To succeed as a marketer, you need to know your customer. In Singapore alone, people spend an average of two hours and a half every single day on social media. This is where they express emotions, aspirations and concerns about brands. We capitalise on the rich insights obtained from social media big data to help marketers make data-driven decisions. Their comments, pictures, ratings and posts help to understand brand perceptions in a powerful way. Data is publicly available, and with the help of a social media listening tool and some analysis, it's possible to assess a brand's reputation in a few days or hours. In this second case study, we wanted to check the variations in online reputation of Singapore's top telco operators: Singtel, Starhub, M1 and My Republic, after our first case study from mid-January to mid-February (http://fr.slideshare.net/AgenceTesla/singtel-starhub-m1-and-my-republic-online-reputation-battle-of-the-telcos-in-singapore-social-media-listening-case-study2015). This case study focuses on March 2015. As consumer brands whose services are used daily by some 4m people, they are exposed to online conversations. What is the best operator? How fast is a network breakdown repaired? Is the customer service efficient? reliable? polite? Who's the fastest when it comes to fiber at home? To all these questions we can find an answer by diving into the conversation happening daily in forums, blogs, comments, facebook, twitter, youtube, instagram, media and more... In the first part of the document, you'll see how the battle of the telcos is faring. March has been an interesting month as an important social media crisis occured for Singtel with the Gushcloud campaign, involving the influent Singaporean blogger Xiaxue. We have analyzed this crisis and how the brands have managed it. In the second part, we spend more time to analyse the reputation of one of them (Starhub). We'll do more of these case studies to analyze different industries in Singapore and South-East Asia as we go. For feedback and inquiries, please contact us at hello@agencetesla.com or visit us at www.teslainsights.com.

1. Battle of the Telcos
How Singtel, Starhub, M1 and MyRepublic
fare online & on social media in Singapore
Tesla Insights March 2015

2. BATTLE OF
SOCIAL
MEDIA
LISTENING TO ONLINE CHATTER
- Which brand has the biggest share of voice
overall, and among influencers?
- Where customers talk of telcos, and where
are the most negative overall?
- What brand has the best and worst brand
perception among Singapore telcos?
- Who are the top Influencers discussing telcos
in Singapore?
- When it comes to Community Management,
which brand does it better, faster, or bigger?

3. BATTLE OF
SOCIAL
MEDIA
METHODOLOGY
Two radars opened:
- One to check mentions of each brand
- One to check mentions of Starhub +
specific keywords related to Pricing,
Customer Care, Product/Service,
Comparison (with other brands)…
One territory:
- Singapore
- In English only
- 1st March till 31st March
- All platforms: Websites, Facebook,
Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, Blogs,
Media, Forums
Why Radarly?
- Leader in Social media listening
technology
- 100+ emp company, 7 y.o
- Working globally with Danone,
McDonald’s, Adidas…

4. BATTLE OF
SOCIAL
MEDIA
WHO’S TALKING OF THE TELCOS?
• Exactly 7 337 mentions for the telcos in Singapore in just one month (without Facebook).
• Last month, most of the conversation happened on the forums. In response to the Gushcloud smear
campaign by Singtel, all 4 telcos and news channels shifted their conversations to Twitter in order to
respond to their customers individually.
Hello Gushcloud!

5. BATTLE OF
SOCIAL
MEDIA
WHO’S TALKING OF THE TELCOS?
How are these 7,337 mentions split
between brands?
• One third for Singtel (3,143)
• Half for Starhub (2,143)
• A small quarter for M1 (1,632)
• A small nothing for MyRepublic (1,007)
Mentions are not exclusive one from
another, as we’re going to see in a minute:
internet and social media users love to
compare everything!

6. BATTLE OF
SOCIAL
MEDIA
WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT US?
Conversations are markets, with recurring and seasonal topics. For the month of study, top topics include:
• Gushcloud smear campaign
• New data roaming plan from Singtel
• MyRepublic wanting to offer unlimited amount of data
• And the usual comparison of performance vs price vs engagement vs customer care!

7. BATTLE OF
SOCIAL
MEDIA
FOCUS ON TOP 300 MENTIONS
A long Twitter discussion between
MyRepublic and a customer about
international latency, inferior to competitors.
3
2
1
Peak of conversation after the Gushcloud
smear campaign revelations and
simultaneously the new illimited data plan
promised by MyRepublic.
2
Negative mentions have doubled this month
because of the Gushcloud smear campaign which
monopolized the conversation this month.
Other negative posts are mainly about poor
customer service and connection problems.
4
1 3
4
Positive mentions mainly refer to the promise from
MyRepublic of unlimited data plans.
(24.1% last month)

8. BATTLE OF
SOCIAL
MEDIA
FOCUS ON MY REPUBLIC TOP
MENTIONS
My Republic should have waited a bit more before announcing the promise of illimited data plan as it has
been lost in the noise of the Gushcloud campaign bad buzz. On the PR communication day, 18th of March,
only 50% of the mentions of telcos were reffering to their new plan.
Top 300 mentions Top mentions of My Republic
Hello Gushcloud! Promise of illimited data plan from
My Republic

9. BATTLE OF
SOCIAL
MEDIA
FOCUS ON NEGATIVE MENTIONS
It’s easy to transfer customer service on Twitter and avoid the bane of call-center, hated by all users.

10. BATTLE OF
SOCIAL
MEDIA
FOCUS ON THE GUSHCLOUD
SMEAR CAMPAIGN
4000 mentions have been referring to the
Gushcloud smear campaign, and 44% of the top
mentions (mentions with the highest reach) !
Let’s have a closer look to this bad buzz and
how the telcos answered to it.

11. BATTLE OF
SOCIAL
MEDIA
FOCUS ON THE GUSHCLOUD
SMEAR CAMPAIGN
On 14th of March, the influencial blogger Xiuxue, publishes in a blogpost the brief of the
agency Gushcloud asking bloggers to complain about competitors of Singtel. She also
publishes some of the tweets from these bloggers for this campaign.
Xiuxue’s blog got 40.000 visitors every day, which is almost similar to The Straits Times.

12. BATTLE OF
SOCIAL
MEDIA
FOCUS ON THE GUSHCLOUD
SMEAR CAMPAIGN
Quickly, the news is shared by followers of Xiaxue,
and talked in the forums and on Twitter.
They all ask SingTel to explain and call this behaviour
« unethical ».
Wah... SingTel must come out sexplain
Damn unethical...
The main media are sharing the information
themselves, interviwing the other telcos to get their
reaction.

13. BATTLE OF
SOCIAL
MEDIA
WHO DID TELCOS ANSWERED?
• On 17/03, Singtel and Gushcloud apologise for
Gushcloud campaign. Some bloggers also apologise.
• On 15/03, Singtel clarifies that they didn’t issue
the brief
• On 19/03, M1 and StarHub explore the possibility of
furthur action, and Singtel termines services of
Gushcloud, Gushcloud fires the employee involved
• On 31/03, Gushcloud draws up rules on good social
media marketing practices

14. BATTLE OF
SOCIAL
MEDIA
TELCOS ACTIONS ON SOCIAL MEDIA
All telcos lost Facebook fans as Facebook has announced that they will be deleting all unactive fake
accounts and therefore there is a drop in the number of fans.
MyRepublic, quite young, is progressing fast and didn't see any drop as they probably didn't have any
inactive accounts.
M1 surprisingly still not on Twitter.

15. BATTLE OF
SOCIAL
MEDIA
SO WHAT DO TELCOS DO??
MY Republic and Starhub increased E.R. on Facebook considerably, with new announcements (unlimited data),
participation in events (IT Shows), quizzes, promotions for popular shows, etc.
E.R. on Twitter decreased by half for Starhub and Singtel because no announcements or offers this month
compared to last month.
(*Engagement rate = Number of interactions from fans/followers divided by total number of fans/followers.
Decent engagement rate on social media are around 2%. Over 2% is usually promoted through Ads. Below 2%,
well… you don’t really give a reason for fans/followers to engage)

16. BATTLE OF
SOCIAL
MEDIA
BATTLE OF TOP 2 BRANDS
Both pages have increased their publications, and Starhub increased a lot the number of tweets but didn't get
more engagement on Twitter, which questions the quality of the tweets.
The decrease of Facebook fans is important and proves that many of them have been obtained by questionable
methods.
There’s a quick evolution of the CM strategies, which proves how important it is to follow competitors accounts
regularly.

17. BATTLE OF
SOCIAL
MEDIA
KEY TAKEWAYS – INDUSTRY LEVEL
1
ENGAGE PEOPLE CONSTANTLY
- Constantly engaging people on social media results in a
positive outlook for the brand, as they are your final
customer. Therefore, engage them positively, specially
through customer care.
2
LEARN FROM THE CROWD
- 6,449 mentions of telcos in 30 days is a lot: let us help
you refine the raw data into gold insights
- From Pricing to Product/Service ideas with strong
potential of segmentation, listening triggers a better way of
engaging customers

18. Focus on Starhub
What internet & social media users say
about Starhub in Singapore?
Tesla Insights March 2015

19. • 315 top mentions analyzed between 1st March and 31st March, 2015
• More representativity granted to Twitter and Facebook where the conversation is higher in volume.
Sudden spike in conversation around 13 March on all platforms due to the Gushcloud smear campaign
by Singtel.
WHO IS TALKING OF STARHUB?
BRAND
FOCUS

20. How are these 315 mentions split between
topics?
• First of all, the Gushcloud-Singtel
campaign monopolized the conversation
with 60% of the mentions!
• The majority of the conversation
COMPARES Starhub to other telcos,
with 3 times more negative comments
than positive!
• PRODUCTS & SERVICES comes 2nd
with 36.5% of top mentions (mainly
announcements, promotions).
• CUSTOMER CARE comes 3rd and
PRICES comes 4th.
WHO’S TALKING OF STARHUB?
BRAND
FOCUS

21. In the absence of strong key differentiator, triggers for a telco change include:
• Perceived price opportunity (promotions, seasonal plans & offers)
• Perceived service or care (customer care in particular)
• Perceived performance (speed, availability, breakdowns)
WHAT IS STARHUB WORTH VS INDUSTRY?
BRAND
FOCUS

22. Nothing scary between 1st March and 31st March for Starhub, similar to last month.
Listening on the long-run also allows to see strong variations in opinion & conversations. Alerts can be setup
in case too much of the conversation changes too fast (example “breakdown” or “down” or “broken” jumps
from 5% to 25% of the volume of conversations about “Starhub”)
TOP KEYWORDS ASSOCIATED W/ STARHUB
BRAND
FOCUS

23. Starhub’s most popular mentions came from
the Gushcloud campaign and how it has
publicly accepted Singtel’s apology, as well as
taking legal action against Singtel. Famous
blogger Xiaxue has mentioned Starhub in
most of her Facebook and blog posts.
That’s why majority of the mentions are
neutral for Starhub.
1 A lot of negative mentions are on the quality of
service- specifically mobile broadband and home
wifi (breakdowns, mistakes in invoicing) and poor
customer care. However, some queries are
answered over Twitter.
3
Positive mentions came from tourists who enjoyed
fast speed connectivity and some customers who
compared Singtel to Starhub and preferred
Starhub’s products and customer service.
4
3
STARHUB’S TOP 300 MENTIONS
BRAND
FOCUS
1
3
2
2

24. NEGATIVE MENTIONS ABOUT STARHUB
BRAND
FOCUS

25. BREAKDOWN OF SENTIMENT FOR STARHUB
0%
Price Billing
Product/
Service
Customer
Care
Comparis
on
News/PR
+
-
7.7%
BRAND
FOCUS
2.8%
12.5%
5.3%
14.7%
0%
2.6%
0%
0%
2.1%
7%
This table reads as follow: 12.5% of internet users who talked about the Price of Starhub products & services did so in a negative way
(criticizing the brand or talking about it in a lesser way than competition)
It’s alarming that last month’s analysis, there was more positive comments comparing with other brands
while there are more negative comments this time.

26. Starhub publications on Twitter have increased by 135% compared to last month but the tweets are clearly
not engaging as the Twitter number of retweets and comments have decreased by 16% !
Publications on FB have better engaged the fans with an increase in the conversation by 94%.
No use at all of rich media (video) on Facebook.
STARHUB & ITS SOCIAL MEDIA ASSETS
BRAND
FOCUS

27. These are the 5 most influential Twitter accounts who mentioned (positively in green, neutrally in grey, or
negatively in red) Starhub in March. Usually about the Gushcloud smear campaign.
TOP INFLUENCERS MENTIONING STARHUB
BRAND
FOCUS

28. BATTLE OF
SOCIAL
MEDIA
KEY TAKEWAYS – STARHUB LEVEL
1
WATCH FOR SWITCHERS
- When people hesitate and compare offers, don’t let
them without information or commercial contact
- One win for you = one loss for competition!
2
TRANSFER CRM FROM VOICE TO TWITTER
- Phone calls to the customer service are lengthy, even
if they solve the issue, it’s too long
- Switch the customer service on Twitter, where it’s
faster and more convenient for users

29. Thank you !
Let your customers decide your next move.
Go where they express emotions.
Let us help you refine the raw data into gold insights.
About Tesla Insights
We are offering actionable social media insights to help you connect with your customers main concerns,
passions and aspirations, in Asian markets.
Please do get in touch for more custom social media insights for your own needs:
www.teslainsights.com
insights@agencetesla.com