ZAHEER NOORUDDIN mobile social search asia pacific

Tencent and Sina’s services. With Nokia’s 250 million China customers and the influence of Tencent and Sina on Chinese netizens, this is sure to grow the power of LBS in China.

Today, there are around 30 location-based service (LBS) companies on the Chinese web. 

And, according to Analysys International, by the end of Q3 2010, these sites claimed between three and four million active users. 

As location-based networks grow, companies will market products using these platforms and services – adding relevance to their marketing campaigns like never before.

A relative newcomer to the LBS scene is qieke.com, a rebranded travel site, which is currently compatible with iOs, Symbian and Android phones. Qieke has partnered with more than 100 brands, including Lenovo and Starbucks, to offer special deals and discounts for users who check-in to certain locations. According to the company, the site already has 1 million users, 100,000 of which are active. 

- Zaheer Nooruddin is Director and Lead Digital Strategist for Greater China at Burson-Marsteller Asia-Pacific.

The rise of the Smartphone in China, by all projections, is set to be staggering. 

According to statistics from Enfodesk, by the end of 2010, the number of mobile Internet grown nearly 19% from the same period had grown 19% in 2009, reaching 288 million.

The market is now valued at over RMB 63.7 billion.

As more consumers connect to the net via mobile and use apps to share and connect more opportunities for targeted messaging and pervasive experiences by businesses will be available than ever before. Ericsson projects this number exploding to 800 million by 2015. 

Welcome again to Pub PR, the discussion and networking group for the PR, PA and Marcoms industry in Beijing.

Our next speaker is Zaheer Nooruddin, the Lead Digital Strategist for Greater China at global communications agency Burson Marsteller. He will lead an interactive discussion on the latest changes in Social Media and relate it to super-contemporary events. His discussion title is:  

“The Curious Cases of Groupon, Charlie Sheen and Fukushima; How Social Media Changed the World We Live In – and What Companies Can Learn.”

Topic Outline

The last few weeks have been filled with exciting headlines.

Groupon, one of the Internet’s most popular startups, launched a Super Bowl advertising campaign in the US that, with messaging about Tibet, endangered its business prospects in China.

Charlie Sheen’s infamous rants on public radio caught the imagination of popular culture around the world and left him without a job.

Most recently, the Japanese government’s handling of the fallout at the Fukushima nuclear plant has left everyone guessing as to what might happen next.

Zaheer will lead Pub PR’s guests through a discussion about what companies need to learn from Groupon, Charlie Sheen and Fukushima – in an age of real-time, social media.

Speaker

Zaheer Nooruddin is an experienced digital and social strategy business professional. He has more than 12 years of international marketing-communications experience covering Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, and the U.S.  

Zaheer heads Burson-Marsteller’s digital team across the firm’s five Greater China offices (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu and Hong Kong). An expert on Strategic Social Media and Digital Communications, he is a frequent speaker on these topics at high level conferences around Asia Pacific.

Nooruddin has previously worked in senior roles at multinational digital agencies including Proximity Worldwide/BBDO and Ogilvy. Zaheer received his Bachelor of Arts from the College of Wooster, in Ohio, where he double-majored in Political Science and History. Follow Zaheer on Twitter @BMDigitalChina and @zooruddin.

Time

Tuesday March 29th 2011
from 7:30pm, discussion 8:00-8:45, networking/informal chat from 8:40-9:30

Place

Private room, Centro Bar, Shangri-La Kerry Centre Hotel, Beijing 炫酷, 嘉里中心饭店

What is Pub PR?  

Pub PR is a casual networking platform for anyone interested in PR, PA and marketing communications. We meet in a relaxed setting, like a bar or pub to discuss topics of professional interest, to network, and to make new friends! To stay in touch, join PubPR on LinkedIn. 

China_Digital_BM_Digital_State_Mar_2011.pdf Download this file

Over the next few weeks we will discuss 11 Digital Communications Trends that we are seeing at Burson-Masteller China. We begin by looking at the year that has past us by, 2010, and the year ahead, to put our thoughts in perspective.

The year 2010 proved a milestone for digital penetration, communications, marketing and innovation in China. With rich media stories such as the continued  ascendancy of Renren and Kaixin001, the fevered speculation around Google’s ‘exit’ from China, the start of new social concepts such as Location-Based Services [LBS] and Group Shopping the coming of age of Social Media  as a mainstream channel for communications and marketing in China was writ as de-facto by the end of 2010.

Perhaps the most interesting trend was the phenomenal rise of Sina’s microblogging platform – Weibo, leading to spectacular issues, online crises, rumors, gossip, and more dynamic ways for businesses to market and communicate. 

Many companies in China still continue to struggle with the new realities of the real-time “Social” Web. Social technology advancements have so fast and furiously altered the landscape of corporate reputation, brand management, public relations and market influence.

Burson-Marsteller’s Corporate Social Media Study, published last November, revealed how large organizations and multinationals, particularly, have yet to sustain cohesive strategies around Digital Engagement and Social.

This is likely to change quickly over the next two years. If 2009 and 2010 was a period of “digital foreplay” for companies at large, then 2011 and 2012 are pegged to be the year of “digital embrace.”

Defining future communications trends is never an easy task. Nowhere is this more true than on the world’s largest and most dynamic internet market, with over 460 million internet users, actively participating and spending more time on the web than anywhere else.

2011 promises to be an even more interesting year. Of course, China is a vast country, filled with a diversity of consumer behavior and experience – from international metropolis’ like Shanghai and Beijing, to tier 2 and 3 cities. But there are predications we can safely make, based on our understanding of China’s fascinating digital communications landscapes.

- Zaheer Nooruddin is Director and Lead Digital Strategist for Greater China at Burson Marsteller  Asia-Pacific