This is Part 2 of the Interview with the Country Head of Google Malaysia, Marc Woo. Asia Blockchain Review recently had the chance to catch up with Marc and get his thoughts on all things digital.

The Malaysian government recently announced that it would be setting up a National Digital Inclusion Council to focus on creating digital economy income opportunities for the masses. We asked Marc on his take on the topic of ‘digital inclusion’ and what it truly means in this day and age. “Google’s mission has always been to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful…for us, digital inclusion is also about making sure that everyone, including the differently able can partake in technology and digitization,” he stressed. For example, Live Transcribe and Sound Amplifier are apps that were inspired and designed for the deaf and hard of hearing community, so that they can better communicate with those differently able.

Celebrating Our Roots

Another example is Google Earth with its Voyager feature which has given the Orang Asal of Malaysia a way to share and preserve their stories, language, and culture which is under threat. Voyager stories that feature our Orang Asal communities include: “Back to Roots” , “Orang Asal Indigenous Lands of Malaysia,” and “Celebrating Indigenous Languages,” Additionally, Google Earth Outreach has sponsored digital mapping workshops that have given the Orang Asal Community a tool to have digital conversations regarding their ancestral land rights. “At the heart of it, inclusion has to aspire for universal accessibility and usefulness. We try to reach out to as many under-served sections of society in the hope that no one gets left behind…there is certainly room enough for everyone to share in the social and economic prosperity brought about by the digital economy,” Marc added.

The Rise Of Digital Advertising

Moving on to advertising in the digital arena, the rise of programmatic advertising has re-imagined how storytelling is conveyed in the world of branding. CX (customer experience) is becoming more of a factor, and the media supply chain is also becoming a lot more nuanced. Marc was happy to dive deeper into what makes things tick in this area. “Think omni-channel over multi-channel marketing…instead of developing a multitude of separate marketing channels, omni-channel is about a systematic approach,” he said. Marc believes that the goal is to create a unified communication system. Both mobile and web should complement each other and create a friction-free CX. Faster landing pages typically lead to more conversions, and Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) helps things load quickly. 

Videos Always Win

Marc’s advice to brands, marketers and advertisers is to think more about online videos. “The average time a person spends watching online videos is increasing every year…In 2020, it’s expected to be at an average of 84 minutes a day globally…brands don’t have to aim for very polished productions all the time, in fact, live streaming can appear more authentic and reliable,” he said. He feels that a variety of formats (reports, video blogs, interviews, discussions) makes it easy to adapt such content to almost any audience. The lack of processing and installation reduces the distance between the brand and users, and most importantly, meets the request for accuracy and authenticity. Marc also feels that more custom content like testimonials, videos, reviews or photos which is more along the lines of user generated content not only checks the box for authenticity, it also costs less. 

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About the author

Anil Prabha

Editor In Chief

Anil started his career in journalism all the way back in 2003. After traversing the sphere of editorial, corporate communications and advertising, he has now come full circle and is back in the world of journalism. He believes in the power of the written word, and its ability to enthrall, delight and inform the reader.