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Non-favourable travel trends in Malaysia have emerged due to the tourism and hospitality sector losing over 80% of its business since March 2020. The Government has imposed strict movement control orders curbing rapidly increasing COVID-19 cases.

Since March 2020, Malaysia’s tourism and hospitality sector has lost over 80% of its business due to strict movement control orders imposed to curb the rapidly increasing COVID-19 cases.

Domestic travel was allowed from June to September last year as Malaysia eased lockdowns nationwide. However, this did little to help the flailing tourism industry.

Apart from regular promotions and offers, some businesses in the travel and F&B industries have sought creative ways to keep their brands at the top of their minds and keep them interested in their respective sectors.

Complete the form below to download the whitepaper and read more.

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What an interesting year! I’m not sure how many end of year wraps are going to start that way, but it’s the best way I can think to open up on what I’ve seen this year.  For me, 2020 was the year that the core principles of a good communicator became clear to see. It’s rare that you get to experience the same event across the world and compare and contrast different approaches and their effectiveness. 

Last week we hosted our final webinar of the year with a panel of media experts across Australia and New Zealand, and it gave me the chance to reflect on what 2021 might look like. Rather than a trend list I thought I would outline some key themes that will continue into 2021.

Listening:

During 2020, call out culture continued to grow while everyone was in their homes and consuming more information. Online social movements have “cancelled” celebrities, influencers and brands due to behaviour or values that don’t reflect those of their key online audiences. On the other side of this, there was also an increase in divisive rhetoric, conspiracy theories and misinformation. As a communicator, it’s crucial to not be singular in the type of information you consume and to consider if you are across new platforms, different audiences and opposing points of view in your own media consumption.

Crisis: Respond and Adapt with Clarity, Compassion and Creativity:

I have always believed and advised that leading with compassion and transparency promotes authentic communication, which I know is a point most communicators agree with, just sometimes it can be hard to convince stakeholders of that same point of view. It’s always clear in crisis who has a bank of trust to draw on and who doesn’t, and when you couple this with some audiences growing increasingly wary of governments and media, it’s important that the trust is built and maintained consistently outside of a crisis. 

During the crisis itself, we’ve seen the need to be incredibly clear and transparent this year. Public health information can be complex and needs to be translated and applied to a wide audience, in the languages and formats that work best for those audiences rather than the communicator. Governments have created new frameworks that have become vernacular, and I know I know way more about viruses and immunology than I ever thought I would.

The Year of the experts:

I have directly taken this idea from Patrick Crewdson, the editor in chief at Stuff (you can listen to this here) At the beginning of the year I would have struggled to name the Chief Medical Officers of major countries in the world, this week I made a team quiz questions about them, and have put an image of t-shirts with the face of Dr Ashley Bloomfield (Director General of Health in New Zealand) on them in a number of presentations this year. I think this illustrates a sentiment that has existed for journalists for years: as communications structures have expanded, they want access, and they want to hear directly from experts. Audiences have echoed this in 2020 through high viewership of entire press conferences and live streams from public officials. Creating a supportive communications environment that can allow experts to be heard and embrace their role in the media can take work, and a bit of evidence and training (especially in a raw and unfiltered media environment), but I hope it continues into 2021 - it only helps to build trust and transparency. 

This is just scratching the surface of what was quite a year, and one I’m sure we all won’t forget anytime soon. In spite of what was a tough year for many, it’s pleasing that communications has been given an opportunity to prove the value on a broad scale.

I want to sign off with some holiday reading and resources (because there’s nothing quite like some measurement reading on the beach!) 

AMEC (International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication) hosts a month of great content and events on communications measurement each November and it’s the chance to hear from experts all around the world. This content is all available virtually and on-demand here: https://amecorg.com/measurement-month/2020-mm-events/

There’s something relevant here for everyone, from influencers and google studio to those just trying to get their head around research and evaluation. If beach homework isn’t your thing, bookmark the site and come back to it with fresh eyes in January. 

Here’s to a safe (and maybe less eventful) 2021! 

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In our third edition of Isentia Conversations: Communicating through Change, we chat with Rochelle Courtenay, the Founder and Managing Director of Share the Dignity. Rochelle talks to us about how she stays connected with over 6,000 volunteers across Australia and how she motivates those teams to work to end period poverty.

Isentia’s Insights Director, Ngaire Crawford also shares some of the trends seen across social and traditional media about home not always being the safest place for some people, and how social communities can help combat this.

Because many of us are working from home, we saw this webinar series as an opportunity to connect with each other, learn from subject matter experts and hear their stories, as we adapt to a new way of working.

https://youtu.be/uphrqGuXO7w?list=PL6mOcXpe0JCOp0LlpmFdkDIRdfMBuNiKk

Ngaire Crawford from Isentia talks feeling safe and secure at home

4:55 - Although most of us are now working from home, home isn’t always the safest place for everybody.

5:25 - The main topics currently reported on mainstream media:

1. The increase in family violence - a topic that has been present since the lockdowns in Australia and New Zealand.
2. Connectivity and education - there is concern about people not having access to the right equipment or  not having good enough internet connectivity for homeschooling.
3. Poverty during lockdown - there are restrictions in place to stay at home and access to food more controlled than ever before. Food specials are a thing of the past and fresh food may be more difficult to get.

8:55 - Within ANZ, data shows people are searching online about the rules for lockdown. What are they? Are they doing the right thing? What are the policies?

9:10 - On social media, people are reaching out and using their social channels to create connection, to remind everyone to check in on people and be a source of safety. During March, references to being scared and feeling unsafe more than doubled across ANZ.

Cluster topics driven by COVID-19 for feeling unsafe included: Rates, self-isolation, stress and mental health. 

Cluster topics driven by COVID-19 for feeling scared included: Government, kids, workers, rent, supermarket, police, trust and social media. 

10:15 - It’s important to see the good in social media right now - it’s the greatest facilitator of social connection. Not only can people reach out to others directly, toxic people and unhelpful communication can be called out very quickly. Always use your common sense when using social media, check your sources and investigate claims before relying on them.

13:13 - The importance of community. 

• Communicating with your social media audiences and communities is valuable during this time. 
• See the good that people are doing as well as the innovation.
• Listen to your audience and ask for feedback. We’re all in our homes and more conversational than ever.
• Be genuine and authentic when talking to your audience, if you look as though you are doing the right thing, then people will be on board. 
• Follow on social media those affected most from lockdown and watch what they are doing and how they’ve adapted their businesses.
• Watch cancel culture on Twitter, understand what’s driving people to call out brands and public figures on social media.

Rochelle Courtenay from Share the Dignity talks staying connected and keeping your teams motivated

15:45 - For the past five years, Rochelle has also been known as the ‘Pad Lady’. Share the Dignity was created after Rochelle read about the high number of Australian homeless women who didn’t have access to essential sanitary items. 

Twice a year, she drives two collections for sanitary items and runs the ‘It’s in the bag’ campaign each December. For this initiative, every day Australians are asked to fill a bag with essential items including toothbrushes, toothpaste, sanitary items, shampoo, conditioner, deodorant and soap. For a woman who is fleeing domestic violence, it may have been weeks since she has brushed her teeth, so these basic items are essential for these women in need.

16:56 - Communicating online to her ‘Shero’ and ‘Hero’ volunteers has been the norm for Rochelle since she founded Share the Dignity. Using ‘Workplace’ for their intranet, internal communications via announcements to all 5,783 volunteers is easy and effective. 

17:45 - The most important thing when communicating is to be authentic and genuine.  We ensure the most important people (Sheroes and Heroes) within our charity are kept informed and are at the forefront of everything that’s done. We ensure our communication comes from the heart first and our heads second.

19:03 - Reinforce the message you are trying to communicate. With charities, it’s important to remind volunteers (and staff members) why they are doing the work they are doing. Often, different types of communication are developed to cater for different communication preferences. Videos are recorded and also written up to deliver the same message.

19:58 - Since COVID-19, Share the Dignity has adopted new engagement initiatives on social media. The most recent; a Mother’s Day campaign where the community was asked to share their favourite photo with their mum. The campaign encouraged people to connect and engage with one another, to share stories, smiles, tears and laughter. It was a great way to create a community within a community. It’s important to help people within your community through difficult times.

24:30 - A key part of running a charity is to sustain volunteers’ passion. We do this by sharing stories about the women they have helped and continue to help.  We make sure they know how much of a difference they are making to someone else’s life.

If you would like to view other Webinar Isentia Conversations: Communicating through Change:

Isentia Conversations: with Katherine Newton from RU OK? 

Isentia Conversations: with Bec Brown from The Comms Department

Isentia Conversations: with Rachel Clements at Centre for Corporate Health

Isentia Conversations: with Helen McMurdo at MTV

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Artificial intelligence (AI). Just saying the words invokes visions of an apocalyptic future teeming with deadly machines like The Terminator or even software like The Matrix's Agent Smith. At least that’s the dystopia the scaremongers are peddling. If the latest hype is anything to go by, AI will not only change life on earth as we know it, it will probably take your job too.

As an editor, content marketer and millennial, it appears my head is on the chopping block. Gartner predicts that by 2018, 20 per cent of business content will be authored by machines, and many are speculating that journalists will cease to exist. Add Elon Musk comparing AI to a demon, and even I’m spooked.

But I won’t pack up my desk just yet. Here’s why.

We’re surrounded by AI

Let’s be honest: this is nothing new. Artificial intelligence, machine learning and automation have been around for quite a while, and we’ve all been targeted by Facebook’s AI-applied targeted advertising and subject to Google AdWords’ AI-powered, automated bidding for years.

Your top picks on Netflix? AI technology fuels its recommendation engine. Apple’s personal assistant, Siri? She’s machine learning to better predict, understand and answer your questions. Google? Depends on AI to rank your search results.

But the machines haven’t taken over yet. Despite it trickling into everyday life, AI is still in its infancy. Instead of conjuring images of alien robots, we should really think of the technology as a baby Bicentennial Man in nappies – waiting for us to teach it.

AI is growing up fast

To be useful for content marketing, AI needs a mammoth amount of fresh, structured data.

Its power lies in its ability to analyse large data sets to reveal patterns and trends. Feed it enough high-quality data and it will be able to predict share prices or a human's lifespan and, in some cases, even write content.

Natural language generation (NLG) is a type of AI software capable of producing coherent, readable text. NLG robo-journalists are already creating basic sports content and corporate earnings reports. But, as smart as it is, NLG isn’t truly independent – it needs very specific data sets and templates before it can write, and it can’t create anything genuinely new.

Still, that doesn’t mean we can’t use the technology. In the realm of content marketing, AI can gather, sort and make sense of oceans of data – something the industry is swimming in.

AI: Spotting trends, making predictions

Ask any marketer and they’ll tell you they’re ‘data driven’.

Sure, we’re data driven. We look at engagement metrics to tell us what’s working, and change things accordingly to make them work better and inform future decisions. But it’s generally retrospective.

A lot of what we do is still based on instinct. We still speak to real people. We still search online to understand what people are asking. We still study search volumes.

What we need is the ability to predict something before it needs to be changed. This is where the opportunity for AI is in content marketing right now.

Exciting stuff for a content marketer working in a media and data intelligence business. We’re already using our own AI to process seven million news items every day, at a rate of 234 stories per second.

With that much data, our software can make strong recommendations about what type of content we should be creating, and for whom. As it evolves (and learns), it should be able to spot trends and patterns early, informing communications strategies and helping businesses to maximise opportunity and minimise risk.

Humans and AI, living together

AI and predictive analytics will help content marketers understand who they should be talking to and what they should be saying, but it’s up to us to create the content.

AI relies on human data and intelligence to function and learn. At least for now, this is where its limitations lie.

Humans are still needed to create original work that connects with its audience at an emotional level. To completely replace a writer or content marketer, AI would need to have an opinion, think abstractly, be curious and show emotion.

So, while your inbox might be full of propaganda alluding to our impending cyberdoom, we’re not there yet.

However, we shouldn’t be naïve, as the way we work is being transformed. To stay in the game, we should spearhead the change rather than hiding in the corner.

I for one welcome working with our new robot overlords, and I urge you all to join me. As the machine said, “Come with me if you want to live.”

Disclaimer: This article was not written by a robot.

​

Paige Richardson, Isentia Strategy & Content

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