While internet availability and stability across Thailand varies, these does not stop companies and organizations from trying new marketing campaigns on upcoming platforms. Here, we have raised several case studies to exhibit how social media is being leveraged on by businesses.

1. Tourism Authority of Thailand

Thailand is slowing evolving by embracing social media more than before. One such example is Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT). Recently they have launched a worldwide marketing campaign targeting web savvy users called The Ultimate Thailand Explorers. The aim of this campaign Mrs Juthaporn Rerngrosana, Tourism Authority of Thailand Deputy Governor for Marketing Communication explained the reasoning behind the event: “The tourism industry has been affected from frequently false and certainly exaggerated information about the political instability in Thailand, much of which has been spread over the internet.” The campaign was being aired worldwide especially those found online such as blogs, social networking sites and these had made an impact on tourist's and their travel making decisions. Of course this campaign does promote Thailand’s top 5 destinations, namely Bangkok, ******, Pattaya, Chiang Mai and Koh Samui via various social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or blogs. The finalist teams will get to explore their selected destination and as a requirement of the contest, also share their experience through the use of social media tools, be it photos, videos and travel stories. Eventually the team with the most votes will be crowned winner and walk away with fabulous prizes. With this example, it shows that Thailand is making efforts to promote the use of social media in the country. With a contest like this, not only web savvy people are attracted but other visitors to the site as well will be able to see their pictures posted online and videos of their journey. This campaign serves as a travel diary for all to see firsthand. We can see from this campaign that Thailand has realized the power and use of social media. As more and more tourist become web savvy, Thailand has to keep up with the trends and this marketing campaign is just one of the many initiatives that the government is doing to promote the use of Web 2.0 and social media. For more analysis, listen to our podcast discussion on this campaign.

The main tourism website also has links to various blogs written by a writer from Tourism Authority of Thailand and the other written by Eugene Tang. In those blogs, you will have pictures and videos of the various events and places of interest of Thailand in general. This blog serves as a purpose to promote Thailand and to keep visitors to Thailand updated of the various events that are happening around Thailand in a more informal basis. Also you get more information about what to see and do at the destination as highlights of the place is written up.

2. Movieseer

MovieSeer Limited is a leading Southeast Asian provider of mobile phone content and information services based out of Bangkok. The main goal in setting up the company was to get movie information available to consumers. They began with a Web 1.0 site on the Internet providing localised information on movies to consumers. Following that, they moved towards the mobile platform to reach consumers. They shared that they do have plans to move towards the Web 2.0 arena.

No matter whether it is via the Internet or mobile, Movieseer is seeking to move towards including the social aspect. The first layer is information such as movie timings, the second layer is content such as trailers and wallpapers, and finally they are integrating social media as well for example by sharing your favourite movies or movie reviews with people in your social circle.

Mr. Roy D.Chapin IV, CEO of MovieSeer, brought up the point that once the Thai people get on to something, they get really obsessed and talk about it. Hence it is very important to let people create their own fan-sites on mobile and the Internet so that they can create their own community around it. This brings up the importance of user-generated content, especially in a collectivistic society like Thailand.

Mr. Chapin also brought up a point that mobile companies are very policed and strict but the Internet is a much more relaxed place. The ultimate goal is to let the users monitor themselves in a group. For example, reporting persons or messages. You want to let the group decide what they want to talk about it. It is about giving the users their own choice within
the group, but you can give them the option to decide.

Also, a possible reason why the technology-media scene is not as developed in Thailand is that they don’t have a lot of angel investors to back-up any developments as they do not see much benefits of it. This is because, to them, the technology is new and more pertinantly, the business model has not yet been proven. However, Mr. Chapin believes that in time to come, there will be a big explosion on the Thai blogging scene.

3. Salads Club

The Salads Club represents an original series of character creation created by a Thai company. This series of adorable characters will soon be introduced worldwide and to every household. To create buzz, the company created a website to allow viewers to learn more about the characters.
The website provides a range of products and animated movies and clips and also allows viewers to download wallpapers, mobile phone themes, animated gifs, e-cards and even dolls or figures in time to come.

In addition, they tapped into Web 2.0 and interacted with the Asia region audiences by creating their presence on Salads Club Facebook and Salads Club Hi5 groups. For example, the administrators asked their Facebook group members what they like to see the company produce and the members do reply with suggestions like a “sugar cane character”. They also made use of Facebook to announce new character’s emoticons to evolve interest in the audience.

4. The Scholar-Activist Nexus

The Scholar-Activist Nexus is a case study of the Thai Media Policy.

This is a power point presentation slides on the case study of the Thai Media Policy from the Social Science Research Council - Media Research Hub. It shows the social movement that advocates for media reform in Thailand from day one. It shows the debating of the social media issues to the reforming and movement of social media in Thailand as well as the Thai-MPAC activities in Thailand.

It also shows a particular wordpress blog on FACT - Freedom against Censorship Thailand. The blog has the most recent update of all activities involving the social media in Thailand.