Marketing trends you need to know

Speakers
Munas van Boonstra, Managing Director, Southeast Asia, Monks 
Eric Paul Van Schaik, Regional Strategy Director (SEA), OMD
Tay Guan Hin, APAC Regional Director, The One Club for Creativity

Host
Dasheng Toh, Head, Commercial Planning and Industry Solutions, Mediacorp

Question & Answer

I’m from the education industry, and we’re seeing more people using AI tools to search for recommendations, such as which courses they should take, based on the prompts they write. How do you think this will impact search behaviour in general? And from a marketing perspective, are there any strategies we can use to leverage AI-driven search for better engagement or conversion in the education sector?

[Eric]
If you have visibility on those prompts that would be a great tool to instruct what you need to do from a content angle. 

With exposure to AI people are starting to get much better at AI prompts and AI is learning as this evolves. We’re starting to see a lot of media partners evolve how we buy through search – as an example TikTok has released a product that when you search for a product, you can have your ad show up (so you can competitor target & improve your social conversion).

From a marketing perspective & the education industry, I’d really be looking to understand what those prompts are & do themes change with seasonality. That info could be used to infer not just your content, but your media allocation.

I’m curious about the 56% of people who find TikTok useful for searching. Can you clarify what types of searches these users are primarily conducting? Is it mostly related to e-commerce, product discovery, or are there other key areas where TikTok is being leveraged as a search tool?

[Eric]
We’re actually seeing a lot of people do specific brand searches. Example, if they see a new Samsung phone being launched, they want to know what people are saying about it, is the camera really that good. Essentially – does my community love it. 

So whilst I’d say it’s very much product discovery and validation right now, products are coming out that can help you place your ad there to put yourself in the competitive set. This has launched in the US right now, but from what I’m seeing it’s not comparable to Google Search – so I’d instead utilise TikTok search from my social budgets. 

If the product is also available on TikTok Shop - then you can be discovered and convert all in the one place!

How many nano influencers is required to make a good campaign and reach?

[Munas]
To enable higher reach and increase the probability of getting 1-2 really great content created by the influencers I would say a minimum of 20 nano-influencers. There is no exact precise number. TikTok’s algorithm works differently. Someone with low number of followers can get 1 million views and be featured on FYP. 

Getting a good spread of nano/micro-influencers will give brands better chances of getting good content. Engaging in micro/nano influencers do not necessarily have to be in cash. There’s also high product value. Give them products and services to personally use and enjoy. Many brands have successfully done so.