Microwire.info is a news and media information platform of McGallen & Bolden Group, and in conjunction with the video blog microwire.tv (a project by the agency's creative director Seamus), to help propagate clients' news in Asia Pacific and beyond.
The agency's clients are diverse, from sectors such as enterprise technology, Internet security, consumer electronics, fashion, lifestyle, retail, medical, and other industrial markets.
The websites make good use of social sharing on prominent social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc, and provide means for journalists and content producers to share or adapt such content to their audiences/readers. Microwire.tv also hosts video livestreaming and on-demand content for client events, including media launches, brand launch events, media interviews, and celebrity events.
The emergence of non-textual content, such as infographics, shareable slide presentations, audio and video, are progressively worked on by the agency for clients and shared on these platforms.
On the associated video blog microwire.tv, there are also product reviews of gadgets and photographic equipment. The videos are simultaneously hosted on Wistia (with transcription for select content), Vimeo (as backup), and occasionally, also to other video platforms as requested by clients.
The microwire.info platform is an effective small news distribution platform for clients today, especially providing the agency's clients with an additonal news outreach platform. For some clients without an existing web or even social presence, the microwire.info and microwire.tv video platform become important information repositories, often their only means to reach out to the digital audience.
SMALL TEAM, BIG EXPERTISE
As a small agency founded in the 1990s, we bucked the traditional approach of outsourcing information technology (IT) and digital media needs to third-party vendors. Our agency has always believed that skillsets, expertise and knowledge should be intrinsic within the agency, and that even if projects are outsourced to third-party vendors, we would have the capabilities to back up such vendors should projects face challenges, and also be able to brief and manage such vendors effectively for our paying clients.
Therefore, much of the traditional agency skillsets and expertise, such as public relations, advertising, direct marketing, event management, training and development (which includes media training, crisis communication training, and leadership training), are retained within the agency's team of principals (more than 50 years of combined experience).
INTERNET PIONEERS SINCE 1996
In the pioneering year of 1996 when Internet became commercially available in Singapore, we were one of the first small agencies to take on Internet consulting in a pioneering way, providing services in website design, web hosting, app development (Java and Javascript), and later on, even venturing on to mailserver security development (using the Cobalt Qube running a UNIX operating system).
We became experienced in UNIX and UNIX-like systems, which led to our eventual expertise in providing all manners of Internet services for clients. We are also Mac experts, having used Macs since the 1980s, and developed custom applications using hypertext and FileMaker for our in-house usage. For our expertise in managing and developing in-house Information technology applications, we were an Intelligent20 Finalist (honored by the organizer then, the Intelligent Enterprise Asia magazine).
With the advent of social media, digital media such as audio podcasts and online video, our team has picked up independently the skillsets and expertise on top of serving our clients, to empower our team to be able to serve clients directly in the development of social media and digital media campaigns and projects. Our team is capable of producing documentary-style videos, managing social media apps, develop content management systems, maintain back-end infrastructure and security, and even develop content-centric mobile apps (from web apps, to hybrid apps). This new and emerging expertise allows our agency to provide holistic communication offerings for our clients.
DIGITAL NEWSROOM
The project of microwire.info (as an online newsroom and news distribution platform), and our sister project microwire.tv, a video blog, are part of the digital ecosystem of our offerings. These projects are a culmination of our deep-rooted Internet consulting experience since the 1990s.
Such sites are optimized and provide means for journalists to extract downloadable materials of clients for their direct use (whether for print or online reporting), as well as to share such entries. In turn, our clients benefit from another channel of content and brand outreach.
BRAND BUILDERS FOR TOP LEADERS
As a small holistic public relations (PR) and digital media agency, we have launched and developed many successful brands from their inception in Singapore and Asia. Some companies we have consulted for, from areas such as PR, to marketing and Internet services, include:
- Check Point Software (global Internet security leader); worked with since 1994;
- Plantronics (global audio communications leader); worked with since 2005;
Other brands we helped launch from scratch in Singapore include: Crocs, Earle Swensen's Restaurants, Ron Kaufman, AsiaMedic, B&O Play, Codenomicon, ILOG (now part of IBM), Nakamichi personal audio, ACE by Spring Singapore (a national government initiative for entrepreneurship), Motorcar Race Team ThunderAsia and Melvin Choo, Sumitomo Electric networking products, Mitsubishi Electric displays, etc.
Our spectrum of client successes can be found at Shocase, and on our website.
We are geeks, and proud of it. We love technology, and harness it. While there may be big boys out there, this entry is a testimony that small shops can compete with technology as an enabler and equalizer too.
PS - You can view our timeline of expertise and practice areas.
