Author: Kien

Content is Queen, Distribution is King

“Distribution is King, Content is Queen” and not the self-congratulatory vice-versa often heard.

I ask: (Forgive the innate archaic sexism in the analogy) What use is a beautiful, regal, benevolent Queen if the toothless King has no lands, and cannot defend his Kingdom?

What hurts the Singapore print market surely has to be the circulation numbers (many provided ownself by the companies, as noted in the compilation of images). A low 5-figure print reach is easily slaughtered by Facebook and Google, however you make the argument.

This isn’t helped by the stubbornness by all sides to transition to digital, treating digital as the ugly step-sister you bring to the gala ball (when she’s actually… Cinderella). If media corporations don’t make their digital sites financially viable, the industry is doomed, jobs will be cut and lost forever.

25 January 2018
Nobody Aspires to be an Over-Reaching Asshole

Founding a startup is kinda like one of humankind’s most miraculous feats, walking.

Walking, as someone puts it, is the act of constantly catching yourself from falling — which is why this action remains so elusive for robotic bi-peds.

As a business owner, we are constantly “falling” as well.

If you’re doing something disruptive or new, there is no roadmap and so the challenge every day is reading the situation & market development, and finding ways to prevent failing from happening.

Sometimes I find myself over-eager to make my case, whether it is pinging brands execs with multiple chasers, or even resorting to emailing the big boss if it looks like there is an unexplained impasse or disinterest… these are things we do NOT because we WANT to be over-reaching assholes (who in the right mind aspires to be so) but it stems from an earnest, humble desire to make things work.

If you find us annoying but passionate about our cause, imagine what we can do when we translate that energy for you, the client. But.. few think about it this way.

As an entrepreneur, we gotta try, there is no progress without rejection. I can’t expect everyone to appreciate it, but those who do, boy, do we cherish them.

Thanks so much.

20 October 2017
Why Would WatchAnish Buy a Print Magazine?

On Sunday, one of the world’s most famous and successful Instagram accounts, @WatchAnish, announced via a posting on Facebook that it was acquiring WATCH THIS magazine.

The print publication which displays both English and Swedish on its website, does not look like it had a significant social media presence, and will be re-branded as WATCHANISH Magazine, set to be launched at the upcoming BaselWorld 2017 trade event in Switzerland.

Why would an Instagram account with more than 1.7 million followers, widely known outside of the social network and in the popular mainstream, pigeon-hole itself into print media, which surely has significantly less readership (there’s no way it’ll have 1.7 million printed copies) and is facing, as an industry, dwindling ad revenues? Even the New York Times revealed recently that its ad revenues fell 16 percent in 2016, and the NYT is one of the more (most?) successful print dailies in the business. The prospects for the glossy magazines surely can’t be better.

Now, I need to establish from the start that I’m an admirer of WatchAnish. Its success, via its visuals, arose because it disrupted the space of “beautiful images” — a realm that should have been dominated by magazines with their photo spreads but social media caught traditional media by surprise. Whilst print magazines and its various vendors like modelling agencies and photographers were grappling with archaic notions of loading fees, length of exposure (limited), Instagrammers with their self-produced content moved in on that space.

It wasn’t just the watch (trade) publications, but fashion titles too faltered at the start with this. With their pants down.

Now Instagrammers rule.

Caveat: In terms of the one-photo medium. To a certain extent.

I would argue that Facebook is just as important if not more for digital publishers, especially with link shares (Seriously, nobody clicks on the “link on my profile” workaround that Instagram accounts use on their posts because the social network does not support hot links (read: clickable links to external websites)) as well as a user base that actually reads. But this is a topic for another day.

Back to WatchAnish. I love their photos, and when I met founder Anish Bhatt briefly at a Vacheron Constantin event in Singapore, I thought he was a very humble, soft-spoken guy, a surprise given the photos that his account (including his collaborators) posts were often loud, over-the-top with watch placements alongside a larger-than-life luxurious existence. That said, the sartorially-styled photo pieces I particularly loved, especially those by a certain James Cole. #LOVE #LOVELOVE Cole’s work (James, if you’re reading this, add me on Facebook, I can’t find you).

Why would New Media buy Old Media?

Well, it isn’t something new. Chris Hughes, a co-founder of Facebook had dabbled into a grand experiment acquiring The New Republic and so has Jeff Bezos of Amazon buying The Washington Post. But these are millionaires with either an expensive hobby or hitherto long term strategy that is unclear at the moment. So these are un-related equivalences.

Who’d want to be known as an Instagrammer? Isn’t it cooler to be a publisher of a print magazine?

Read this story about Vogue editors mocking bloggers here.

I kid, but this comment cuts deeper than that. As a social media persona (WatchAnish collectively), it has faced an uphill struggle alike the rest of us digital publishers (I run SENATUS.NET, a website) with advertisers and brands that we ideally would like to get revenues from, as they seemingly move towards digital.

But that shift away from print hasn’t happened fast enough. Why?

That’s because the mindset changes at the conglomerates, independent brands, as well as the retailer/distributor networks for luxury brands (including watches) have not moved with the times, even as they’re likely to read this critique online, than if it was seen on a printed material.

The senior management of brands have this old-school outdated thinking that attributes a higher value on a one-page article found on page 62 of a printed magazine with 10,000 total print circulation over 1. one single Facebook or Instagram post that has 10,000 likes, or 2. a web page that has 10,000 actual pageviews.

Are you kidding me? An obscurely-placed, random page in a magazine with a ceiling of 10,000 printed copies, has a higher media value than a website article that actually received 10,000 reads? Is the readership irrelevant? How can it be? Who do you think is reading an article about grand complications, tourbillons, perpetual calendar and what leather your strap is made out of at 2 am in the morning other than an avid watch consumer?

Surely you must also know that a post on FB or IG that has 10,000 likes has had an even larger exposure to more users, in order to obtain a percentage of those as “likes”.

Another complaint about the 10,000 pageviews a web page gets is that local markets have their hands tied (so only global HQ can pull the trigger on a digital ad buy), and they do not in effect, have the spending power to subsidise exposure for other markets (same family, but not friends, if you know what I mean) by investing/advertising on a website that has a global audience. So essentially, the buck still stops at the boss’ table. The boss at the very top, I mean.

It is also rumoured that one luxury conglomerate has an internal media value calculation system that heavily favours print circulation, multiplying number of editorial pages by advertising cost per page, and other variables to come up with an inflated number that does not compare fairly against digital websites or social media accounts. What is cost of advertising per one web page/URL? That surely doesn’t make sense to equate apples with oranges. Not at all.

Old Media is easier for Bosses to understand

So no matter how many events WatchAnish (Anish or his collaborators/team) are paid to attend, or however number of Instagram posts he is sponsored to do, even with his 1.7 million IG followers, it cannot be compared to the quantum some of the printed magazines are making. The way it works is some brands do annual buyouts (number of pages, back page cover, etc.) thus ensuring the cashflow is constant, and reliable — key to any business venture’s survival.

And like I described, media value for each printed page is considered to be more important than a webpage. However many page impressions watchanish.com was ever going to serve, it’ll never be able to grow business like a print magazine, which in many ways, can add advertisers based on the same circulation. I wrote about this before: Print Magazines Have a Pay Day When There’re Many Advertisers. Online Magazines, Only When They Have More Traffic

That, and how print magazines were constantly leveraging on WatchAnish (presence, or content) to fulfil their advertisers request to make content more relevant. So instead of helping someone else make money, WA probably figured it should just do it itself.

In reality, I am going to say it now….

Brands are Artificially-Ventilating Print Magazines to keep them alive.

Keeping print magazines (who do not have a sustainable web presence) on a mechanical ventilator (ha! I also said ‘mechanical’), maintaining a zombie-like existence for an outmoded operating model in limbo between life and death (they make enough not to fold, but not enough to sustainably go on at the same overheads). In all, it paints a story of a patient induced into a coma because the spouse or parent (i.e. the brand) just doesn’t want to let go.

So I totally understand why WatchAnish is becoming WATCHANISH Magazine.

It’s where the money still is.

addendum: This post contains criticisms of business mindset, and business models, and not of the good people that work at either. #goodfolks

addendum part ii: Some brands have boldly moved forward and marginally advertise on print to maintain important relationships. #bravo

13 February 2017
SALES: Solve Your Client’s Problems, Not Sell Your Customer Products

14 July 2016
We Don’t Have to be Strangers (Even If We Don’t Work Together)

“If we don’t end up working together, we can still be friends” is a refrain that is so obvious but something I’ve felt compelled to include in conversations lately.

Maybe it’s the new age thinking of feeling that one needs to either accept or reject something, swipe left or right to say no or yes, click like or disregard as you scroll past, that compels folks today to be so binary in the way they view relationships.

In fact, we can be adversarial and still cordial.

Look at Messi and Ronaldo, they’re not scything each other down on the pitch or at awards galas.

Hillary Clinton ended up working for Obama and is now on the presidential ticket.

Life is not black or white, and I would much rather not have these awkward countenances that people have become so comfortable with these days.

22 June 2016
Founding A Startup is like Being Shipwrecked from Day One

This analogy helps if you’ve watched or read the Life of Pi.

Founding a startup is like being SHIPWRECKED from day one.

The minute you start you’re trying to survive, alongside a starving tiger no less.

The hyena & orang utan are perhaps the co-founders that bravely started that crazy journey with you.

The zebra, your trusting 1st investor, surely gets eaten at some point.

Getting funded, which gets all the sexy press, is like hitting a jackpot of flying fish — it just delays what could be the inevitability of a lonely death in the high seas.

But boy, it is indeed as exciting as seeing a luminescent pool of fish at night.

Being “successful” though, is finally discovering a bountiful island to get off your boat.

16 April 2016
“Precision Beats Power. Timing Beats Speed” – Conor McGregor

Those were the words spoken by Irish MMA fighter Conor McGregor in his post-match interview in the Octagon after defeating defending Brazilian Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo in UFC #194.

Just how good was Aldo? In the ten years from 26 November 2005 until 26 November 2015, Aldo never lost an MMA fight, thus marking an entire decade of invincibility, with 5 years ruling as a world champion (18 fights, 10 title fights, 9 title defences).

In the title unification fight held on 12 December 2015, McGregor registered the UFC’s fastest knockout win in its history.

13 seconds was all it took.

And with that, and all of the Irishman’s confident trash talking, history was made as he became the new undefeated champion. Now, watch that punch in slow-mo, and the post-match interview below…

It doesn’t matter if you’re not a fan of Mixed Martial Arts, what McGregor gave us with his famed lethal left-handed strike was a quote applicable to so many of the things we do.

Running a startup, I’ve always said that in order to beat the big boys, you’ve got to draw your competitors to where his numbers count for nothing.

In my previous writing, I advocated being swifter and more nimble: Fight the big guy in a small, confined space. Move faster where he’s slower.

Now, McGregor’s words have added another layer of complexity to this strategy: What if your opponent moves quicker and punches harder than you?

You don’t fight strength with more strength, if you don’t have it. If you can’t do continuous upgrades of your platform, don’t. But do so in a targeted manner.

You don’t fight speed with more speed, if you don’t have it. If you can’t quickly address issues and deficiencies, don’t. But do so with meaningful upgrades at the opportune moments.

What you’d have to do is execute with accuracy, and to time these efforts to maximum effect.

Precision Beats Power. Timing Beats Speed.

Never better said.

14 December 2015
Don’t Be Shy. Focus On Your Strengths

Part of growing old(er) includes being wiser and more cognisant of yourself. It means being comfortable with who you are, and what you have become.

For example, hangovers get worse as you get older. There’s no two ways about it.

Anyways, I recently shared some passing remarks about a peer business in a casual conversation and perhaps those words got passed on and unfortunately, someone got offended.

To be honest, it was a fair and widely-held private critique anyways (I had said, said personality had a “permanent fanboy editorial voice”).

In layman-speak, what I meant was this person enthuses about everything he writes about, and everything he writes about is in one way or another, compensated (by monies or freebies)

As Jack Ma himself pointed out, in our ‘middle-age” (applies to our business, not just our own numbered years of existence), focus on your strengths, and don’t try and reinvent yourself. There’s nothing to be shy about it.

SENATUS is not Vogue. I know that. I wouldn’t be upset if you said that. We have other shortfalls too (e.g., we don’t do fashion editorials that brands managers can proudly report to head office about and that hurts us), but what we’re good at, we’re damn good.

It’s the same thing when I play recreational football on the weekends, I know I’m no Lionel Messi, so I won’t get upset when you blame me for not pinging a 30 yard cross directly onto your head. I’m not Neymar Jr., so don’t expect me to dance circles around you either. I’m not Luis Suarez, so really I don’t (mean to) bite.

27 November 2015
Is Your PR Company Too Big & Successful (Busy) For You?

Far be it for me to stick my neck into the PR business but when the successful agencies win most of the accounts, sure, the economies of scale and influence work.

But only for a short while (after the big high-cost publicity event).

The resource allocation and prioritization sets in pretty soon into the mandate win, and just as quickly junior execs and interns are now handling these accounts — These are usually folks who neither have the experience, skills, know-how nor interest (yet) to manage relationships with stakeholders / vendors / 3rd parties.

Then for events organised by these PR companies, you see the same guests every time.

Is it for a lack of trying? Or just a churn of the same invite list?

I really just don’t get the business rationale of turning some of these people up, people who can’t even be bothered to (pretend to) check out the products on display in store. They stand around, huddled in cliques, take wefies, and leave. This is frankly just rubbish database activation at work.

Aside: This isn’t about “free loaders” because the best ones actually know to mingle and be good crowds. It is afterall their interest to be re-invited.

Then the influencers show up, and they’re more interested in their OOTD than what you’re selling (unless you give them some freebies or paid mentions). Honestly, my buying decisions have never been influenced by an influencer but maybe that’s cos uncles don’t dress like xiaomeimeis.

Then the coverage by media: Formulaic “best dressed”/what-she-wore lists that have no relevance whatsoever to the collection launch (it’s an instore event not the Oscars, FFS). Or worse, a half-blur low-lit lousily-shot Instagram photo that does nothing for the brand other than to show the magazine was there.

All this partly stems from the poor initial PR contact, which I surmise is a result of delegation of management. Who they use to reach out with, who they reach out to, how they followup, what understanding and expectation all sides have of deliverables and how they grow and cultivate those relationships.

When this is done poorly, I cannot do my job properly.

[highlight]Pick a PR company that WANTS your account, not just one that YOU WANT. Or become THAT BIG account it can’t afford to lose, and will go out of its way to ensure that doesn’t happen.[/highlight]

23 November 2015
How the Crackdown on Corruption in China Helped My Business

Once upon a time, not too long ago, China had an unfettered boom in luxury spending, not only on the mainland but beyond its shores as its citizens poured overseas and clearing out stocks in boutiques at an unprecedented scale.

And that was how in 2013, the one-handbag-purchase-per-passport restriction came about in many stores worldwide, in an effort to throttle the voracious appetite of the Chinese tourists.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, as business soared. It didn’t matter what you sold, you could emblazon your handbag with logos, make incredulous markups with emu or python skin-editions, the consumers would buy it all up.

Watch brands could probably have sold anniversary editions even for any of odd-numbered years! (Here’s our 13 year anniversary edition! I kid).

The hard luxury business with diamonds and jewels and timepieces-abling moved fast. “Boutique”, “celebrity”, event-partnerships, anything that you could think of, there was a special edition watch pegged to it. And these were hugely popular purchases because they were smallish, easy to move, easy to “gift”.

The smaller and more valuable the item, the easier it was… to “hand it to someone” discreetly.

And thus with the Chinese Premier Xi Jinping’s crackdown on corruption, this wave of luxury spending abruptly plummeted. The effect was two-fold: If you were bribed with cash, you’d have more to spend indiscriminately. Or you could bribe with products. So on two fronts, luxury brands were hit with lower sales.

Many European and American labels had to close boutiques after an early aggressive expansion. Marc Jacobs was one such big name casualty, losing his job as Louis Vuitton’s womenswear artistic director for failing to read the “changing trend” as consumers eschewed logos. Right, logos was what did it.

So how did this have anything to do with my digital business?

When business was thriving in Asia because of Chinese spending, it didn’t matter how brand managers were spending their advertising dollars. They could have bought ads in a pets magazine and no one would have asked any questions.

Business via China was still going to come.

Ad dollars poured into traditional channels here in Singapore, from dailies to glossies in the print business. New titles cropped up, needing little excuse to publish offshoots, with editions for menswear (Blah Blah “Homme”), horlogerie (Blah Blah “Time”), travel (you get the idea), etc.

Now, with luxury sales dramatically down and commensurately, marketing budgets, managers had to be accountable for where they were spending their monies. Each dollar had to have a measurable ROI.

Now, you had to be accountable.

Now, you couldn’t just buy ad pages from a print magazine, tack on an ancillary buy for digital banners on the same magazine’s website that was visited only by the interns. (Actually, they still do. But this is easier to “justify”)

That’s when the tide changed for us.

This newfound prudence meant many print titles couldn’t just ride on sales relationships anymore, and many have since gone under in Singapore, and around the region.

Now, managers had to take a close look at which sites performed, had actual traffic, spoke to the right audience (ex-China, or China, but probably less of China and more home-market) they wanted to market to, in order to justify their spending.

Under such scrutiny over the past 2 years, we did well, and continue to do so.

[highlight]Thanks Comrade Xi.[/highlight]

19 November 2015