New York Asian Film Festival 2008

This month has been a crazy month for me. My pet project – a Chinese website – has just soft launched. I haven’t had much time blogging on Asian Marketing. I feel so guilty.

But I really want to share with all that the New York Asian Film Festival 2008 is up now (June 20 – July 13). See schedule at Subway Cinema.

For those interested to know more about the event, I would recommend checking out Beth Accomando’s article at About.com The 2008 New York Asian Film Festival - Highlights and Features

Enjoy the Asian movies!

Toyota’s New Matrix Site Dedicated to Asian American

Toyota dedicates a section of its Matrix Web site “The Director’s Chair” to Asian American cinema. The multimedia mini-site feature interviews with Asian stars, film reviews and events.

Toyota has been pushing Camry, Corolla and Sienna in the Asian market. I am happy to see a new entry Matrix, hoping Toyota would dive even deeper into Asian marketing. The idea of supporting Asian American is great. It is the buzz in the market, which I already wrote about.

After reviewing the sites, however, I was a little disappointed.

First, the content. The “eventS” tab includes archive of the Asian American Film Festival only. The festival certainly is not the only film event around town. What happens to the others?

How about Asian Indian Bollywood which currently produces the most films in the world? Yes, I understand Toyota has traditionally focused on Chinese and Korean markets. Asian Indian is not their core target group. But missing out Bollywood completely in an Asian American Film site doesn’t sound right, especially when the site is in English targeting Pan Asian American. It sends a negative message to the South Asian American.

If only Toyota made it clear that this was a sponsored site featuring Asian American Film Festival, it probably would be less offensive. You should not pretend to be bigger than what you are. If you are a festival site, be it; don’t claim to you could “bring the best of Asian American Cinema” to the users. The tag line is a little too ambitious and misleading.

Another turnoff is its lack of interactivities. The site is a one way communication. From what I see, the content will not grow. I wonder how you expect the audience engagement to grow in that case.

Lastly, the technology. The server needs more bandwidth. I was at some point felt like I was on a dial-up line. I also found some broken links and minor bugs. All these spoil the user experience.

I also visited Toyota’s Chinese site and was shocked to find scrabbled characters on the home page. One thing I don’t understand: why the site is in Chinese Simplified GB coding when the actual display is in Traditional Chinese? Toyota should consider using Unicode instead. It is the norm in most multilingual sites now.

Don’t get me wrong. I am really thrilled to see Toyota’s commitment to the Asian American market and its innovative ideas. I just couldn’t help to point out things that may improve the initiative. Toyota, moving forward.

Northwest Airlines’ Campaign to Support Quake Relief Effort

I received numerous promotional emails from Northwest Airlines every week. But this one I received today caught my attention. Its subject line was “Opportunity to support China earthquake relief efforts". The message…

Dear Fanny Lawren,

The earthquake that struck Sichuan, China on May 12 was devastating to millions of people. NWA’s AirCares® partner The Salvation Army is actively participating in the disaster relief efforts to help survivors who are suffering from the loss of their homes, belongings and loved ones.

If you would like to help, here are two ways that you can support this important relief effort:

1. Give Miles - Transfer WorldPerks miles to The Salvation Army in any increment and Northwest Airlines will match WorldPerks mileage transfers of up to a total of one million WorldPerks miles. Transfer miles online or if you prefer, call 1-800-327-2881. Make sure to have your WorldPerks number 123456789 and PIN ready.

2. Give Money - Donate $50 or more directly to The Salvation Army and receive 500 WorldPerks Bonus Miles. Information on donating money to AirCares partners may be found at www.nwa.com/corpinfo/aircares/donate

Thank you for your support!

I think this is a smart campaign, at least from branding perspective. I suppose I got the message because I flew NWA to Asia couple times. But I would be curious to know how exactly the marketer segment their customers.

Another Asian Marketing lesson: Be responsive to social events.