihodian.com has recently installed similar virtual markets in 15 stations around Shanghai.

As New York is only now addressing cell service in its subway, it is unclear how viable the idea might be in the U.S. But as Wal-Mart has expressed interest in the innovation, I wouldn’t count it out.

Darren Megarry
viaLanguage

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

In introducing the results of this year’s Interbrand Best 100 Global Brands report, Jez Frampton, Interbrand CEO, said, “Consistency, relevance and commitment are imperative if a brand is to keep pace in our rapidly changing world.”

If we believe that top global brands must have stellar multicultural marketing, then we can reasonably conclude that successful multicultural marketing is also staked on our ability to be consistent, relevant, and committed.

According to Interbrand, the three key aspects contributing to a brand’s value include:
• The financial performance of the branded products or services
• The role of brand in the purchase decision process
• The strength of the brand to continue to secure earnings for a company

And who best met these criteria in 2011, according to Interbrand? For the 12th consecutive year Coca-Cola earned the top spot. While that was no great surprise, less predictable was the meteoric rise of Apple, which experienced a jump in brand value of 58 percent. This took it to the number 8 spot and accounted for the single biggest rise of any brand.

Among the main takeaways from this year’s list is the dominance of technology brands. Apple was already mentioned, but IBM, HTC, and Amazon were also noteworthy. Amazon’s brand value grew by nearly 40 percent in 2011.

Other trends include a return to form for automotive manufacturers, with Toyota retaining its number one spot in the category, and the rise of luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, Gucci, and Burberry, which increased brand value by 20 percent.

Check out the full list. Pick the spot you would like to occupy next year.

Darren Megarry
viaLanguage

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

In last week’s post we spotlighted a video that managed to tell a moving story in service to its message. The fact that we reposted it is one indisputable piece of evidence that it worked, at least on one level; the viral possibilities are part of your goal for every video.

But how best to approach creating your video? It’s a question virtually every brand must ask before undertaking the time and expense of producing one. The American Express OPEN Forum recently sought to answer that question with a series of video tips. Here are the top 5:

1. Bring the funny – This can admittedly be a dicey one as humor is really a matter of taste and timing. Multicultural marketers must be especially mindful of the cultural nature of humor.
2. Make an unusual connection – This might even be more challenging than humor. The connection may only be in a feeling you want to convey such a joy or celebration.
3. Tell a story – A campaign of this kind can use cliffhangers or surprises, keeping viewers engaged and even bringing them back to new installments.
4. Make it interactive – You can embed links in your video that take viewers to your Facebook page, a website, or some other property.
5. Include a game – This might really be an addendum to #4, but here we’re talking about a specific tactic: “gamification,” which just means giving the visitor a fun activity.

There is, of course, no silver bullet when it comes to creating successful videos. But the good ones do tend to have something in common. For the rest of the list, and examples of each, check out the American Express OPEN Forum story.

Darren Megarry
viaLanguage

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

If you work as a multicultural marketer, you’ve no doubt been asked this or asked it of someone else: Is it better to have one global Facebook page or individual pages for each market you’re in? If you have opted for the former, you may want to rethink your choice. Here’s why:

According to research conducted by social-technology company Syncapse, local Facebook pages achieve 36 percent higher engagement rates than do the global alternative. A recent post by Syncapse president/CEO Michael Scissons tries to break down why.

1. Make sure your Facebook strategy mirrors your company. If marketing dollars are in any way local, it’s a gamble to expect those local marketers to put global efforts first before their local goals.
2. Remember, it’s about the customers. Your Facebook strategy should reflect the most effective and efficient way to meaningfully reach your customers. As Scissons notes, “Local pages allow marketers to put the ‘social’ in social media.”
3. If measurement is important, global pages are not ideal. Generally speaking, global posts do not permit you to identify which geos are contributing to or driving engagement, which complicates your efforts to improve performance.
4. Locally relevant content can pay the price. Because everyone can see the tabs launched on a global page, it can be a challenge to create locally focused content. There is also a greater chance for global missteps that could upset a given geo.

The moral of the story is content drives engagement. Give your multicultural audience what they need and want, and they are likely to respond. Attempt to be everything to everyone, and you may end up really reaching none.

Darren Megarry
viaLanguage

Bookmark It

Hide Sites