Nasrullah

Marketing can, at times, be a ‘monkey-see-monkey-do’ practice. Come up with an innovative idea and the industry is ready to follow suit. But if the success of an ad campaign or a marketing shenanigan can apply to one product from the other then dangers and warnings apply too-so do the law suits

Back in April 2010,  famous pizza chain Papa John’s, allegedly sent out around 500,000 unwanted messages to an unsuspecting audience. The messages offered pizza deals and promotions for the brand. This resulted in a class-action action law suit which is now expected to set the US food chain back by $250 million. Papa John’s quickly ended involvement with its provider ONTIME4U text program when the incident occurred back in 2010. The plaintiffs now seek up to $500 for each SMS sent but could be awarded up to $1500 if jury rules that Papa John’s willfully broke the law. ONTIME4U, the SMS provider stands as a co-defendant in this case.

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 bars companies from sending advertisements via text messages without a consumer first opting into the service. This means bulk messaging is a big no-no unless the customers are willing participants.

Now on to Exhibit Pakistan.

At the end of last year, the Pakistan Telecom Association banned all masking services in Pakistan. In fact, any shortcodes that will be allowed to continue operations require two functionalities:

1. The option for the recipient to reply back
2. The ability to opt out from these messages at any given time

At Pring, privacy of the user is our top priority. Using various checks and protocols we ensure that no subscriber on the Pring community is spammed or bombarded with unnecessary messages. In fact we can proudly state that from our user-base of over 5 million, not a single individual is a spamming victim but a willful participant. Unless a consumer willingly opts in for updates from a brand’s various check-in points he does not receive any messages from our social media platform. The checks do not end there. We limit our clients from making more than 3 updates in a week and more than one update in a day. So even if a consumer has opted in to talk to a brand, his experience is still ensured to be anything but noisy. However there still maybe some time before the brands catch up to the finesse of using the enigma that is mobile marketing.

Posted by Sheikh Omer Zaheer

With the elections right around the corner, passions are at an all-time high and we believe that these elections will be historic for their significance and impact. For the first time a democratic government will be handing over the reins to the next government.

We’ve seen lots of opinion polls done by research organizations and on various social media sites. In our opinion they all fall short, either because the sample size is too small or because the people responding to the polls online represent the top 1% of Pakistan and not the common man. How do we get a feel for what’s happening on the streets? What does the average Pakistani think about the elections?

On Friday evening, 3rd of May Nasrullah (our CTO) and Bilal (our CMO) brainstormed a way for us to show what is happening at the ground-level in Pakistan. A crack team was assembled and we decided to create a dashboard on Pring that would illustrate in real-time what political conversations were happening on Pring. This would be hard job because Pring has thousands of messages following through in more than six languages, in eleven scripts.

Not only did we need to understand what was being said in those languages, we needed to classify them into political categories. Our data analyst wrote the algorithm for identifying and categorizing updates into various political parties. We chose to limit the parties to a few, for now. Anytime someone would text their opinion to 9900, our algorithm would mine it for political content and display it on our dashboard.

The result is a moment by moment, real-time political pulse of Pakistan. The team launched the working prototype in two days, a remarkable feat considering how little work has been done on regional languages. Check it out for yourself; see the Pring Election Watch page.

Also, go ahead and send in VOTE to 9900 to see how popular your preferred political party is. You’ll get to know immediately what fellow citizens are thinking.

We recently did a few surveys on Pring, and gathered some interesting statistics. Thought we’d share with you. Let us know what you think.

In a survey taken on Pring, about 75% of the respondents said that, if given a chance, they would choose to study in Pakistan, instead of overseas for further education.  It is also interesting to note that 38.5% of the people who answered the survey were not from major cities such as Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad, Peshawar or Quetta, but from other smaller cities. Pring’s accessibility and broad reach made it possible to get prompt answers from these respondents.

‘Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.’

We’ve all heard this saying and we love to quote it, but how many of us can actually walk the talk? The Civic Hackathon, held in Karachi, gave an invaluable opportunity to citizens to use their skills and make their city a better, more efficient place to live. Organized by Pring, P@SHA and The Second Floor, the Hackathon pulled together developers, students and other professionals to create apps to solve civic problems. The two-day event was inspired by Code for America, a non-profit organization that gets city leaders and web enthusiasts to come up with innovative solutions to promote public services.

Sheba Najmi, a fellow of Code for America, initiated this project to encourage citizens to take matters into their own hands.  Speeches and tutorial sessions were held on the first day of the event and eleven teams were formed. We introduced Raven API, our ground breaking API that lets anyone create SMS apps using simple HTML. The judges themselves suggested the use of Pring as an SMS interface, so that the maximum number of people could access services, without the internet.

A number of incredible apps were created. There was an app that tackled one of the biggest evils in Karachi: muggings and target killings. It allowed citizens to report the crime, along with precise location and time where it occurred. Another great app enabled people to get authentic information on government procedures, such as obtaining a driver’s license or getting an application processed. It gave direct facts and consequences of failing to go through the legitimate procedure. Along with empowering citizens, this method would do away with illegal mafias that exploit the ordinary man’s helplessness, while eliminating bribery.

One team was of the idea that corruption is so ingrained in society because citizens are not always aware that an honest transaction can take place. Their app allowed people to submit details of the bribe, i.e. the amount, the name of the officer, location, etc., to the relevant government department. And it would all be anonymous.

There weren’t just people from an IT background, but healthcare professionals, NGO representatives, and graphic designers. The response was so overwhelming that you couldn’t help but think that we could rid all of society’s ills if we just take into account what the educated youth has to suggest.

The actual development of the applications kicked off on the second day. Seven out of ten teams used Raven API to make their apps, because anyone with any kind of mobile phone can use SMS to communicate. Pring’s developer tools, the Raven Simulator, and the Raven Sandbox assisted developers speed up the development time. Judging criteria included ease of access, mechanics, simplicity, how well defined the problem was, success in resolving the issue and adaptation on Pring as an SMS interface.

“We’re very proud of what was attempted and accomplished in less than 48 hours. If we can sustain the same zeal, our civic problems will disappear.” said one of the speakers, Jawwad Farid.

P@SHA’s Innovation Fund announced it would be investing Rs. 850,000 for any team that has a workable idea and wants to go ahead with it. Plug & Play is keen on providing business incubation space for those who want to further develop their application. Participants were so enthusiastic about Raven API that they pledge to carry on with their projects and meet up every month at T2F to share progress and new ideas.

Thanks to the judges Farzal Dojki, Shahjahan Chaudhry, Imran Mohiuddin and Sabeen Mahmud. It was a noteworthy initiative taken by Sheba Najmi, Jehan Ara, Sabeen Mahmud and the volunteers who made this event happen.

If you think this is the end of it, think again. Lahore, we’re coming your way next, so get the geek out in you and gear up to do some good!

Posted by Haseeb Tariq and Hiba Moeen

In social media, what is the worth of any follower? Is it measured by the buzz he generates for your brand amongst friends? Is it the perception he creates as a brand advocate? Or is he valued for the sales he generates between himself and his peers? If your business has a presence on social media, you probably struggle to assign weight to each of these qualities. But what if you can get the best of both worlds?

With Pring, a follower is not just a fan but an actual customer. With up to 80% of follower acquisition happening in stores in real time, you are not just connecting with random individuals but with people who actually walked into your stores at some point and very likely bought something. So you know they are an indispensable asset. By using Pring’s location driven check-in points, you can tag each outlet separately. Then with just a simple SMS, the follower can connect with you right there and then. Not only is your fan base growing, but you know exactly how well each store is doing.

Warda took this task quite seriously. By setting daily goals for its sales staff, the brand used Pring to acquire over a 150 new followers on the platform in a week. Is that really a large number, you might ask? It really is. These are 150 real customers in just one week that you are now in constant contact over a touch of a button. They are now ready for hands on updates and promotions from the brand. Warda now has 9,769 followers on Pring.  Since these are your actual customers, you know for sure they cannot wait to hear from you till their next visit. So the next time you’re counting followers, just remember that it’s more than just a numbers game.

Posted by Sheikh Omer Zaheer

When you’re on your way to work, at the airport, waiting to catch a flight, or just killing time outside the doctor’s office, time slows to snail’s pace. Wouldn’t it be great if you had a tablet you could whip out and start reading an e-magazine? Or download an e-book on your smartphone to whittle away the time? But to be able to make proper use of this innovation you need to be able to afford an iPad or a smartphone. But what if all you had was a feature phone?

It’s a given that information is now more accessible than the world has ever experienced before. However, in countries where the percentage of people who use smartphones is less than 10%, including Pakistan, India, and China, a feature phone is the only gadget most consumers can rely on for entertainment.

A smart marketer can spot the huge untapped opportunity right here.

Pring is the everyman’s social platform. Accessible from the web and any kind of mobile phone, it can connect a consumer to a world of information. Using Pring’s unique code system, you can now store data in multi-layered menus. This means not E but M-catalogues, hot items at a retail store, health advice, quick tips on doing your laundry, you name it!

Your customers are out and about on weekends, and by just texting your brand’s name to 9900, they can find out about your latest collection in stores. How about dinner after a shopping spree? Using Pring, your loyal diners can get your restaurant’s menu literally in their hands. All a consumer needs to know the right code and SMS it to 9900 for a trove of information.

The next time you see a consumer with a fancy tablet or a sleek new iPhone, remember that just a tiny percentage of the market can hold that . But with Pring, every phone is a smart phone.

Posted by Sheikh Omer Zaheer

Ever felt the urge to get up and do something to make things better for those around you? Does it drive you nuts to keep seeing the same flaw in the system, which has the simplest solution, but you don’t know how to get it across to the city management?

The time to get up and take action is now! Pring is calling all developers, designers, entrepreneurs, government employees, or community organizers to the Civic Hackathon Karachi. This 2-day event will be held at T2F in Karachi, on the 6^th and 7^th of April. The Hackathon will focus on creating efficient, useable solutions to your city’s problems. Participants will also be using Pring’s Raven API to develop applications that will work on the web or any kind of mobile phone, making the solution accessible to the majority of citizens.

You will attend workshops, take part in mentoring sessions, and get access to valuable opportunities to network. Did we mention free meals?

The Civic Hackathon Karachi will be led by Sheba Najmi who is a User Experience Designer and Product Strategist based in San Francisco, as well as a Code for America Fellow in 2012.

To register, click here now. Hurry, registrations close 3^rd of April.

It’s time to stop talking and start acting. See you at the Hackathon!

When Coca Cola ventured into China, they changed the pronunciation of their brand name because the actual name ‘Coca Cola’ translated to ‘bite the wax tadpole’.

What’s the one lesson to be derived out of this example? A brand must adapt itself to the preferences of the people it is marketing to. If a 100-year old brand, one of the most recognizable names in the world can do that, what’s holding back the rest?

Over the years, advertising in Pakistan has been a sad display of hollow taglines, clichéd lingo and baseless jingles. It’s the kind of stuff that would elicit a cringe out of you, along with a ‘kiya?’

The marketers of today need to understand the benefits of staying true to the people, their culture, their values and their taboos. Only then will they really be able to get their brand values across. Not the other way around.

And nowhere is this approach more relevant than on mobile. As the most precious touch point in the marketing spectrum, a marketer must realize how to communicate effectively over it. Gone are the days of pushing a sales message on cell phones because getting a consumer’s attention, whether they like it or not, was the only goal.

In case of language, this is even more important. If your user is not comfortable with English, switch to Urdu. Don’t make the mistake of alienating your user because they can’t fit in your pre-planned strategy. Pringers don’t want to get something they’re not at ease with on their mobiles. It’s going to make them press the delete button, even before trying to understand what it means.

On Pring, the solution to this problem is dead simple. Once a user signs up, he or she is asked to choose their preferred language in Urdu or English. You can then send updates according to what your follower is comfortable with. Make your communication mix on Pring tailored to how your users are talking every day and when off guard.

More and more people from all over the country are coming to this platform every day. The time to make that change is now. Unless marketers can create conversations that are relevant in tone and language, the game will be lost!

Posted by Qasim Rishi

Elections are around the corner and a survey on Pring has shown that citizens are keen to take their future in their own hands by exercising their right to vote. The survey also shows people are willing to be updated regularly on developments in the complete electoral process. ECP are you listening?