Old or New Facebook, there are changes going on

There has been an ongoing debate among my geeky friends whether they hate or love the new Facebook. There is even a group petitioning for Facebook to go back to the old set up. I am one of those who are sitting in the neutral fence, not really caring, however I noticed an interesting additional feature in the ads application. Apparently if you click on the ads, you will be able to rate it whether you like or hate it, along with your feedback to the ads. As one of the advertising world denizen, I am quite intrigued by this functionality. After all, apart from occasional focus group, it is rather rare for us to get a feedback on our works, so you know, we can improve it ;-) Is this a wind of change for advertising world? Would this become the standard norm in the future?

Wakamaru is blogging for Uniqlo

Having a blog for your company is quite common these days, but to have a robot to blog for you, it is quite different. Wakamaru is a cute robot who is currently interning in Uniqlo NYC store. This cute yellow robot has been working as the staff in the SoHo branch for a few weeks now. Wakamaru's role in Uniqlo range from greeting the guests, making eye contacts, and completing menial tasks. Charming right! Although obviously Wakamaru has several weakness but he is doing wonderfully to engage with customers as one Uniqlo ambassador. Check out Wakamaru's blog and Facebook profile!

Political engagement

This blog is not about politic affairs, but with the world tuning into the American presidential election, I can’t help but follow the progress. After the not-so subtle jibe from Paris Hilton’s video, the latest development of the campaign turned to the announcement of the candidates’ VP nomination. What is so interesting? Well, instead of doing it in the conventional way, Mr. Barack Obama decided to inform his supporters via email and SMS. Ahead from the journalists and from the man himself!Barack Obama is no stranger when it comes to utilising the power of web 2.0. He managed to outdo Hillary Clinton’s gargantuan money machine by employing grass-root strategy through social network sites like Facebook. But this takes the political marketing strategy to a new level. Why? Two words: engagement and personalisation. Won’t you be awed to receive SMS/email from your presidential candidate? It will also definitely differentiate him from other candidate and just imagine the buzz surrounding this move. In addition to that, now he has a good database of his supporters that he can easily use to activate them. Is this manoeuvre going to be the new benchmark in political engagement? Lets wait and see.