Online Explosion

In this day and age where online rules supreme, you can really do anything or be anyone you want. And no, we’re not alluding to the possibility that SexyBabe112 might be a hairy, middle-aged man. We’re talking about how so many of us are becoming experts in maximizing the potential of the internet. Of course, we’ve heard it all before of how some little known band in the UK suddenly becomes the Next Big Thing overnight thanks to their MySpace account. Closer to home, we’ve seen how an entry on a popular blog can escalate into a topic of nationwide debate. And do we even have to wax lyrical about how Facebook Events have injected much-needed excitement into our social lives? The stories of people finding recognition through their online endeavors are increasing everyday and with that in mind, KLue shares the stories of a few individuals who are using the WWW to great effect.

KokoKaina
The YouTube Phenom
Weapon of choice: YouTube

KokoKaina, real name Zee, really takes the term “bedroom singer” to another level. With a basic webcam and a headset, Zee broadcasted herself singing from her bedroom by way of YouTube. We first wrote about Zee in February 2008 after following the buzz online surrounding her video for No Christmas For Me, an original composition that was handpicked by the YouTube team to be featured on their homepage. It was a huge deal for Zee and led to over 600,000 views for that video alone and thousands of new subscribers. Naturally, fan mail and even record offers started pouring in after that.

But there was one mail that totally threw Zee off her tracks and it was from Ian Montone, owner of Monotone Management (home of The Shins, M.I.A and Vampire Weekend) and personal manager to the White Stripes. “I couldn’t believe it, so I Googled him and Wikipedia-ed him and turns out he was legitimate! Next thing I knew, he called and we started speaking and soon, I was on a plane to Los Angeles,” recalls Zee enthusiastically. She is currently signed to Brushfire Records, the independent label which has artistes like Matt Costa, Rogue Wave and of course Jack Johnson on their roster. Zee spent a week and a half in L.A where she recorded 10 tracks as the groundwork for an impending album. “It was so surreal. I was watching a Jack Johnson video the other day and he filmed it where I recorded [my songs]. Also, the sessionists who played for me, they were his [Jack Johnson’s] own band.”

With everything happening so fast, Zee found herself the subject of much speculation and rumours, many of them untrue. “Blogs are saying that I live in Kelana Jaya (I don’t), that I’m under White Stripes’s label or that I’m Jack Johnson’s discovery. I’d just like to make things clear that he [Johnson] did not discover me. I haven’t even met the guy. Patrick Keeler, drummer for The Raconteurs, was the one who recommended my video to Ian, who manages the White Stripes,” explains Zee, setting the record straight.

Though she can’t reveal much about her upcoming album as she’s still in the midst of recording it, Zee does say that the album will show another facet of her songs, giving listeners something different from the raw material that they’ve been used to hearing on YouTube. Does she feel guilty that she achieved all this without really gigging all that much? “It’s true that I haven’t been in the singer-songwriter circuit. I’m just a girl who records herself from her bedroom. But every time I do that, I’m performing to 5,000 people,” she begins, “I think that if you work hard enough, you’ll get noticed. The way I see, you don’t try to get into the music industry. If you’re good enough, they’ll want you.”

And since she’s already achieved so much in so little time, we asked her: how would you know when you’ve made it? The true blue Malaysian answers without hesitation, “When people start selling pirated versions of my CD, haha! But eh, don’t lah!”

Infynyte PR
The Party Starters
Weapon of choice: Facebook

If you’re on Facebook, ever seen events like Consequential Lovers Club (CLC), KL Undercover, Sykosis and Cat Got Your Tongue pop up on your News Feed (and let’s face it, who isn’t on Facebook these days)? As different as these parties are in concept, the one thing they have in common is Infynyte PR. The duo behind Infynyte are Biresh Vrajlal and Jay Subramaniam (not pictured) and they’ve been responsible for giving clubbers choices for a night out; nights that aren’t tied down to clubs but instead thrive on the different concepts that each presents, no matter where it’s held.

Infynyte originally approached clubs to sell their ideas for conceptual nights but many were skeptical of its potential success. There were a couple of reasons why: firstly, clubs usually have their own in-house crew who comes up with new nights. Secondly, Biresh and Jay’s intention of having their events on a monthly basis was met with doubts from clubs, who were still harking on traditional ideals of weekly nights. “After a while, we decided that instead of us approaching sponsors for our ideas, we were going to do these events ourselves without any sponsorship, but with support of the clubs in terms of venue hosting.”

That proved to a good idea as soon after, Infynyte was being approached by different individuals who had ideas for a party but needed help in execution. Big-haired Bo for example, wanted to throw a singles party for the younger set (the result is CLC) while KL Undercover is a night of real, in-yer-face hip-hop spearheaded by Kevin Yeoh. Infynyte comes in as consultants by working with these people on their angles and brand consistency. They also help secure venue sponsors for the nights and make sure that they receive proper exposure.

Since they were funding the parties out of their own pocket, they had virtually no budget for advertising and promotion. So, they decided to do it the viral way by marketing it online. Infynyte already had a database of e-mail addresses that they sent out flyers to in an effort to generate buzz. Biresh also says that they made use of MySpace and Friendster. But they hit jackpot when Facebook starting gaining popularity in town.

Biresh, who at first resisted the lure of Facebook, can’t help waxing lyrical about the social networking site’s marketing potential. “It’s a godsent. It just made everything ten times easier. I hope the founder doesn’t wise up and start charging me money for it,” he jokes. “But even the big clubs are using Facebook to promote their events these days, to much success.”

Evidently, Infynyte’s reputation as an events organizer is steadily rising as they recently sold an idea for a conceptual night to a popular bar in the city. In the future, look out for more events by the duo as they’re trading in the corporate world for the business of clubs, fashion and music. If it’s one thing they’ve noticed from throwing parties is that KL’s clubbers are starved from having fun as people seem to go clubbing to be seen. Infynyte hopes to change that mentality by bringing back some good ol’ fashioned fun in our nights.

Threads Zoo
The Fashion Animals
Weapon of choice: Blogs, Facebook

In the last year, we’ve noticed the crazy growth of shopping blogs. We are of course talking about blogs set up specifically for the reason of selling clothes, new and secondhand. While more is always merrier (especially when it comes to clothes), the abundance of these blogs has made it harder for first-time customers to trust the reliability of some of the bloggers. It’s not hard to see why: anyone can own a shopping blog given the ease of setting up a blog account. That’s where Threads Zoo comes in.

Founded by Deanna Ibrahim (aka Dee) and Chan Wei Chien, the two self-described slackers and dreamers were college mates who came up with the idea for Threads Zoo by happenstance. Dee had her own blog selling items but business was slow and she was buying more than she could sell off. While browsing local shopping forum Sell Trade KL (www.community.livejournal.com/selltrade_kl), Dee discovered more bloggers like her and that was when the idea for Threads Zoo dawned on her. “I thought, why not gather all these people and have an impulsive sale so we can clean out our stock?”

The first Threads Zoo gathering was a small meeting of seven vendors but by the time their second meet came around, they had close to 20 vendors and an inbox full of vendors requesting to be part of their event. They could barely fit everyone into the venue as the response was overwhelming.

While fashion bazaars and flea markets are occurring more often in the city these days, the Zookeepers say that what makes Threads Zoo different is their focus on “bedroom fashion bloggers and shoppers”. So whenever a Threads Zoo meet happens, it’s a lot like a gathering of familiar faces as everyone has, one way or another, been to the other’s blog. It is without doubt a plum networking opportunity for the bloggers as well as their customers.

Although they had not expected it, the increase in participating vendors also contributed greatly to more people coming for the second gathering. The vendors would post up announcements that they’ll be present at Threads Zoo on their blog, igniting curiousity in their readers who would then go on to the official Threads Zoo blog to find out more. From there, hype was built and word of mouth spread across the blogosphere, creating more awareness for their event. Dee also admits that she actively frequents the blogs of those who leave comments on the Threads Zoo blog, and engages with the owners and their readers through the comment box.

And while it seems so typical to mention this, the Zookeepers also credit Facebook to the growing success of their meets. While planning the inaugural Threads Zoo meet, someone else created an event posting for them but for the second meet, the girls themselves went full force with the promotion on Facebook. It helped that they had support from the mainstream media too, namely R.AGE and Star Metro.

With their third meet just, the girls say they have loads of plans in the pipeline and mentions the possibility of a permanent lot. Although Threads Zoo is getting bigger with every meet, Dee and Wei Chien are perfectly happy doing it just for fun right now.

RandomActs
The Flash Mobsters
Weapon of choice: Facebook and their own website

In April, one event took place that had the city talking for days. KL Freeze in Unison (KLFU) happened one Sunday afternoon at the Bintang Circle in Pavilion. The event, although it was supposed to very hush-hush, drew a massive crowd of over 1,000 people. For four minutes in the city, friends, family and strangers stopped moving and posed, much to the amusement and confusion of those who weren’t in on the secret.

While the whole idea of flash mobs isn’t a foreign concept, it’s safe to say that none was met with the numbers that KLFU enjoyed. All this just from one little posting on Facebook. Frontman of RandomActs (the organizing team), 24-year-old Zain HD explains: “One of our partners for KL Freeze, United Colours of Malaysia, has over 4,000 members in their group. I sent out an invitation for KLFU six days before the event on 4am, Monday. By Saturday afternoon, over 13,000 people had been invited! People just kept inviting their friends, who invited their friends.” RandomActs also aggressively promoted KLFU on their website (www.randomalphabets.com), making the event accessible to those not on Facebook as well.

Inspired by the Freezes in New York City and London, RandomActs adapted the concept from Improv Everywhere, an unorthodox comedy group based in NYC whose slogan is “We Cause Scenes”. One of the main differences that RandomActs added to the original Freeze was the mission statement that reads: “Where human beings get together to do something in unision, without speeches or reference to their age, colour, sex, beliefs and background.”

Zain is quick to note the importance of that statement. While flash mobs are perhaps just a matter of fun for most people, Zain sees it as a way to truly bring different demographics together regardless of nationality, gender, beliefs and age. “During the Freeze for World Earth Day [in Sunway Pyramid], there was a 60-year-old grandmother who was freezing as well. We thought she was just sitting down but we got it on video that she didn’t even move!” He also recalls a backpacker who was on a trip around the world when he heard of KLFU – he changed his flight, attended the Freeze before flying out the next day.

It is instances like these that make all the hard work Zain and his committee puts in worthwhile. It may seem simple on the surface (meet at a point, and freeze!) but the preparation before a flash mob on this scale is intense. Besides the constant check-ups on the Freeze location, Zain had a million calls to make, his own research to study and e-mails, messages and Facebook wall posts to read. “Some people say it’s stupid [because there will always be criticism], but I entertain each and every message that I receive. I don’t want to ignore the critics; I want them to be part of this as well.”
Riding on the success of Freeze and KLX (similar to Improv Everywhere’s MP3), RandomActs will continue to plan and execute impromptu gatherings (flash mob or not) in the name of good, clean, random fun. They’re currently working with NGOs to help them draw a crowd and create publicity. For all the hard work and stress that comes with organizing events like these, RandomActs should be applauded for doing them all pro bono.
 
Text Sarah Chan Photos Shermen Mukhtar

Article taken from KLue July 2008, Issue 117