It’s all about storytelling and creating a gripping narrative

(Editor’s note: Here is an article from our archives which we think is still relevant)

What you will learn:

•   The basic structure of a decent advertisement
•   How to use “mise en scène” to convey different sets of reality
•   The basic rules of decent lighting
•   How to distribute the final product

That actress who played Wonder Woman journeys through a fantasy landscape and takes the occasional photo with a smartphone.

This is probably what most viewers will take away from Huawei‘s P20 commercial. As a consumer, the commercial tells me nothing about the phone; its technical specifications are not mentioned and it doesn’t feature a real photo taken from its camera. And Gal Gadot isn’t going to take me on a guided tour of her dreamscape, either.

Nevertheless, Huawei’s commercial is slick and well-produced; the fact that it features Hollywood-quality CGI effects and the lead actress of a blockbuster superhero film significantly boosts its brand awareness. This gives it a sort of shine that makes you feel that the company is playing in the big league — regardless of whether there have been any reviews of the advertised product.

This is the beauty — and the paradoxical nature — of advertising, of a well-crafted promotional product video. Many top consumer brands like Nike and Tag Heuer seem to buy into the belief that the less of their product they show, the more likely they will attract buyers — at least, on first glance.

But that’s not really so simple, is it? Such projects — especially ones that run in the millions of dollars — takes weeks and months to plan and shoot.

So let’s break it down into the elements that make a quality promotional product video.

Crafting the narrative, building the characters

Not all advertisements are going to look the same as the Huawei P20 commercial. Some may show even less of the product while others may attempt to win you over with seemingly impressive technical specifications. There are a thousand-and-one ways of working it.

The best advertisements are the ones that leave the deepest impressions in your mind. And it could be a positive or negative impression. Maybe it’s a video with a really cringy jingle and acting worthy of a Razzie award, or maybe one that stirs up deep empathy or triggers a visceral response.

Either way, they elicit a sharp emotional response from the viewer that sticks in their mind (as they say there is no such thing as bad publicity)

Let’s zoom out and look at what makes a good narrative for a film or a TV show. On a very basic level, you get the protagonist and he or she has embarked on a quest. Along the way, they meet obstacles and tests and maybe they experience a crisis of faith, and finally, something compels them to fulfill their journey, to defeat whatever or whoever is in their way — usually a villain — and claim their victory.

This is, in a nutshell, is the essence of the classic mythic structure as theorised by the American Professor of Literature Joseph Campbell, in his classic book “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”. But is it possible to cram this set of tropes into a short 1 minute or 30 seconds video?

Perhaps we can take Apple’s iconic Super bowl commercial in 1984 as an example and see if we can apply Campbell’s theory.

In the video, we see a mass of identical-looking people watching what appears to be a propaganda broadcast. The presenter the screen is urging them to march to the beat of a “single ideology” and rally against an unseen enemy.

The audience is dressed in grey overalls and they carry a blank expression on their faces. This whole scenario is obviously a direct reference to George Orwell’s dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, which is about the perils of an authoritarian state.

In the midst of this, a woman wearing orange-coloured shorts and singlet is carrying a hammer and is seen running from heavily-armed guards. She yells and swings the hammer into the screen, disrupting the broadcast and breaking the trance it had over the audience, who respond in wide-eyed shock.

Also Read: Key challenges and opportunities in Malaysia’s e-commerce scene

Then a text crawls up announcing Apple’s plans to introduce a new “Macintosh” computer, boldly promising that because of them, the year 1984 would not turn out to be Orwellian.

It’s a short 1-minute clip. but there are some elements from Campbell’s theory that can be extracted from it. First, it has a protagonist — the heroine, who, with her bright clothing, is dressed to stand out from the rest of the characters. Then, there’s the obstacle — the armed guards.

Finally, at the end, we find out her motive — her quest — she wants to the shatter the spell the presenter has over the audience, whose indistinguishable appearances are designed to make them look like minions (not those annoying yellow creatures from Despicable Me); she accomplishes this by bringing down the villain — the Big Brother-esque figure.

The message of the commercial is very clear: Apple is appealing to the viewer to stand out from the crowd, to walk away from the all-seeing authority; to be a distinct and independent individual, free to express their thoughts.

The commercial paints Apple as this cool- kid-on-the-block, but its development was far from plain sailing. Steve Jobs clashed with the board of directors on the concept.

Ultimately, Jobs managed to get it aired, and, as history showed, Jobs’ intuition proved right; Apple has had made plenty of amazing TV advertisements since then but this 1984 commercial still stands as its most groundbreaking piece.

The perplexing thing about it is, Apple only mentions Macintosh once. Not once does it say why Macintosh is supposed to be this earth-shattering piece of tech that will supposedly change the world.

No technical details are mentioned, there isn’t even an image of the computer. Oh, and Jobs obviously put a lot of faith in American audiences knowing the context of “1984”. You can understand why it was a big risk to take.

The technique

Apple’s 1984 commercial was directed by British film director Ridley Scott, who had then directed two would-be classic Sci-fi films: Alien and Blade Runner (which was probably why he was picked for the job). To really dissect his cinematography technique would take an entire 1-hour lecture, but there are some quick pointers to extract from the video.

First, contrast. With only seconds of screen time, the audience needs to identify the protagonist very quickly, they need to know who they should be rooting for.

Scott did this by having the heroine dressed in bright athletic clothes, which stands in stark contrast from the guards’ full body armour and the minions’ dreary uniform overalls. It also helped that she had a head full of blonde orange hair.

Against the backdrop of the drab industrial interiors, she also clearly stands out. Scott is very careful in crafting in what is known as the “mise en scène”, which in French means “putting into the scene”.

According to David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson’s book, Film Art: An introduction 8th edition), mise en scène is the staging of several elements to create a representation of reality. These include: “the settings, lighting, costume and the behaviour of figures.”

Directors can use mise en scène to convey different sets of reality. In Scott’s 1984 commercial, it was to convey a claustrophobic, fascist future. Let’s examine the video again.

Much of the video is shot using low-key lighting. Its tight corridors or halls are dimly lit, and the minions are cast in heavy shadows — this is to accentuate the bleakness of the setting. The heroine is, however, cast in vivid light, so we can clearly register the fiery passion on her face when she swings her hammer into the screen.

Unshackle those chains!!

Take a look at the performance of the characters as well. The minions walk in slow, shuffling motions, their eyes expressing neither pleasure nor pain; in contrast, the heroine lets loose an unadulterated yell.

When it comes to positioning the camera, Scott is also careful to frame the heroine at the centre of the shot as she runs down the hall. When she hurls the hammer at the end, he frames her at a low angle to make her look powerful.

Editing plays a strong role, too. We see shots of the heroine running intercut with the minions watching the presenter drone on. Once again, this emphasizes the contrast between her and the minions. All these elements, and the buildup towards it that makes the scene all the more impactful.

There are some basic rules of good lighting to take note — and this can be applied for a simple product shoot as well — and that is the classic three-point lighting. Basically, you want to have a backlight, which lights the subject from behind; the fill light, which is positioned at the side near the camera; and the key light to illuminate the front part of the subject.

Also Read: So far yet so close: How to successfully manage a dispersed team

You can position the three lights however you see fit, but in general, these all you need to create good lighting (of course, the colour and the intensity of the lights play a big factor as well). Check out Rembrandt lighting techniques too if you want to understand how to light your characters as if they come from a painting.

For more conventional product shoots that focus heavily on the product itself, it helps to have high-key lighting because it coats the object with an even layer of soft, glowing light, making it pleasing to the eye. Especially important if you want to show off every part of the product.

Not that the opposite, low-key illumination, is less desirable, though. Low-key lighting with its emphasis on sharp contrasts between dark and light regions can make the object look more “mysterious”. Sometimes, it’s nice to tease the audience a little.

Equipment

Scott probably rented out high-end Hollywood-grade film cameras that cost in the high range of seven figures to shoot the Apple commercial. But it doesn’t mean you have to break the bank and take out a mortgage on your house to create a great product commercial! Good filmmaking is all about creative thinking.

Many consumer range cameras are perfectly suited for the job. A digital single-lens reflex camera (DSLR) can go for as low as US$400 (or maybe even cheaper if you try the second-hand market) and they are all capable of shooting in at least 720p high definition.

Don’t have a few grand to buy these lighting kits? Check out the IKEA store or even DIY one using unused bulbs you have in storage.

Don’t have a tripod head and slider or a dolly to do one of these tracking shots? See if you can find an abandoned shopping cart lying around and strap your camera onto it. Otherwise, once again, head down to a DIY shop and purchase some wheels and other parts and MacGyver yourself a similar piece of equipment on the cheap. The possibilities are endless.

Awesome looking videos can even be shot on a smartphone; check out this one shot on an iPhone 8 Plus, for example. It’s pretty wild how far phone cameras have evolved! (note: this article is no way sponsored by Apple. Personally, I use an Android-powered smartphone).

Optimising for web and mobile

A great product video might earn you a place at the Cannes Lions, but it’s not really of much use if no one but a bunch of industry critics view it. Ultimately, you want people to watch your video so they would remember their product and hopefully buy them.

First, think about the channels of distribution. Will you be showing it at a cinema or for the web and mobile?

If it’s for the big screen, I guess you can make it as long as you want (within reasonable length) since audiences have no choice but to watch it anyway. But if you are optimising it for online platforms, then it’s a different ball game altogether.

According to HubSpot, videos that attracted the most engagement on YouTube were on average two minutes long; on Facebook, it was a minute; while those on Instagram ran for just 25 seconds. With the web being a gargantuan clutter of information, it’s easy to see why viewers would have an attention span of a goldfish, there are just too many distractions.

But before you go on taking HubSpot’s statistics as gospel, keep in mind HubSpot did not specify whether they were sampling just video advertisements or what industry these ads fell under.

Also Read: What you need to know about building a freemium game

A finding last year by marketing analytics company Nanigans was more specific. It discovered that “for e-commerce advertisers, the 16- to 20-second length boasted the best conversion rate, but longer video ads weren’t far behind”.

Additionally, according to HubSpot findings, viewers who watched more than three seconds of the video were more likely to finish it, so that’s another important metric to note.

The best way to work out the optimal length for your video to do plenty of A/B testing and evaluate your own findings. It might also be useful to conduct small focus groups to figure out what parts of the videos worked and what parts didn’t.

Beyond that you might want to encode the video in a format that is friendly for mobile viewing, considering they outnumber desktop web users. According to video content company Clipchamp, “small file size trumps resolution, bit rate and visible quality to a certain extent.

In other words, you don’t want to have the viewer wait for your video to buffer. There is a more pertinent problem in emerging markets where a sizeable number of consumers may not have access to reliable 4G networks.

Conclusion

While a great story and a well-produced video certainly bring prestige to a brand, in the era of web and viral videos, there is no clear playbook. Two videos might follow the same filming technique and narrative but one may be more successful than the other.

Why? It could be a wide range of factors, maybe their search engine optimization (SEO) was better, maybe the presenter in the video had a more calming voice. Maybe one has a lot of wit and swagger, like this Dollar Shave Club video.

Or perhaps, like the recent Nike advertisement narrated by Colin Kaepernick, it was able to tap into the zeitgeist of the times. There are a million and one factors to consider.

Heck, you may not even have to create a video yourself, look at this video of a mother wearing a Chewbecca mask, sometimes, it’s the consumers themselves who can best advertise your product.

Ultimately, you choose how you want to tell your brand or product’s story; you decide what narrative best encapsulates your company’s core vision. If you are earnest about and walk the talk (and by that time it may mean your product does what your company claims) consumers will take the leap of faith.

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Image Credit by Jakob Owens on Unsplash

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Here are some of the top skills needed to become a big data professional

The IT sector just cannot stop talking about the marvellous branch of science that Big Data has become today. Data is everywhere we look. In simpler terms, there isn’t any shortage of data around us.

In present times, the world is producing more than 2.5 quintillion bytes of data daily.

Organisations are occupied in finding ways to receive the most significant return of investment over the facts and figures extracted out of data.

There is a deep requirement for people who can help businesses flourish in this data-driven world by drawing out meaningful insights out of puzzling data sets.

But wistfully, there is a shortage in the supply of Big Data Professionals in the job market.

Also Read:The big data balance: a man-plus-machine approach to hiring

This is an indication that the market is hot for any and everyone with big data skills.

On that account, employers are ready to pay almost US$150k per annum to competent big data white-collars holding pertinent big data certifications.

Ways to Earn a Big Data Job

Though, the big data space is wide open for people to enter, attaining a job in this area is still no cakewalk.

Since, there is a broad array of skills that employers want big data employees to possess and in the absence of those skills, the goal of becoming a big data expert seems far-fetched.

Without taking too much of your time, here are five skills that are critical for a big data professional –

1. Learn SQL

There is a list of things that you must have in your huge bag of skills and SQL has to be on the top if you want to enter the big data zone swiftly.

Structured Query Language is a popular language that enables you to get handy over your organisation’s database technology. It shall help you attain expertise in Big data technologies like Hadoop Scala & NoSQL.

2.Attain the art of mining data and solving problems

Corporations have large pools of data that you will be expected to take insights out of once you begin to work in this area of work.

So, it is advisable to obtain prowess in data mining technologies like KNIME and Mahout.

Also Read: How big data is impacting the legal world

Fortunately, there is a large bunch of Big Data Certifications in the market that will help you do so.

3.Gain knowledge of apache hadoop and apache spark

If you ask employers what they look for in big data professionals. Knowing how to use Apache Hadoop will be on the top of their heads since it is a helpful skill in resolving computing issue and assisting networking.

The Hadoop components that will make your job easier are Hive, HBase, Pig, MapReduce, and so on.

You can pursue a relevant Big Data Hadoop Certification program to become an expert in this dominion.

4. Be well-versed with data visualisation and quantitative analysis

These are the interwoven skills you must get your hand on.

If you talk about quantitative analysis, it is a technique that can help you get a grip over statistical tools. This can be critical in finding your place in the big data domain.

Also Read:5 impacts of big data in your personal life

In a nutshell, owning profound knowledge in statistics is considered to be a substantial factor that can shape your big data career.

5.Become an efficient coder

Assessing a data pool can be carried out through readymade tools in the markets. However, these tools cannot help you with finding solutions to every kind of issue in big data analysis.

Gathering knowledge in programming languages, such as Python, Scala, Java, R will enable you to evaluate big data problems and boost your career.

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Blogging for your startup is time-consuming, here are four tips to help you blog better

The lean machinery of a startup means that you have the opportunity to shine where other traditional organisations don’t:

Helping your target audience solve their specific pain points.

So before you hammer out your next article, take some time to better connect with your target audience:

1. Be crystal clear on your target audience

Remember all the hard work you’ve poured into going door to door, conducting interviews and surveys during your startup market validation process?

You should already have an inkling of who your ideal customer is.

Use that to create a buyer persona that pinpoints not only your ideal customer’s name and age, but also their beliefs and aspirations. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have all the information — take your best guess and refine it later!

2. Play agony aunt to your target audience

Let them complain. Let them whine. Most importantly, listen to what their biggest challenges are.

You can then create blog posts with insights and solutions to your target audience’s problems.

Show them how your startup product or service can change their lives!

3. Appear where your target audience hangs out

Zero in on the websites, forums, magazines, blogs and publications that your target audience is reading.

Go ahead. Do a little detective work and surprise your target audience with content that they haven’t been able to find on these websites before.

If these websites are already ranking highly on Google and allow for guest writers, rejoice! Your startup would gain credibility more quickly by posting on these sites while getting readership and direct feedback from your target audience.

4. Bait your target audience to read your startup blog

Applying this customer-centric startup blog strategy will allow you to create content that’s valued by your audience.

This naturally translates into more faithful engagements with your content, traffic, and leads.

Take a look at the content pieces I’ve published on Medium, a platform where my blog’s target audience of freelance writers frequented:

Not bad, considering I was getting reader engagement even before my blog was launched!

By identifying and focusing on your target audience, you’ll be on your way to gaining more blog readership.

You won’t feel like you’re talking to a brick wall anymore. You’d eventually have a stream of engaged readers who are curious about what your startup can offer that other businesses can’t. You’d look forward to having precious one-on-one conversations with these people to improve your startup offerings.

Your startup will also be one step closer to shaping the lives of these individuals, blog article by valuable article.

So take a step back and re-assess the content strategy for your startup blog.

You can start by connecting with the very people that your startup solutions are meant for.

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This article was first published on sherminong.com.

Editor’s note: e27 publishes relevant guest contributions from the community. Share your honest opinions and expert knowledge by submitting your content here.

Join our e27 Telegram group here, or our e27 contributor Facebook page here.

Image Credit: Andre Hunter

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Tools and platforms that can help you build your brand, run campaigns, analyse data, and enhance user experience

Business owners constantly face new challenges, from fighting competition to maintaining productivity.

To grow your business against all the odds, you need to streamline your core processes, be organised along with being ready to adapt to new trends and challenges.

Successful businesses are already leveraging technology to automate processes, minimise costs, and reduce human errors. 

Let’s take a look at ways in which technology can help take your business to the next level.

Also Read: How to improve your startup management

Save on IT costs

Cloud-based technologies offer a variety of computing and storage services, which is why most savvy businesses are adapting to them quickly.

Switching to cloud solutions can help you save on your IT costs. That’s because the solution providers provide IT support and backups as a part of their services.

With cloud computing and storage services, you can:

• Easily host, store, and share unlimited amounts of data online.
• Access your data from anywhere in the world at any time.
• Enjoy more flexibility and ease of use.
• Collaborate on a single document in real-time.
• Enhance security.

Switching to the cloud can help you speed up your business processes and fight the competition better.

Increase productivity

As a business owner, you want to get things done more quickly and with less effort, right?

The right productivity apps and software can help you improve project management, streamline tasks, increase transparency, and enhance communication.

The adoption of new technologies can help you improve the overall work efficiency of your team so that you can achieve your strategic goals.

Here are some of the most popular apps businesses use to stay productive:

• Slack
• Trello
• Basecamp
• Hootsuite/Buffer
• Toggl

These productivity apps make it easier for you to manage various projects and tasks, set due dates, and add status tags.

You can keep all project/task communications and files in one place and collaborate with other team members to get things done fast.

With so many features, these tools can save you time on managing productivity so that you can stay productive.

You can speed up your day-to-day tasks and experience seamless communication among peers, regardless of their locations and time zones.

Streamline procurement process

For businesses, it is critical to build and maintain an efficient procurement management system.

You need to streamline purchases to achieve speed, accuracy, and efficiency.

This is to ensure that you pay the best price for all of the goods and/or services that you purchase.

It can also help you reduce order delays and mistakes and save time. You can choose the best vendors for your goods and services to minimise costs.

While it can be challenging to streamline the procure-to-pay process of your business manually, there are solutions like PurchaseControl that can help.

Also Read: Project management foresees revolutionary changes with AI

Such purchase control and procurement software can help you keep tabs on goods and supplies and forecast needs based on data. 

They can help you streamline your business operations effectively :

• Inventory management
• Requisition management
• Purchase order management
• Invoice processing
• Reordering
• Contract management
• Supplier management
• Spend management

Investing in the right automation software can help you increase the efficiency of your entire procurement process.

It can help you increase your margins, minimise losses, and lower operational costs. This will eventually help your business grow fast.

Discover strengths and weaknesses

If you want to grow your business, you need to understand what’s working well for your business and what isn’t. But how can you discover that?

Technology comes to your rescue here too.

There are numerous monitoring and analytics tools that can help you identify the strengths and weaknesses of your business. Not only this, but you can also track how your competitors are performing.

Some of the popular monitoring and analytics tools that businesses use include:

• Google Analytics
• SEMrush
• Kissmetrics
• Moz
• Mention
• MailChimp
• SpyFu

The right social and web monitoring and analytics tools can bring you real-time data you need to formulate effective marketing strategies.

They can help you track website visits, see where your visitors coming from, monitor brand mentions and reviews, and more.

This data can help you make informed marketing and sales decisions for your business.

Also Read: Boosting the patient management process, one AI step at a time

It also enables you to keep track of your campaign performance and optimise your campaigns for better results.

You can generate higher ROI from your marketing campaigns, increase revenue, and grow your business faster.

Improve customer experience

Delivering excellent customer experience is necessary if you want to retain existing customers and acquire new ones. People might like your products, but a complicated sales process or poor experience can drive them away.

You need to effectively monitor and improve customer experience across all stages of their buying journey. Customer relationship management (CRM) systems can help you with it.

Technology has raised the performance bar when it comes to what consumers expect from brands.

Most consumers expect immediate responses, personalisation, and superior buying experiences when they interact with a brand.

CRMs can help you:

• Identify and capitalise on sales and marketing opportunities.
• Get quick access to customer data to learn more about them.
• Keep in touch with customers using various marketing automation tools.
• Personalise communications to meet their demands and requirements.
• Create a consistent experience.
• Analyse customer feedback.
• Provide relevant information and attentive support.
• Quickly respond to requests.

The right tools and platforms can help you better manage customer experiences using automation and analytics. You can make the most out of your CRM software to attract new customers and build customer loyalty.

Conclusion

Technology can help you improve your business in multiple ways.

With improved efficiency, you can attract, acquire, and retain more customers. This will help you drive more sales and revenue for your business.

Do you know any other ways technology can help a business grow fast? Please share them with the community!

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Editor’s note: e27 publishes relevant guest contributions from the community. Share your honest opinions and expert knowledge by submitting your content here.

Join our e27 Telegram group here, or our e27 contributor Facebook page here.

Image Credit: Matthew Guay

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The Singapore-based budget hotels aggregator says it is on track to achieve one million occupied room nights per month by year-end

RedDoorz, a leading hotel management and booking platforms in Southeast Asia, announced today it has bagged US$45 million in Series B round of funding, led by Chinese VC firm Qiming Venture Partners, alongside Jungle Ventures and its network of Limited Partners.

New investor Indonesia-based media company MNC Group, besides existing investors including Hendale Capital, International Finance Corporation, and Susquehanna International Group (SIG), also co-invested in the round.

Singapore-headquartered RedDoorz intends to use the new amounts to aggressively pursue growth strategies to become a prominent player in the region. The new funding will give a leeway for RedDoorz to compete with deep-pocketed OYO, which is backed by the likes of SoftBank. Headquartered in India, OYO has been aggressively expanding in Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines, among many other markets in the region. Its recently announced its plans to expand its presence in 100 cities in Indonesia by the end of this year and invest US$100 million for regional operations over the next five years.

Also Read: Founding RedDoorz “was like hitting the reset button” after years in the corporate travel industry: Amit Saberwal

Amit Saberwal, Founder and CEO of RedDoorz, said: “Our growth in 2018-2019 has been exponential. It has been such an important period for us as we were able to set the pace and establish new industry benchmarks in the affordable hospitality segment in Southeast Asia. The journey is just beginning for us and we are very excited about becoming the go-to-choice for quality, predictable and standardised accommodations in the region.”

Founded in 2015, RedDoorz is a technology-driven hotel management company which works with restaurants to provide affordable and reliable stay in all major cities and destinations across the region. RedDoorz currently has operations across more than 80 cities in four countries in Southeast Asia, namely Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam and operates more than 1,200 budget hotels and properties.

Helen Wong, Partner with Qiming Venture Partners, stated: “We have seen the trend of budget hotel chains in China about 15 years ago, and believe that standardised accommodation at affordable prices will appeal to consumers and business travelers in Southeast Asia too. As online penetration of the travel industry grows, RedDoorz will be a key beneficiary with the most extensive network of hotels in the region.”

MNC Group President Director David Fernando Audy, commented: “RedDoorz has a scalable business model and a practical solution for the fast-growing online travel booking industry, especially in Southeast Asia. We will support RedDoorz to grow the brand in Indonesia and overseas.”

RedDoorz has also recently announced that it is on track to achieve one million occupied room nights per month by year-end.

Also Read: RedDoorz founder’s recipe for success: Focus on one city, one market, one segment at a time

Previously, RedDoorz raised a US$11 million pre-Series B funding round from Asia Investment Fund of SIG, IFC, InnoVen Capital, and Jungle Ventures. Prior to this, the startup raised US$1 million in venture debt from InnoVen Capital in 2017.

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The startups will be offered a 6-month rent-free residency at the EY wavespace in Singapore, and will also get over US$87,500 worth of Microsoft Azure credits

EY Foundry, Ernst & Young’s incubator program for early-stage startups, has announced that it has accepted four startups from the accounting-tech, tax-tech, fintech, legal-tech, and regulatory-tech sectors into its Singapore batch.

These selected startups will be offered a 6-month rent-free residency at the EY wavespace in Singapore. They will also get US$87,708 worth of Microsoft Azure credits.

The participants were shortlisted through an open call for nominations from March to June in 2019, before delivering presentations to a judging panel of EY leaders at the official launch of EY Foundry Singapore on July 25, 2019.

“Singapore is a regional hub of choice for professional services, which is set to grow as an economic contributor. We are excited by how our experience, scale, and resources can help to unleash the potential of emerging technopreneurs in this space,” said Soh Pui Ming, Singapore Head of Tax, Ernst & Young Solutions, who was on the judging panel said.

Below is a brief description of the four startups:

Narus Knowledge

A knowledge platform management powered by AI to build, maintain, and capitalise on institutional knowledge. Narus’s services include intelligent capturing that identifies and captures knowledge, context engineering that distinguishes knowledge from information and automate the process, customised ontology and graph database, NLP, smart visualisation that mirrors human memory, intelligent retrieval that enables targeted retrieval of knowledge from multiple devices.

Notarum

An AI-enabled workflow tool that provides services such as fund management to legal and professional services and automated-due diligence to reduce cost and risk for interconnected companies. Notarum also assists with flagging and removing suspect characters and eliminating companies’ regulatory risk.

Also Read: 3 startups shaping AI in Southeast Asia

Regit

A consent-based data management platform to help businesses collect, maintain, and use customer data in a way that is compliant to Personal Data Protection and Privacy. The Regit platform can be used for events, registrations, surveys, or even EDMs and the built-in compliance feature eliminates the arduous work of having information consented.

Staple AI

A finance automation tool that uses AI to automate accounting, finance, and paperwork in business. Staple’s technology allows for ingesting financial documentation by letting users send the documents to get account system up to date immediately.

Also Read: EY to launch startup incubator EY Foundry in Singapore

Previously, EY Foundry had a successful run in Sydney, Australia in 2018. Singapore is the second country where EY Foundry has recruited startups from.

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Companies that are on the radar for their innovative approaches in Asia

With Bitcoin more than tripling recently since hitting it’s 2018 low of just over $3,000 USD, interest in the world of blockchain and digital currencies is back in a big way.

With reports of major international banks teaming up to invest in the creation a digital cash system using blockchain to settle financial transactions while Facebook releases plans to create their own digital currency, blockchain is capturing the major headlines on a weekly basis once again. 

Headlines are nice and all, but we’re yet to see the blockchain commercialization and mass adoption that some have been touting since 2017.

Scaling has been spotlighted as an issue as well as the lack of public education of the technology and currency side of things. Despite this, Asia still remains the world’s leading market for usage and arguably innovation. 

With regulation and traditional industries catching on to an ever-maturing blockchain ecosystem, we’re starting to see promising use cases of blockchain that will inevitably lead to adoption, whether it is noticed by the average consumer or not.

Here are five blockchain companies that are continuously innovating in the industry- 

Also Read:

1. Quras
Consisting of an international team from Japan, China, India, and more, Quras is the world’s first public blockchain that allows anonymous transactions in a smart contract.

With aims at being a leader in the ‘Privacy 2.0’ era, Quras wants to be the go-to blockchain for collaboration and mass adoption while protecting privacy for both users and enterprises.

This approach allows the best of both worlds when it comes to the advantages of public and private blockchains.

Today, a smart contract transaction on a public blockchain, such as Ethereum, is not confidential and can be viewed by anyone.

This has been a big inhibitor to adoption by major companies who require strict data security and identity measures in a controlled, accountable (and often centralized) environment.

Using two types of privacy technologies, zero-knowledge proofs and ring signature, the Quras blockchain gives companies the opportunity to choose the suitable privacy level for any purpose.  

So what are some of the industries that can benefit from Quras’ “public yet private” blockchain? The short answer, every industry that requires specific user privacy without the expense of neither having too much transparency nor network participation restriction.

Use cases include the transaction of customer assets in traditional finance, the handling and protection of personal health records, secure e-voting identification and voting data privacy, cloud computing and IoT protection. 

Shigeki Kakutani, CEO of Quras, says “Information that flows into IoT devices needs to have adequate privacy of personal information, which will only become a bigger issue as IoT devices become a greater part of daily life.” 

With the support of more than 100,000 community members and developers, and growing, Quras is looking to become a recognizable name in the future of blockchain.

2. Yojee

Singapore-based, Yojee, continues to make strides in the multi-trillion global logistics industry. Yoyee is a ‘future-ready’ platform technology firm that uses a combination of blockchain technology, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to optimize and manage delivery operations. 

As an early-mover in the blockchain logistics space, Yojee is looking to capitalize on its extensive partner and client network that spans much of Asia and ANZ.

Yojee’s use of blockchain technology for the logistics and supply chain industry has many benefits, including the creation of a supply chain audit trail, proof of product authenticity, the streamlining of documentation, tamper-proof contracts, and ultimately true autonomous collaboration.  

Also Read: Blockchain-powered fintech firm Omise raises fresh financing to grow its subsidiaries

In 2017, Yojee launched its logistics-focused blockchain on Ethereum. Last year, the company made headlines signing a technology agreement with UPS Asia to utilize Yojee’s blockchain in the UPS supply chain environment.

The momentum has continued with the company signing a three-year deal with Asian logistics giant and top 10 logistics firm, Geodis, this past May with the agreement commencing this month.

With supply chain being a natural industry primed for a technological revolution, Yojee can secure itself in the driver’s seat for the foreseeable future in Asia. 

3. Advanced Blockchain AG
Built by early blockchain adopter Robert Küfner, Germany-based Advanced Blockchain AG is a Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) company that has become the first blockchain company to list on three major German exchanges. 

These include the Frankfurt and Dusseldorf stock exchanges and Xetra, responsible for more than 90 per cent of all trading in shares at all German exchanges and approximately 30 per cent of trading in ETFs in Europe. For Küfner and team, Asia is still a major land of opportunity.

Küfner states, “Our goal is to make blockchain more accessible and easy to use for enterprises. We are currently doing this in Europe and see Asia as a market ripe for disruption and blockchain adoption.

Southeast Asia, in particular, has one of the highest engagement and usage rates on a consumer level, so it only makes sense that enterprises join by building processes and products that will help facilitate blockchain to the masses.”

With a proven track record in Europe and in the United States, keep an eye on Advanced Blockchain AG as they scale globally and provide custom blockchain solutions for companies. 

4. Altonomy

Fresh off of a $7m fundraising round led by Polychain Capital, Altonomy is a cryptocurrency trading desk focused on institutional clients.

Their main headquarters are in Singapore but the company also boasts offices in the United States. Altonomy’s partners include over 80 ICO issuers, exchanges and investment funds, including over 40 clients ranking in the top 200 by market capitalization.

With a lean team of approximately 20 employees, Altonomy has cornered a fast-growing market of liquidity providers, OTC desks, and advisory firms that realize that the dynamic nature of the industry creates a situation where it is important for companies to partner with firms that are lean, versatile, and ahead of the curve.

Also Read: 5 Asia-based startups that are making blockchain part of everyday life

Ricky Li, co-founder and Head of Americas for Altonomy, comments,  “We are proud of our ability to source liquidity for customers, regardless of token type, order size, market cap, or whether the asset trades on centralized or decentralized exchanges.

Backed by strategic capital and working closely with other luminaries across the asset class, like Polychain, we are the ideal partner to help investors navigate these primary and secondary markets, so they can harvest returns that are uncorrelated with the broader financial markets.”

With new funds and awareness, keep an eye out for Altonomy as they scale. 

5. ECOMI

The collectables industry generates over $200 billion annually, so it’s no wonder that digital collectables have started to transcend into the blockchain sphere.

And with blockchain, a consumer is able to actually own digital assets for the first time without worry that their access or rights may be taken away by the asset creator or ecosystem that an asset is housed in. 

ECOMI is a digital assets ecosystem that brings authenticity and immutability to collectables on the blockchain.

Since the company behind CryptoKitties became the first well-known digital collectables marketplace on the blockchain, raising nearly US$30 million since launching in November 2017, the NFT (non-fungible token) space has gotten increasingly competitive. 

Other promising players that are in this market outside of Ecomi are WAX, EPIK token, and Enjin.

But what makes ECOMI standout is its end-to-end ecosystem of products which include a digital collectables marketplace, a wireless hardware wallet, and a fiat-to-crypto payment card. 

David Yi, ECOMI’s CEO, has assembled an impressive executive team and list of partners that surely make the company a lead contender in this fast-evolving collectables industry.

Also Read:Can these blockchain products make a name as social media alternatives?

The company is gearing up to release its collectables marketplace to the public, ECOMI Collect, in the coming months. 

Conclusion
At this point, it’s undeniable that blockchain is here to stay, one way or another.

What’s still up for debate is how and when the technology will see adoption at scale, and how the varying regulatory environment in different countries will play into the expansion of the entire industry.

Stepping back and taking a look globally, it’s easy to see Asia taking a major leadership role in developing every day, blockchain-powered, consumer applications. But we’re yet to identify the major catalysts that will truly propel blockchain to be ‘bigger than the internet’.

That story is still being written.

Also Read: Blockchain will force banks to change their feudal mindset

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Get the basics right with the A, B and C of startup branding

You finally gathered all the courage and decided to build your idea.

You have the grit, passion, and the product required. Yet, you are stuck with where to start. If this is you, I have got one of the many answers.

A fantastic product or service is undoubtedly the top priority to succeed in the startup world.

However, many miss the second priority. Your second priority should be branding, even before marketing.

Also Read: Startups should believe in the power of branding

Unless you are selling plain rice, without branding your marketing won’t stick with people.

“A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers.” – Wikipedia

Branding is a crucial part of any modern startup. If branding is done right, a startup can establish a foundation which draws the customers and the investors.

A strong brand combined with marketing and sales can move mountains.

In this article, I will discuss the initial branding steps you should take for your startup. Read on to see what your focus should be.

A. Logo, name, and basics

There are a few elements that have nothing to do with your startup’s product, yet have a significant impact on your brand. Here are those:

Name 

Your brand name represents your startup or business. Investing time in figuring out the right brand name is undoubtedly a smart investment.

This doesn’t indicate that the name should have a publically-recognised meaning, but it should mean something. For e.g., “Google” didn’t mean anything to people when it was launched, but the founders knew it was meant after “googol”.

Moreover, listing some options and checking whether domains and social media accounts for the name are available is another smart decision.

In this case, a site like a startup name check can come in handy. Another thing to check while naming your startup is whether the name is trademarked or registered as a company. If it is, better opt for another name.

Logo:

Your logo plays a vital part in your brand’s recognisability factor.

It’s one of the representatives and distinguisher of your brand. So, better skip those cheap logo designers and pay a professional to get an excellent, timeless piece of art.

Brands like Amazon, Mercedes, Domino’s, etc. have meaningful logos, and so should your brand.

Other Basics

Other than logo & name, many foundational elements subtly give an uplift to your brand. Things like your vision and mission statements; your use of colour psychology in UI, logo, and social media; the user experience you provide, etc. should be a preference if you want to come out as a fantastic brand.

B. A unique selling proposition

Also Read: 3 branding mistakes that will doom your startup

While name, logo, and colours are some subtle branding factors, USP is a factor that glows. A unique selling proposition (USP) is a factor that differentiates a product from its competitors.

If the marketing element is removed from any business, the USP is the only thing that will sell. Your USP is your competitive edge. If you have a positive answer to any of the following questions, you have a USP.

• Is your startup solving a problem?
• Are you giving a better price?
• Are you giving a better product/service?
• Is your brand more reliable?
• Are you providing something new?

Congratulations if you found the answer. If you didn’t, evolve your offerings, establish a USP first, and build a brand around that USP.

C. A brand story

Brand storytelling is one of the best ways to promote your startup. Everyone loves a great story. We are wired in a certain way.

Stories fascinate us, grab our attention, plays with our emotions, and makes us do things we wouldn’t do otherwise. In modern times, the ones who tell their story in a unique and engaging way have a competitive advantage.

For e.g., David Ogilvy’s “At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in the new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock” ad is still remembered as an iconic piece of a story that doubled the company’s profits.

Long story short, sharing your Brand story and promoting it through digital platforms is the ultimate branding tip for any startup of today. Start with your Brand’s “Why?”, “What?”, and “Who?”.

Also Read: Building up customer loyalty with emotional branding

Share it creatively and build your brand bottom-up. 

Final Words:

Getting all the basics right, framing your USP, and amplifying it with brand storytelling are the A, B, and C of branding your startup.

If you want to know the remaining, i.e., D-Z of startup branding, comment below. Also, let me know which branding step are you going to take first. 

We will discuss it in the comments below. Until then, I bid you adieu. 

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The opportunities for IoT applications are immense

The ‘Internet of Things’ is mainstream. ‘Alexa, dim the lights’ has exactly one meaning and requires no explanation. Bizarre, perhaps, but undeniably futuristic. The smart home war is in full swing and Apple, Google, Amazon and Samsung are vying to become the ‘operating system of the home’, demanding control of our thermostats and microwave ovens.

It makes sense. The smart home opportunity is enormous. More importantly, it’s sufficiently homogeneous to imagine a ‘winner take all’ global platform. For Alexa and friends, dimming the lights in a Sydney apartment is not materially different to dimming the lights in a Malibu mansion. And with all that delicious consumer data to slurp up, I can see why the tech titans are hot and bothered.

But there’s a gigantic – and in my opinion more interesting – IoT landscape evolving outside the home.  New advancements in low-power wide-area (LPWA) wireless networks are reducing the barrier for developers to create connected products that solve the near-limitless array of IoT use cases in the city, in the factory, and on the farm.

Also Read:Despite ethical concerns with AI, IoT is on rise in healthtech

Today, we rely on brute force to solve problems in the physical economy. Dumpsters are emptied once a week; tires are replaced every 80,000km; a train stops at every station. How much time and energy is wasted emptying a dumpster that is half full, and how many times has a widget been replaced too early or too late because scheduled maintenance was cheaper or easier than constantly evaluating its true condition?

Cheap, pervasive internet connectivity will continuously inform our relationship to the physical world. For just a few dollars, any ‘thing’ will be connected for its entire useful life using technologies like NB-IoT, part of the 5G mMTC (massive Machine Type Technology) standards.

This is the real opportunity for IoT developers. The problem is too large and too diverse to be dominated by a small group of mega tech firms, and the ability to create new economic value is obvious. The entrepreneurial ‘whitespace’ created by the cellular IoT platform will dwarf the opportunity created by smartphones, which birthed companies like Uber, Snapchat and Spotify.

From an Australian perspective, a recent report by PwC claims that, across the five industries assessed – construction, manufacturing, healthcare, mining, and agriculture-fishing-and-forestry – i.e. 25 per cent of Australia’s GDP, the IoT can achieve potential annual benefits of $300 billion.

To me that feels conservative, considering that every ‘thing’ – every component of the value chain – can be measured and improved using inexpensive ‘always-on and everywhere’ connectivity.

Why now? What changed? Developer platforms tend to emerge from a perfect storm of ingredient technologies, and this vision of IoT is no different. In particular, we’ve collectively spent zillions of dollars in the mobile ecosystem in the last decade.

Two billion smartphone users represent a ubiquitous user interface for internet-connected systems. To support this, mobile network operators have invested in network density, coverage and performance improvements that incidentally benefit IoT.

Perhaps less obvious, building all those smartphones has driven down the cost of LTE modems, accelerometers, lithium batteries and GPS modules. Mobile users + better networks + better, cheaper components. The outcome: a company like Lime – a handful of Silicon Valley engineers at the time – was able to put their electric scooters on street corners in over 100 cities, ridden every day by millions of mobile users. Unimaginable just a few years ago.

Also Read:From products to businesses: the hidden opportunities of IoT

With that said, developing for IoT remains harder than building an app. Experimentation – the prerequisite to innovation – remains too expensive. The prototype-to-manufacturing pipeline is cheaper than ever before, but it still requires insider knowledge and remains out of reach for most entrepreneurs attempting to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.

The global connectivity ecosystem remains fragmented and, generally speaking, global management of a cellular-connected fleet is prohibitively difficult. Network operators have a history of geographic fragmentation, stemming from deep roots in spectrum licensing.

This bleeds into the connectivity procurement experience, where dozens of local contracts can be required to get an idea off the ground – each with a healthy minimum spend commitment. Compare this to the ease of reaching global customers through Apple’s App Store, or deploying a global cloud service using Microsoft Azure.

Just as it is online and in the mobile space, in IoT there will be no such thing as a regional application, and the connectivity industry will be forced to embrace this reality.

IoT developers: carpe potestatem. It’s an amazing time to be creative. Perhaps, like me, you kick yourself for missing out on the PC, web or mobile wave – ‘on-demand taxis!? I could’ve thought of that!’ – well, now is your chance. Identify an inefficiency in our relationship to the physical world and get ready to sharpen your C++ skills (for better or worse, still the predominant language of IoT devices).

Forget smart toasters, the real IoT opportunity is right outside your door.

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A detailed perspective on an innovative potential which can circulate beyond anything imaginable.

Historically, the idea of electric bulbs, automobiles and mobile phones took a while to catch on and even accepted. Not completely understood, great ideas are often a case to be dismissed before mass adoption.

Likewise, the birth of the Internet persisted in being much of a curiosity in the 1990s. By and by, the Internet changed the ways which business was conducted to become a universal business tool in modern times.

As the forefront of technology has evolved from the era of the Internet of Information to the Internet of Value, technological corporations heavily reliant and built on the Internet have kept watch for opportunities towards blockchain.

The latest newcomer, Facebook, has publicly disclosed Project Libra, a stable coin-based payment network where digital money is designed for use through its social network.

Also Read: 3 of your most important assets may soon have tokenised counterparts in the Blockchain

With blockchain reimagined as an end-to-end solution across industries, the growth of research and adoption in blockchain has sprawled over a rather short period.

The blockchain start-up ecosystem comprises of a diverse crowd, from payments to real estate to private markets, preparing future decades for cutting-edge service innovation.

Yet, across the globe, there remains the concern of diversity in advancements of blockchain and digital assets.

What contributes to the asymmetric blockchain advancements?

“Regulatory clarity is important,” Managing Director of the blockchain solutions firm Hashstacs Inc, Jay Ng, was quoted at a recent Digital Asset Working Group (DAWG) forum in Singapore.

The confidence in tokenised securities is mostly dependent on the underlying robust governance and assurance at national levels. As we transition from a world often accustomed to management, we find that regulatory framework planning in specific geographies advances more quickly than others.

As a means to drive the digital economy to participate in blockchain applications for financial services, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) offered US$225 million to develop Fintech projects.

Down south in Australia, advocacy groups such as Blockchain Association of Australia and Australian Digital Commerce Association champion next-stage DLT adoption.

In Mark Carney’s Mansion Speech of 2016, the governor of the Bank of England also emphasised the benefits of blockchain, aspiring them to be among the highest priorities.

Is regulation the only blocking point to industry application?

“No, it’s us (as humans) doing the adoption,” alluded Alex Medana, CEO of FinFabrik, on a panel of the DAWG APAC Readout in May 2019.

As technological advancement outpaces adoption, (studied in an animated film “Slope of the Curve” ) social factors can stall digital transformation.

Also Read: This blockchain platform helps brands implement CSR activities efficiently, thereby getting more visibility

One of the critical influences holding back blockchain implementation is the right way that traditionalists view it as nascent.

Jay agreed, who came from an investment and trading background, noting that the organisational culture is central to the various levels of willingness and adaptability on blockchain institutional adoption.

While regulatory support undoubtedly plays a role in encouraging DLT innovation further within certain areas, Facebook faces a wave of immense pressure for its recent cryptocurrency announcements.

With a troubled past of privacy scandals and data control concerns, unprecedented scrutiny from regulators weighs down on the tech giant. As all eyes of the media are focused on Zuckerberg, Facebook must navigate the crypto field carefully.

With the greater goal of financial inclusion, can we even out the benefits of blockchain across the globe?

It is still early days for blockchain.

“Of course financial inclusion also needs digital connectivity…making the dream of paperless, cashless, presence-less, and yet safe and secure, transactions possible for all,” addressed the Prime Minister in a keynote speech at the Singapore Fintech Festival on 14 November 2018.

Ironically, where corporations such as Facebook and Hashstacs make agile movements toward progress and technological frontiers, society at large inches a step closer in smoothening inequalities of technological merits across developed and emerging economies.

In short, the holy grail is slowly approaching.

Facebook has conquered Whatsapp, Instagram and now…on its way to Libra. In its extension towards blockchain, Facebook looks to facilitate banking the unbanked.

The tamper-proof record of transactions will reach across 1.7 billion people universally who lack access to the banking system. To further foster financial inclusion, emerging technologies such as the STACS Blockchain reduce the market asymmetry in participation.

Through in-house developments, the advent of multi-jurisdictional exchanges drives regional participation for capital raisers and issuers. Fundamentally, the amassed cases of technological emergence could potentially draw the market closer toward an equilibrium state.

Collaboration towards greater progress

Collaboration fuels progress.

So, what can we do to sustain the practice of digital assets?

Creating a tech-focused future with social impact needs an agreement of industry standards, across complex business and technology decisions. According to Deloitte’s 2018 Global Blockchain Survey, 45 per cent responded positively to join a consortium.

As blockchain consortia continue to gain traction, market participants including exchanges, banks, depositories, asset managers and funds are welcome to be a part of the growing ecosystems – such as in the case of STACS’s.

A tech-focused future with social impact

The path ahead could be shaped as an inspiring one.

Also Read: Trust : an essential component in the success of investment oriented blockchain projects

With the capability to be adaptive and agile, digital ledgers enable the exchange of value within and across industries.

Be it at the level of transactional value, or a company’s valuation, we see blockchain’s potential to realise and circulate new amount beyond anything imaginable.

Read the latest market insights here at LinkedIn and Journal, while following Isabelle on LinkedIn and Twitter in her journey within the blockchain and fin-tech industry.

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