Saturday, July 7

Heboh on TV, just not on the Internet yet...

TV3's Jom Heboh Carnival (formerly promoted as Sure Heboh but later rejected as too 'rojak') returns to Penang this weekend (Sat to Sun, 7-8 JUL 2007), meeting fans and city crowds in Penang at its new venue on the island (instead of the earlier planned but recently bad rapped Stadium Batu Kawan over a football match fiasco) -- The newly opened QueensBay Mall after the recent successful showdown in Danga Bay, Johor Baru (9-10 JUN 2007).

If you haven't been to one of these gatherings (I've been to several including joining as a vendor twice -- in Kepala Batas, Penang and Kangar Perlis couple years ago), check out what the buzz is all about:


The official promotional clip


First Malaysian Idol winner, Jaclyn Victor having a duet on Ceritera Cinta with Amir Sofaz

Sure, it's popular, and it gets heavy promotion on the TV channel owned by the organizer TV3 or the parent company, Media Prima, but in 2007, it turns out to be not so 'heboh' on the Internet.

A google search for news on this carnival that gets attended by 100,000s at each of its stop returns only ONE news result - the recent news article at New Straits Times, regarding the local authorities promise to avoid another embarrassing road traffic problem.

There are also only SEVEN videos posted at YouTube on this Jom Heboh event from Mar 17 until June 15, 2007.

A search on Google groups & usenet also returns only a handful of postings (less than 20) mentioning the event "karnival tv3" or "jom heboh 2007" with many of the postings talk mostly on the negativeness of such gatherings. As expected, also no mentioning of "jom heboh" in indexed books, scholarly materials, products search (what, no souvenirs?), patents etc.

With millions of people have likely already attended this event throughout the country for the past many years, it's surprising that only a few hundred people have bothered to blog about it at all. If you'd think that only fans aren't interested to talk much about it online, even TV3 and hosts like QueensBay mention nothing about Jom Heboh 2007 @ Penang on their respective websites! After all, the company/organizer also failed to secure jomheboh.com domain name (first registered by an anonymous registrant on Mar 2006). What's going on Media Prima?

It's no surprise that the websites for its popularly branded TV & radio stations (NTV7, 8TV, TV9, Hot.Fm etc) and related agencies (Grand Brilliance, E-media - aggregator of its print publications etc.) are getting much less hits/'viewership' compared to some individual Malaysia-based bloggers'!

[The last time there was a dedicated site on this event was back in 2004, when TMNET was its major event partner and thus set up a lively site at its BlueHyppo.com network. Since 2005 however, other major partners like Maxis have been doing poorly at promoting the event online except undertaking several Hotlink prepaid mobile special plan in conjunction with the event. See also 'Jom Heboh 2007' page by Dutch Lady which only has info on 2006 events]

Check out the event yourself, and perhaps you'd have more to say online about Jom Heboh than its organizers:-


For Jom Heboh fans, more stops for the year are as the following:-
  • Kuala Lumpur: Stadium Nasional, Bukit Jalil (4-5 AUG)
  • Sarawak: Stadium Negeri, Petra Jaya, Kuching (3-4 NOV)
  • Selangor: Stadium Melawati, Shah Alam (8-9 DEC)
UPDATE (8jul07): If event organizers in Malaysia can learn a lesson or two on how to run effective 'world-class' events in Malaysia, please see how these folks run Live Earth 7-Point Pledge on 7/7/07 (millions of video views on the Internet on a single day, compared to just 100s-1000s for the Jom 'Not-So 'Heboh after months/years!!) and Countdown to Apple's iPhone TGiF Night. Look, I'm not trying to be against mainstream media companies -- I'm just suggesting here that you market more virally and thus reach your potential audience more effectively. So, take the pill, and be healthier tomorrow. Don't let another "World's Telecommunications Day" missing on the 'online' platform itself again!

3 comments:

  1. You really think the world revolves around bloggers like you, don't you? Well, while you sit there behind your sad little computer, point fingers and whine away about how 'unpopular' the carnival is on the internet, the organizers are laughing their way to the bank.

    If you had a lesson or two about marketing and branding, or maybe own a pair of eyes to see the type of people who visit events like these, you would come to realize that they're not the blogging type. Not everyone is as free as you.

    Events like these are strategically planned to be in not-so-urban areas for a reason. And the reason you're not getting that many search results is because:-
    a) you don't know how to use the proper search terms.
    b) you don't know how to use search terminology.
    c) Many articles in all the local dailies in all four languages do not always have their articles posted on search engines until a few days or weeks later.
    d) if you were meticulous enough (which you obviously weren't), you would visit the individual publication's web site and see more articles there.
    d) Google News and Yahoo News omit articles more than 30 days old.

    People just love to comment and criticize on things that they hardly know much about. Typical.
    This is why education is important, to avoid empty vessels from making too much noise.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear anonymous,

    1. Thank you for your comment on this post. You seem very emotional there, also behind your "sad little computer, point fingers, and whine away" about bloggers -- guest you don't know how bloggers and internet centric media/commerce companies are also laughing their way even louder to the bank... do Google, CNN, BBC, CNET, WSJ/NYT, Bloomberg etc. ring any bell? I'm guessing that you must have some strong ties with Media Prima or other mainstream media corporations.

    2. Marketing & Branding - define blogging type. Define 'free' bloggers. If you'd examine the article carefully, you'd know that I had actually stated that only bloggers talk a bit (more) about the event -- the organizers themselves are mum on delivering much desired info. That's why I think that their marketing is flawed -- they're reaching the same crowd over and over again for years, without increasing their adoption of today's ICT -- not as productive as the mainstream media try to portray otherwise.

    3. Your allegations are baseless. You didn't give any proof whatsoever. My point was that the sites by mainstream media are so left behind today. The do not embrace Web 2.0 well! (unlike many others who constantly adapt to fast-changing Internet trend)

    4. I do not get your point regarding education. How much education would be necessary then? Do you need a PhD before making any opinion/remark? Do you consider yourself having sufficient education to back your allegations?

    As always, welcoming your educated and 'cheerful' comment.

    ReplyDelete
  3. a) you don't know how to use the proper search terms.

    --By that extension if no one comes to your shop to buy belacan then we are not having the right maps? How much money is media prima pouring into Jom Heboh? A few cents less on belacan and a few cents more on brains would help them see that viral marketing is all upside. Heck more people have viewed "muar chinese" on youtube than jom heboh. How much did he spend?

    b) you don't know how to use search terminology.

    ---Again spend money to get more people in. Spend a bit more to do it right. Then again, quota cases will always act like quota cases.

    c) Many articles in all the local dailies in all four languages do not always have their articles posted on search engines until a few days or weeks later.

    --Har har the only local dailies that carry articles are the NST and the MM who are owned by Media Prima. Dumb-a55

    d) if you were meticulous enough (which you obviously weren't), you would visit the individual publication's web site and see more articles there.

    --Meticulous? Dude, make it easy for us and we will do it.

    d) Google News and Yahoo News omit articles more than 30 days old.

    --If the latest thing you have is more than 30 days old then you are...the parliament Malaysia website.

    It's sad that the first comment here is the best defence that the media industry in malaysia can dream up.

    ReplyDelete

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