Random Musings

i am in vegas for three days to attend the asian american marketing conference that is hosted by the asian american advertising federation.  today, yul kwon, the korean american who won survivor, was the keynote.  tomorrow, i am most excited about the giant robot  talk which will be given by eric nakamura.  i’ve been a fan of their company for years:)

this is the first asian marketing conference i have ever attended and am getting to know the small and tight-knit group of advertising professionals that handle this niche market. some things i’ve learned:

• the folks in this industry are very dedicated to making sure mainstream products are marketed to asians as well.
• the asian ad market is WAY behind in terms of internet trends - they still think newspapers are the way to go.
• no one knows about soompi!

this last point is the one that amazes me the most.  in some ways, since soompi’s demographic is younger than the staff at most of these agencies, it makes sense that they haven’t been on the site. BUT, if they are doing their research, they would know we are a big player in the asian american online space.  on the bright side, i am talking to alot of people about our site (perhaps something i should have done earlier, but in all honestly, product development and community management already takes up 110% of our time).

regarding point number two - i know i am a bit spoiled being from san francisco where everyone speaks web.  but honestly, if you are at any ad agency in this day and age, you need to know the basic vocabulary of pageviews, traffic rankings, monthly unique visitors, etc.  the reality is that people are consuming their news, entertainment, and lives online and you need to follow your customers.  not a hard concept to grasp.