Digital Market Asia’s Socialathon 2014, being held on August 22, 2014, aims to make sense of the fast evolving social media marketing scene with the theme ‘What the Connections Mean’ followed by an evening of Socialathon Awards that recognize work which is up to speed with the industry’s evolution
By Henna Achhpal
Today, brands have become as much a part of our news feeds and timelines as our friends and acquaintances. In a span of a few years, social media has redefined the way brands are communicating with their consumers. The focus has shifted from the message to engagement and from hard selling to community building. In the fast changing industry, even the roles of social media platforms are continually evolving to assume a crucial place for marketers, where some are increasingly committing higher portions of their ad budgets to digital. It’s no surprise then that brands are launching commercials on the internet before the idiot box, some even taking the risk with long format.
However, the challenge still remains on how to ride this wave efficiently and make the most of social media as its function develops from a mere increase in fan/user/follower base to community building, indentifying buying intent and listening to what people think about, how they think and what they expect from a brand. With the objective of recognising expertise and work that has kept at pace with the evolution of social media marketing, Digital Market Asia has conceptualized Socialathon.
The daylong event begins with a conference involving not just business leaders from the Asia Pacific region but also bloggers and influencers. The theme of the event, What the Connections Mean, aims to take the conversations of social media marketing to a level where investing in social media translates to moving business units. The engaging discussions will be followed by an evening dedicated to celebrating the best work from the region through the Socialathon Awards, APAC’s first social media awards.
In its first year, Socialathon will take place on August 22, 2014 and the host city for the event this year is Delhi, India. “India is one of the largest markets for social media giants such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn amongst others. Yet the market poses an interesting dilemma where advertising revenues have still not translated to the ratio of the existing user base. As global MNCs, agencies and media owners continue to look at India as a high investment market, we thought it was the best place to house the first edition of Socialathon,” explains Annurag Batra, Chairman, BW|BusinessWorld and Digital Market Asia, and Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of exchange4media.
With Asia Pacific creating new opportunities and benchmarks when it comes to social, entries for the Socialathon Awards are pouring in from markets across the region including India, Singapore, Australia, China, Dubai, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. The number continues to grow as the entry deadline of July 31, 2014 comes closer. For more information on the event and information on submitting entries, visit www.digitalmarket.asia/events/socialathon
Award Categories
Creating and Managing Social Communities
Best Use of Social Communities
Creation of Engagement Platforms
Always On/ Real-time Response
Best Use of Co-Creation
Engaging the Brand Advocates
Placement of Content
Application of Data & Insight
Creation of Applications
Social Commerce
Native Advertising
Best Use of Social Nomenclatures such as Tags/Hashtags
Best Use of Social Media on Mobile
Best Use of Social Media in a larger campaign
Hallmark Categories:
Social Media Agency of the Year (Belonging to a larger network)
Social Media Agency of the Year (Independent)
Social Media Platform of the Year
Social Media Marketer of the Year (As part of a larger campaign)
Social Media Marketer of the Year (Standalone)
Feedback: henna@exchange4media.com
