Advertising + Marketing MY - Jan/Feb 2014 by Marketing Magazine Group

advertising + marketing malaysia

JAN/FEB

2014

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014

CEO MICHAEL CHAN ON MAKING BLOOMBERG TV MALAYSIA THE NO.1 NEWS CHANNEL PAGE 24

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THE BIG BUSINESS OF FAKING LIKES PAGE 28 THE VIBRANCY OF VIZEUM PAGE 36

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Learning Management Systems « FEATURE

October 2013 « Human Resources Malaysia «

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ED’S LETTER

www.marketing-interactive.com Editorial Vivian Chong, Editor vivianc@marketing-interactive.com Pam Kaur, Journalist parminderjitk@marketing-interactive.com Natasha Arul, Journalist natashaa@marketing-interactive.com Editorial - International Rayana Pandey, Editor (Singapore) rayanap@marketing-interactive.com Matt Eaton, Editor (Hong Kong) matte@marketing-interactive.com Oliver Bayani, Editor (Philippines) oliverb@marketing-interactive.com Contributing Photographer Azhar Ariff Production and Design Khairul Hasbullah, Senior Designer khairul@lighthousemedia.com.sg Advertising Sales – Malaysia Ginnee Leong, Head of Sales ginneel@marketing-interactive.com Alby Thum, Account Manager albyt@marketing-interactive.com Advertising Sales – International Che Winstrom, Sales Manager (Singapore) chew@marketing-interactive.com Josi Yan, Sales Director (Hong Kong) josiy@marketing-interactive.com Yeo Wei Qi, Head, Events Services weiqi@marketing-interactive.com Marketing June Tan, Regional Marketing Executive junet@lighthousemedia.com.sg Finance Evelyn Wong, Regional Finance Director evelynw@lighthousemedia.com.sg Management Aravind Menon, General Manager (Malaysia) aravindm@marketing-interactive.com Tony Kelly, Editorial Director tk@marketing-interactive.com Justin Randles, Publisher

Advertising + Marketing Malaysia is published 12 times per year by Lighthouse Independent Media Pte Ltd PP 16093/12/2011 (026708). Printed in Malaysia on CTP process by Atlas Cetak (M) Sdn Bhd No. 2 Persiaran Industri, Bandar Sri Damansara, 52200 Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur. Tel: 03-6273 3333. For subscriptions, contact circulations at +65 6423 0329 or email subscriptions@marketing-interactive.com. COPYRIGHT & REPRINTS: All material printed in Advertising + Marketing Malaysia is protected under the copyright act. All rights reserved. No material may be reproduced in part or in whole without the prior written consent of the publisher and copyright holder. Permission may be requested through the Singapore office. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in Advertising + Marketing Malaysia are not necessarily the views of the publisher. Malaysia: Lighthouse Independent Media Sdn Bhd, Suite 11.7 11th Floor, Bangunan Yee Seng 15 Jalan Raja Chulan, 50200 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia Tel: +603 2072 0355 Fax: +603 2072 0395 Singapore: Lighthouse Independent Media Pte Ltd 100C Pasir Panjang Road, #05-01 See Hoy Chan Hub Singapore 118519 Tel: +65 6423 0329 Fax: +65 6423 0117 Hong Kong: Lighthouse Independent Media Ltd Unit A, 7/F, Wah Kit Commercial Building 302 Des Voeux Road Central, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong Tel: +852 2861 1882 Fax: +852 2861 1336 To subscribe to A+M Malaysia magazine, go to: www.marketing-interactive.com

IN A STATE OF ENDURANCE Cue the cliché use of the word “gallop” in every press release and news article as we enter the Year of the Horse. On my free weekends, I trek up to Cherating, Pahang and ride endurance horses. After a year of lessons, I’m still unable to get into a smooth canter, let alone a slow gallop. In equestrian riding, especially in the category of endurance, galloping at high speed isn’t encouraged. During a race, the horse and jockey have to stay mounted and going for hours – crossing shallow rivers, inching downhill, swaying left to right to avoid branches. It’s strategic. And all through the competition, both the animal and human must endure, think creatively and maintain constant communication. January has been an enduring month for my publication – both on marketinginteractive.com and in print. My cover feature, a profile on Michael Chan, CEO of Bloomberg TV Malaysia (page 24), was requested last year. After a long process of exchanges and patient waiting, Bloomberg HQ agreed. I conducted the interview the day before I needed to go to print. Despite the tight time frame, I didn’t regret my decision to start the year with such an inspiring and evolved personality. I wanted to set the tone for what’s to come in 2014.

Advertising and marketing in this digital age will require some endurance. There are so many uncertainties, yet research after research reflects the wide success of campaigns that decide to go digital – some marketers even boldly request digital-only campaigns. We’ve only just begun to break down the influence of online and mobile ad spend, but perhaps our News Analysis (page 10) for the month can shed some light. The shift into the digital sphere is going to happen – whether technologies, marketers or consumers pull agencies by their legs and teeth to do so. But haste not. Digital media is in a phase of endurance. Time will give it value; time will tell whether it is here to stay. I hope you enjoy the issue.

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Vivian Chong Editor

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CONTENTS advertising + marketing malaysia

JAN/FEB

2014

16 LOCAL HERO: BUUMERANG BRANDZ

Being the new kid on the block is never easy. KJ Tham on how to keep business coming back to the new agency.

18 OUT TO LUNCH: BOOKXCESS JANUARY 2014

The creators of the Big Bad Wolf book sales have only one goal in mind: growth. Find out what their plans are. CEO MICHAEL CHAN ON MAKING BLOOMBERG TV MALAYSIA THE NO.1 NEWS CHANNEL PAGE 24

24 PROFILE: DEFINING MALAYSIAN BUSINESS, THE BLOOMBERG WAY

THE BIG BUSINESS OF FAKING LIKES PAGE 28 THE VIBRANCY OF VIZEUM PAGE 36

Michael Chan, CEO of Bloomberg TV Malaysia, tells Vivian Chong why he won’t rest on his laurels, but instead, aspire to be number one.

26 FEATURE: THE BIG BUSINESS OF FAKING LIKES

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On the cover “The content strategy will be formulated against what we believe is our core target market and the market we want to attract.” – Michael Chan.

Celebrities and businesses have bought fans and followers just to gain clout online. Flip the pages to find out exactly what faking likes is actually costing brands.

OPINION

DEPARTMENTS

12 LIKES, BUT NOT REALLY LIKED

Dominic Wong, digital account director at FleishmanHillard, on why clients are at a disadvantage when measuring return based on fan Likes.

6 NEWS

The European Commission signed off on the pending merger between Publicis Groupe and Omnicom, further clearing the way for the creation of the industry’s largest holding company.

8 NEW WORK

The Entertainer app and voucher book have arrived in Malaysia, providing over 825 “buy one get one free” offers from the city’s dining, leisure, wellness and entertainment venues.

36 THINK TANK

Vizeum Malaysia reveals its brightness and vibrancy through its workplace.

16 4 What you’ll learn in this issue: >> Branded content is the way forward. >> Faking Likes on social media will cost your brand more than money. >> 10pm is the hour to target Malaysian consumers on digital platforms. 2 adverti s i ng + marketing | JA N UA RY / F E B R UA RY 2014

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NEWS

A MONTH

IN NEWS Cheil Worldwide in Malaysia Cheil Worldwide has set up home in Malaysia, expanding its global reach to 41 offices across 35 countries. The Malaysian office will be a full service agency with more than 20 talents to drive creative solutions, working with clients such as Samsung, AIG and Hankook Tire. Operations will be headed by Bong Keun Lee (pictured), managing director of Cheil Malaysia. “All these resources will be able to complement the traditional agency offering of ATL and BTL in order to ensure we provide the integrated creative solutions-based communication that Malaysian marketers are increasingly asking for.”

ELLE launches site ELLE Malaysia has splashed into the digital world launching elle. my and the ELLE Malaysia app. The website will feature the latest fashion trends and a daily dose of ELLE’s readers preferred topics. Enthusiasts of the female title will also have the option to enrol for a MY ELLE Club membership, which entitles subscribers to exclusive contests, giveaways, sales and information on events happening throughout the peninsula.

Live debt free Bank Simpanan Nasional (BSN) released a campaign to encourage Malaysian youths to live debt free. “You Against Debt” began the last week of November, staged with a mock demonstration calling for the end of debt. The event featured a man dressed as an executive with the word “debt” chained to his leg. Flyers were handed out asking the public to join in the movement. Saatchi & Saatchi Malaysia was responsible for the campaign.

CAREton doubles collection CAREton Project, an initiative launched by Nestlé and Tetra Pak, has completed its annual collection with results doubling from 1.65 million used beverage cartons to 3.62 million. The campaign aimed to collect and recycle used beverage cartons into roofing tiles, which were then used to construct homes for underprivileged Orang Asli families. “The CAREton Project builds on our continuous efforts to educate the public that beverage cartons are fully recyclable. Consistent with Tetra Pak’s philosophy that a carton keeps on giving, this year’s collection yield translates to 460 roofing tiles, enough to put a roof over 10 families in need,” said Terrynz Tan, environment and communications director of Tetra Pak.

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Komli Media new platform Digital media technology platform Komli Media has launched a remarketing demand side platform. The RDSP aims to convert site visitors into loyal customers, with full transparency and management of media costs, customer data, campaign strategies and performance analytics. Ashwin Puri, VP of remarketing at Komli Media, said: “We are seeing remarketing spends for most performance advertisers increase rapidly and it will soon be one of the largest channels for digital performance advertising.”

Allianz gets personal Allianz has launched its campaign, “Let’s Get Personal”, a new approach to market its series of products to launch during 2014. Let’s Get Personal will see Allianz reduce its premium on its roadside assistance products as well as additional coverage for all its personal accident protection clients. Three more products are set to launch in the coming months. In line with the campaign, Allianz also introduced “The Craziest Selfie” Instagram contest, open to the public from 15 January to 15 February, with three Samsung Note 3 and three iPad mini’s as incentives. Uber app rides into KL Uber, a mobile app developed in the US that connects passengers with drivers, has announced its release in Kuala Lumpur. Sam Gellman, head of Asia expansion for Uber, said the lifestyle play app’s core vision is to provide passengers with a convenient and luxurious experience when it comes to transportation. “The point-topoint transportation space lacked choice. Prior to Uber entering the market, passengers would have to book in advance, have the private taxi company number on hand, and negotiate a fare. Our app provides customers with choice.”

Casio’s new subsidiary Casio has marked another territory to its regional expansion with Casio Malaysia, a wholly owned subsidiary. This is the company’s third office in the region, with others in Singapore and Jakarta. The move will enable Casio to create new retail channels, work with local partners and conduct in-depth market research as well as promotional, sales and marketing activities relevant to Malaysian consumers. Sezai Hiroyuki, managing director of Casio Malaysia, said Malaysia’s market size, growing economy, rising affluence and consumer spending are key elements to its growth plans. Brands that will hit the market are G-SHOCK, Baby-G, EDIFICE, SHEEN, PRO TREK, Labemo, and Casio-branded printers, label tapes and calculators. MAS terminates LA route MAS Airlines has announced the termination of its flight route to Los Angeles, US, effective 30 April. In a statement, MAS said it would invest in Asia going forward because it believes the travel market is much larger and stronger in the region. “Whilst MAS has a long history in Los Angeles, the route is no longer economically viable,” said Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, group chief executive officer. MAS attributed its decision to cancel the long-haul flight to the western coast of the US to the growing middle class and increased global and intra-regional trade within Asia. To secure the growing China market, the airline will increase its frequency to key regional cities to answer the growth of demand. WWW. MARK E TI N G- I N TE RAC TI VE . C OM

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NEWS

Johnnie Walker’s Sw1tch Sw1tch Strategies has won the Johnnie Walker brand awareness campaign account beating seven agencies. Relatively new to the industry, Sw1tch said it won the account based on brand experiential. Sw1tch’s director, Hemanth Jayaraman, who has been working with the brand for nine years, said the ideas he had for the brand was based on experiences. “Johnnie Walker has a spot in my heart. As an agency we are inspired to introduce the brand as more than just an alcoholic drink, but as a brand that cares.”

Road safety initiative PLUS and Media Prima Digital have partnered for Malaysians Unite For Road Safety (MUFORS), a movement spearheaded by PLUS to promote road safety practices. The online campaign encourages the public to submit their road safety pledges via MUFORS’ Facebook page. Dato’ Noorizah Hj Abd Hamid, managing director of PLUS, said the pledge campaign was for people to submit their most creative and best road safety pledges. “Road safety remains as the most important aspect in our highway services. As such, we have organised various road safety programmes and initiatives to educate the public to promote road safety. We aim to make road safety a culture.” WW W . MA R K ET I N G - I N T ERA C T IV E.C O M

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Intel and YTL empower education YTL Communications and Intel Malaysia inked an agreement to introduce Intel-based integrated 4G laptops and tablets solutions for the education sector in Malaysia. The MoU was signed to accelerate progress in the 1BestariNet Programme, which seeks to bring cloud-based virtual learning platforms and high-speed internet to 10,000 schools nationwide. Tan Sri Dato’ (Dr) Francis Yeoh, managing director of YTL Group, said: “We believe access to knowledge via quality internet connectivity should be readily available to all Malaysians, particularly Malaysia’s next generation.” He elaborated by praising Intel’s technology innovation in enabling next-generation mobile devices and the substantial efforts it is putting into the Chrome and Android ecosystem. 1BesteriNet is one example of a large-scale education initiative that utilises the web, driving the cause of technology and making a positive and lasting impact on the next generation.

Adding some new Spark Zed Spark, a branch of Y&R Malaysia, has several new hires from its talent development programmes which recruits graduates from various universities throughout the country. The new hires are an initiative to connect with Malaysia’s young consumers, with Alyssa Teh as planner, Adhawiyah (Dawiy) Binti Hussin as account executive, Elaine Poh as junior art director and designer Hazel Ting. Managing director of Y&R Malaysia Lisa Hezila said: “We sought out young talents who are driven, entrepreneurialminded, creative and passionate. Our mission is to train and enhance their skills and knowledge to succeed in the communication industry.”

Yahoo launches Style Factor Yahoo Malaysia has launched Style Factor Malaysia, a premium fashion, beauty and personal care section of its website for the newage Malaysian woman. Style Factor will bring celebrity news, trending fashions, photo galleries and howto videos designed especially for Malaysian users. Originating from its long-time global partnership with Procter & Gamble, the programme’s success on Yahoo US led to its extension into Asian countries such as Indonesia, India and the Philippines in the past two years. Intel in PR review Intel is in the midst of reviewing its PR business for Singapore and Malaysia, having short-listed several agencies. Nick Jacobs, PR director of Intel Asia Pacific and Japan, confirmed the review was ongoing, with the objective of managing both markets as one entity. He added a decision had not been made for the new agency. The incumbents for Singapore and Malaysia are Text 100 and Priority Consultants respectively. Globally, Intel is aligned with WPP for public relations. In Asia Pacific, its agency is Ogilvy PR. “However, on a local level, the brand has the autonomy to work with other agencies,” Jacobs said. MobME joins with Opera MobME Asia, a mobile advertising network, has struck a deal with Opera Mediaworks and announced the appointment of Surin Raj as the director of strategic partnership. Opera is a world-leading mobile ad platform in Malaysia and Singapore. The partnership between MobME and Opera will forge access to millions of users in the two countries via the Opera Mini browser and AdMarvel.

Google a favourite for Malaysians According to the latest brand survey from Superbrands, Google was the most favourite brand among Malaysians. The survey by BDRC Asia identified more than 650 favourite brands amid 109 consumer product and service categories. The results were placed according to the greatest number of consumers marking the brand their favourite. Piers Lee, managing director of BDRC Asia, said how a brand resonated with its audience and the extent to which the brand remained relevant to maintain brand loyalty was crucial. A Google representative said it was thankful for its Malaysian users and hoped they continued to find Google products such as Search, Maps, YouTube and Chrome enjoyable to use to improve their lives.

Bloomberg TV in Malaysia Bloomberg TV has announced its partnership with former Malaysian minister and founder of ntv7, Dato’ Sri Mohd Effendi Norwawi’s, Encorp Group. The partnership will see the first business news channel in Malaysia in 2014. Parry Ravindranathan, head of Bloomberg TV for APAC, said Malaysia’s business sector and capital markets have gone from strength-to-strength in recent years and have been fundamental in Malaysia’s economic transformation. Encorp Group will be building Bloomberg TV’s studio in the Encorp Strand as well as develop anchors and reporters to fit its unique reporting style. The Malaysia partnership is in line with Bloomberg Television’s expansion plans in Asia following the launch of Bloomberg TV Indonesia and Mongolia. According to economists’ forecast by Bloomberg, Malaysia’s economy is projected to grow by 5% next year.

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NEWS

GLOBAL DISPATCHES

Kiss gets fashionable Fashion designer John Varvatos landed iconic rock band Kiss for his spring 2014 collection advertising campaign. The black and white (scarily) dolled-up faces of his 2014 campaign was inspired by one of the band’s album covers, the notorious Dressed to Kill. “While working with KISS on my new advertising campaign, I was taken by how much everybody, regardless of their age, loves them. For me, it is the idea of the superhero, a man in disguise with incredible powers, that makes the KISS myth so enduring and appealing, and it’s exactly that mindset that I wanted to explore, adding a dash of fantasy to my work while keeping tailored finesse and elegance high on the agenda,” he said.

Danone sues Fonterra In August last year, a bacterial scare by New Zealand dairy company Fonterra led to the recall of baby milk formula products by other brand companies which used Fonterra ingredients. Danone was one of these companies. Investigations later found Fonterra’s warning to be a false alarm. Danone wants full compensation for what it says was 350 million euros in lost sales following the recall and is initiating legal action in the New Zealand High Court and arbitration proceedings in Singapore to seek compensation.

Zalora loves music E-commerce site Zalora is making a move to attract the Singapore market with its latest collaborations with local singer-songwriters Nathan Hartono, Cilla Chan, Sezairi and Ming Bridges on the brand campaign, “Zalora Loves Local”. The campaign will run across the online store. The ads feature a curated landing page that highlights the talents as well as the styles of each musician. It will also be supported across all of the e-tailer’s marketing channels such as social media, search, and direct marketing via newsletters and mobile.

Visa trims tag line in rebrand Visa unveiled its latest global brand identity with a new logo and tag line – largely a trim to its old tag line – removing the “it’s”. The tag line now is “Everywhere you want to be” versus the old one, “It’s everywhere you want to be”. The new positioning will run through all of Visa’s communications to stakeholders – consumers, merchants, government, financial institutions and employees – through all channels. Visa declined to comment on the cost of the rebrand. This is also the tag line it used in 1984, developed by BBDO New York, also the main agency behind this rebrand.

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When newsjacking goes wrong While there has been much talk about newsjacking or real-time marketing, the incident where Fish & Co had to apologise after running an ad that was deemed offensive on the Little India riots in Singapore highlighted clear stumbling blocks in this type of marketing tactic. After causing an uproar for its ad, a spokesperson from Fish & Co said the ad had been posted without consent from the company and a third party administrator had been handling its social media account. The third party has since taken full responsibility for the oversight and apologised to Fish & Co and the public for the inconvenience caused.

WPP looks to Vietnam WPP has agreed to acquire a majority stake in Marketeers, a full-service integrated marketing agency based in Vietnam. Marketeers conducts promotional campaigns, activation and field marketing services. Founded in 2002, the company is headquartered in Ho Chi Minh City, with representative offices in Hanoi, Da Nang and Can Tho, in addition to marketing service teams throughout the country. With more than 75 people in direct employment and more than 1,000 people in activation and field marketing services, its clients include Diageo, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, Budweiser, Kirin Interfood and Boehringer Ingelheim. WPP said the investment was further proof of its goal of developing the network in fast-growth markets.

Merger clears another hurdle The European Commission signed off on the pending merger between Publicis Groupe and Omnicom, further clearing the way for the creation of the industry’s largest holding company. The companies said merger clearance had now been approved in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, India, Japan, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey and the Ukraine. The transaction, however, is still subject to additional regulatory approvals, including merger control in China, registration of the deal with US authorities and certain European securities regulators, stock exchange listings and approvals of both companies’ shareholders.

Running out of words Michael Bay may have survived an air conditioning attack while filming in Hong Kong last year, but the director of the upcoming Transformers: The Age of Extinction had an embarrassing public meltdown while spruiking Samsung’s ultrahigh definition curved TV at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Bay seemed to be in fine form when he casually said he “creates visual worlds that are so beyond everyone’s normal life experiences”, but was thrown when the teleprompter he was reading malfunctioned. Samsung’s executive vice-president Joe Stinziano was left alone on stage and later apologised to the audience. WWW. MARK E T I N G- I N TE RAC TI VE . C OM

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NEWS

Dentsu looks to Australia Dentsu reached an agreement with the principal shareholders of Australian advertising company group, Sydney-based Oddfellows Holdings, to acquire a 51% stake in the company. Under the terms of the agreement, Oddfellows will become a wholly owned subsidiary by the end of 2017. Oddfellows owns three companies: advertising agency Oddfellows; digital communications specialist @odds and art and design studio @tack.

FrieslandCampina hires agency Dairy firm FrieslandCampina appointed Lowe and Partners as the creative agency for its youthbased brands. This appointment was made without a pitch for the entire region. Lowe will handle work for the client in markets such as Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia. No plans have been made for the Singapore office. However, work will be led from Lowe’s regional offices in Singapore. No time frame has been slated for the appointment period and brands that Lowe will be handling are undisclosed. Regionally, this is the first time the brand has worked with an agency for this segment. WW W . MA R K ET I N G - I N T ERAC TIVE.C O M

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Google buys Nest To deepen its digital footprint, Google acquired Nest for $3.2 billion. The acquisition will leave Nest’s operations virtually untouched, except for the added advantage of falling under the Google umbrella. Nest has an incomparable stash of data that can support Google in dominating the internet. Tony Fadell, founder and CEO of Nest, said Google would help in terms of resources on a global scale and platform-reach to accelerate, which would help it change the world faster than Nest could by going alone.

Nutella, you have competition The Hershey Company said it was introducing a new line of chocolate spreads. One of which might just hit close to home for Italian company Ferrero, creators of the iconic creamy hazelnut spread Nutella. Hershey, in a statement to the press, said the new line of chocolate spreads included chocolate, chocolate with almond and chocolate with hazelnut. The new line is supported by an integrated marketing campaign that began in the fourth quarter of 2013 and will continue through 2014.

China Mobile revamps China Mobile Hong Kong has revamped its brand identity with a new logo and tag line. The tag line “and!” stands for “a new dream with customers” the company said. The newly added commercial brand tag line aims to highlight deepened relationships with customers, while continuing to deliver innovative and customised value-added services. The new title also sees the brand drop the word “communications” from its official Chinese brand name.

Ad shames men ogling women At a time where India has been harshly thrown in the spotlight for sex crimes against women, an ad by the film school Whistling Woods has been making its rounds. The spot, titled “Dekh Le” (meaning “look” or “see” in Hindi), tries to get men to see how creepy they look ogling women. While arguably harmless in practice, at a time where horrific sex crimes have outraged the nation as well as drawn global outcry, the ad clearly strikes a nerve. The video has already hit more than 2.5 million views since it debuted on 16 December, 2013. Philippine Star offers games In addition to breaking news and features, the online portal of The Philippine Star will now also provide online games to engage its techsavvy readers. The online unit of the local broadsheet has teamed with Netherlands-based HTML5 games distributor Booster Media to create a gaming section on www.philstar. com. Booster Media is represented regionally by Singapore-based AccelerAsia. The section boasts more than 350 games “to kill time in between breaks of reading the news or compete with other readers around with a dedicated high scores page”. The HTML5 games can be played on smartphones and tablets running on Android and iOS connected to the internet.

Yahoo’s new products After a year of aggressive acquisitions, Yahoo is making clear its plans to be at the centre of the online advertising ecosystem with a line-up of new products. At the Consumer Electronics Show in the US, CEO Marissa Mayer (pictured) unveiled a series of major changes to its ad business. It launched a unifying brand, Yahoo Advertising and a buying platform, Yahoo Ad Manager, aimed to create a central suite of tools for online advertisers to manage their buys, both on Yahoo inventory as well as other platforms. This will allow buyers to execute buys across all of Yahoo’s channels.

UFC plans Asia expansion Under a new partnership with Las Vegas Sands Corporation, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is banking its global brand of mixed martial arts will take hold across Asia. At an event dubbed Fight Night Singapore, the UFC sold out its first event in Singapore at the Marina Bay Sands with a mix of local and international bouts. The Singapore event was the first under an expanded partnership with LVS properties Marina Bay Sands and The Venetian Macao, which will host its second UFC event on 1 March. This comes after a bullish year of growth for the emerging sport in Asia, where several key organisations such as One Fighting Championship, China’s RUFF and the Korea-based Road FC are making huge gains with fans and sponsors.

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NEW WORK ................................................................................................................................................................................................................

1 Campaign Launch of Wonda Premium Coffee Brief Wonda Premium Coffee introduced its product into the Malaysian market in a less than conventional manner – especially in this digitally congested time. The creative campaign targets the five senses, also known as 5D printenabled advertisements. The first of the five-day print campaign on NST was a pop-up ad; second was 3D visual; followed by a musical tune insert for the third ad; the fourth day, the newspaper smelled of coffee; finally ending with a cut-out coupon. Client Agency Media

Wonda Premium Coffee Dentsu New Straits Times

................................................................ 2 Campaign Moët & Chandon’s new face Brief To bring the brand closer to the Asian market, Fan Bingbing was selected as the first-ever Asian muse for Moët & Chandon. Fan Bingbing personifies the values of Moët & Chandon, as both are a symbol of success and glamour. This campaign also paid tribute to the cinema industry by featuring the international actress who owns her own production house. Client PR

Moët & Chandon G2

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NEW WORK

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3 Campaign MyTeksi Gets Ugly Brief To raise social awareness against drunk driving, two of MyTeksi’s regional leads got a “make-under”. The campaign is part of a three-month “don’t drink and drive” public service campaign. Photoshopped posters of the two were seen plastered across KL City and popular bars in the Klang Valley, inclusive of a promo code to use the taxi service app. Client Creative Media

MyTeksi In-house In-house

................................................................ 4 Campaign Google’s CNY microsite Brief In celebration of Chinese New Year, the popular search engine launched a microsite to offer solutions and tips to make celebrating the holiday fuss free. The site guided users along with what to do, what not to do, what this particular tradition meant, along with a slur of howto’s, including learn Chinese. Client

Google

SUBMISSIONS PLEASE SEND US YOUR BEST NEW WORK IN HIGH-RES JPEG OR PDF TO BE CONSIDERED FOR THESE PAGES. EMAIL: VIVIANC@MARKETING-INTERACTIVE.COM

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NEWS ANALYSIS

INDUSTRIES USE MOBILE TO REACH CONSUMERS

Mobile advertising has been punching in some strong numbers, with 17.4% of traffic to websites redirected from mobile ads last year. Needless to say, the figures in 2014 will increase. According to Millennial Media’s S.M.A.R.T. report, mobile advertising will increase to 64% with a 20% hike in overall global digital ad spend. Interestingly enough, the APAC region is the fourth largest spender in mobile advertising. Undoubtedly, mobile advertising is carving into the marketing budget, with its easy accessibility for consumers to click-and-go from the comfort of their own time and space. In 2013, brands from every industry saw a major shift in the direction traffic was generated from the analogue and desktop platform to mobile. Safe to say, the landscape of ad spend is changing and mobile marketing is here to dominate. Research released by DG MediaMind, of an in-depth analysis of mobile trends and click-through rates of more than two billion impressions across thousands of mobile campaigns from 2013, found certain formats and features within key verticals to be effective mobile advertising strategies. EXPANDABLE FORMAT WINS THE PIE “Sugar and nice” underperforms to generate click-through for campaigns. Apparently, while it is less imposing to utilise polite banner formats over expandable banners, the former resulted in a 0.28% click-through while the latter commanded two-thirds of the market interest with 0.73%. However, falling further behind are mobile standard banners (0.09%). There’s a simple reason for this. A standard banner does not support interaction or expansion for beefed up details, leaving little room for brands to engage with their audience. As much as the mobile space differs from traditional mediums and even the desktop platform, consumer engagement is roughly the same. Furthermore, it was no surprise the industries that best benefited from expandable banners were the lifestyle ones of entertainment, electronics and automotive. “Consumers depend more on mobile technology for their media, day-to-day communications and connections to the world which is why this data can guide mobile 10 adverti s i ng + marketing | JA N UA RY / F E B R UA RY 2014

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07/02/2014 10:29:50

NEWS ANALYSIS

Moving with the times: Many industries are now better utilising mobile to improve their communication with customers.

marketers,â&#x20AC;? said Ricky Liversidge, CMO at DG. So how are the two methods broken down? VERTICAL ADVERTISING The largest industries to employ vertical advertising are in automotive and CPG, recording 20.7% and 11.7% growth respectively. The clickthrough rates (CTR) show expandable banners receive much higher responses compared with polite banners, with mobile standard banners the least preferred. WW W . MA R K ET I N G - I N T ERA C T IV E.C O M

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MOBILE VIDEO On the opposite spectrum of the former method, mobile video advertising has identified that engaging with rich media formats received more responses than expandable banners. This is due to its immediacy of viewing. Across all verticals, nearly half of users who click on a video completed watching the video. Among mobile rich media formats, polite rich media banners commanded a higher video start rate than its advanced expandable counterpart.

Most of these advertisements are creatively designed and catered to local consumers with a market-relevant message. Generally, industries across all sectors leverage on image and video galleries when promoting new products and product showcasing. â&#x20AC;&#x153;These factors give advertisers concrete data that can guide their mobile marketing decisions and help them reach the growing group of mobile users,â&#x20AC;? Liversidge said. JA N UA RY / F E B R UA RY 201 4 | a dvert is i ng + m a r ke t i ng 1 1

07/02/2014 10:29:51

OPINION: CLIENT SIDE

LIKES, BUT NOT REALLY LIKED

Loyalty factor: Companies need to turn “zombie” fans into influential ones.

BY DOMINIC WONG We view a zombie as “undead” with no aim or reason. Unfortunately it can be said that a certain number of followers “like” or “follow” a page for no real reason. But what do I mean by this and how did we end up in this situation? Having to work with clients and business owners from different industries with varied objectives, there’s always a good number of them adamant about jumping on the social media bandwagon. They want a social presence and want to join the rat race for the most “likes” even if they have no understanding of its significance. Sometimes you are faced with situations where clients ask, “Where’s the campaign idea?” after they have just been presented with a holistic approach that involved choosing the right platform to start at, listening to what consumers are saying about the brand, reaching out to the right audience, engaging them and ultimately making them love your brand. It’s not always about the creative campaign when it comes to brand presence on social media, especially when we talk about a space where it’s about the two-way interaction. Don’t get me wrong, a creative campaign is a mandatory execution, but it is only one part of the overall social strategy. Contrary to belief, it’s not all about having the largest number of fans and reaching out to the most number of people. It is important to take a step back and ask the questions that need to be addressed and understood. Why do people like Facebook pages? A study from ExactTarget showed that 40% of

consumers “like” a brand page only to find out what’s the next offer and promotion. That’s nearly half of all your fans who only want the free stuff, but can we blame them? If we constantly run photo contests and prize giveaway ideas, we are not collecting quality ones, we are only recruiting “zombies”. In fact, only 21% of fans are there to learn more about the company and an even smaller percentage of fans are there to interact with your brand. We know that all brands want to drive higher customer engagement and revenue with social marketing, but only 47% of them actually measure what they do and invest in what really matters. The majority of brands (66%) are still spending time and effort to increase their number of fans and followers or to create and publish content because it’s easier to accomplish. So the key question is how do we move on from just focusing on the volume of the “horde” (fans) to being more relevant. We need to focus on the average engagement rate of posts, to improve fan interaction and advocacy through changing negative sentiments to positive ones. A recent survey by Awareness, Inc. on challenges of measuring social media success concluded with findings consistent to mine of dealing with clients here in Asia Pacific on social ROI. There’s still a huge lack of knowledge among clients and agencies on how to identify and measure quantifiable data through specific social actions. So the big question is how are we going to find a cure for zombie fans by understanding our social media ROI within the organisation and work towards that goal of turning them into “active and influential” fans. How do you plan on finding a cure for your zombie fans?

“The majority of brands (66%) are still spending time and effort to increase their number of fans and followers or to create and publish content because it’s easier to accomplish.”

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Dominic Wong is the digital account director at FleishmanHillard Malaysia

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10/02/2014 13:57:04

OPINION: CLIENT SIDE

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10/02/2014 13:57:04

NEWS ANALYSIS

10PM: THE GOLDEN HOUR TO DELIVER CONTENT There is an hour that a majority of Malaysians are digesting online or mobile content. It is a great time for advertisers to tune in.

A recent study by Outbrain revealed consumers in the Asia Pacific region prefer to access content at night and via their mobile devices. In Malaysia, specifically, content access peaks at 10pm. Football tops the category of content accessed by Malaysian users. Football buffs are probably hyped to search information at that time considering most matches are aired live at night in Malaysia because of the time 14 adverti s i ng + marketing | JA N UA RY / F E B R UA RY 2014

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differences. Apart from that, night is also the time where Malaysian users access music and read about celebrities. Lifestyle content is also greatly accessed at night in Malaysia. According to Anthony Hearne, regional director of Outbrain for Southeast Asia and India: “Many are heading onto the content marketing train, but not many recognise that consumers are in full control of the content they receive and consume. It is time the industry gets smarter and

directs content to relevant audiences according to consumption statistics. “The trends we share through this research are to help achieve that.” Asia is a huge market to tap into where opportunity varies and digital ad spend growth is increasing. Going portable by creating content that is user-friendly on various handheld devices will receive more response because of mobility. WWW. MARK E TI N G- I N TE RAC TI VE . C OM

07/02/2014 10:32:11

NEWS ANALYSIS

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07/02/2014 10:32:11

LOCAL HERO: BUUMERANG BRANDZ

AIMING FOR RETURN BUSINESS Being the new kid on the block is never easy. Natasha Arul sits down with KJ Tham to find out how he keeps business bouncing back to the agency. KJ Tham has just celebrated the first anniversary of his company, Buumerang Brandz. After spending some time working with some big-named MNCs, this marketing whiz finally went out and realised his dream of starting his own agency. Tham started his career in marketing research after completing his degree in psychology. “One of the papers I took was on consumer behaviour and this appealed to me. I was with Dynamic Search, a marketing research company for a couple of years and this really opened my horizon to dealing with a variety of brands. As a researcher I was exposed to working with hard-core marketers who understand what it takes to build a brand,” Tham says. With his interest for branding sparked, he found himself seeking jobs that would equip him with knowledge on brand-building. “I decided I wanted to be involved in other areas where the data collected actually got used,” he says. That was when he joined Hong Leong’s strategic marketing department. During his time with the banking institution, he learned how to develop marketing plans for its products and how to manage relationships with agencies. But that was only the beginning for Tham and his vision. “I wanted something more challenging, and since I had worked with big brands while I was doing market research, I knew that they were who I wanted to end up working with long-term.” Two years later, he moved to Colgate where he was introduced to the “true” meaning of brand management. “The high point of my career with Colgate was when we beat Oral-B as the highest seller in the market.” Tham was later headhunted by Johnson & Johnson to assist in building the Listerine brand. In his experience leading the strategy for the brand, he found success in activation plans. Soon after, Fonterra approached Tham and he moved on to a new experience with perishable good. “All the brands I’ve worked with then were in their transition point, at a different stage of their life cycle so I managed to learn a lot.” In 2009, Tham’s friend pitched him the idea of starting a company. He didn’t have to think twice and Bizsphere Retail Branding was born. 16 adverti s i ng + mar keting | JA N UA RY / F E B R UA RY 2014

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Making his mark: KJ Tham is enjoying great success with his venture Buumerang Brandz.

The branding agency had a few years of success, but they soon parted ways for personal ventures. For Tham, that venture was Buumerang Brandz. Buumerang because “you have to throw it the right way for it to come back to you,” he says. “The same applies for a business. You want to get your return of investment so you need to ensure you do the right thing for your brand.” Tham expressed strong beliefs in building brands atop three elemental pillars: insights, strategy and activation. “Brand-building isn’t about just getting the idea right, it’s execution as well.” The three pillars link back to each other. “You need good insights to make better decisions for a sound brand strategy. Good strategy will drive the brand’s direction and activation. Without proper activation, you will not be able to target the market effectively,” he explains. Buumerang has worked with some pretty big-name clients such as Procter & Gamble,

My Chef, Zest and Spritzer. Tham also works closely with marketing departments to assist in campaign execution. Recently, he executed Vidal Sassoon’s #GetSassooned campaign, which launched the brand’s haircare range in the Malaysian market. The event saw a vibrant list of attendees, from local celebrities and personalities to wellknown hair stylists. But local success and activation is just the tipping point for Tham. “My current priority for the company is to work on our client base. We are currently in the midst of moving offices to accommodate a growing team.” Buumerang started with a team of two and has since tripled in size to six. Tham says his focus for the time being will be on helping MNC brands compete with other brands that are just as established, and to help SMEs grow. -----------------------------------------------------If you are a budding local start-up who has something to say about this industry, write to us at vivianc@marketing-interactive.com.

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07/02/2014 10:33:04

LOCAL HERO: BUUMERANG BRANDZ

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07/02/2014 10:33:05

OUT TO LUNCH

THEY HUFF, THEY PUFF AND THEY’RE BLOWING THE WHOLE TOWN AWAY

From 120,000 to three million and one books in five years, the owners of BookXcess and creators of the Big Bad Wolf book sales have only one goal in mind. Vivian Chong sits down with Jacqueline Ng and Andrew Yap for an inspiring chat.

Literature never expires. The written word has immortalised, even made legends of people, without so much as a penny to their names when they penned their first story. For millenniums, books have influenced generations of children and grown-ups, filling their hearts with an array of emotions and minds with scenes that only they can see. Books are invaluable; they are the building blocks of an entire society, a nation. Unfortunately, books are not widely available to everyone. In Malaysia, the average price of a best seller or new release ranges between RM60 to RM150. The national libraries are also poorly stocked, with doors only open during the hours of school or work. “There was this article in the paper,” recalls Jacqueline Ng, executive director of BookXcess, “that said only two per cent of Malaysians were reading. That’s astonishingly low. For an educated country where people are smart and speak well, two per cent is unacceptable.” BookXcess started at the tail end of 2006. Before selling remainder books, Ng and Andrew Yap, managing director, ran a small retail outfit selling backdated magazines. Despite the magazines being a few months old, customers would still pile in and make lump purchases. This realisation gave Ng and Yap the confidence to expand their business to sell remainder books. Remainder books are printed titles that are either no longer selling well in book stores or copies being let go by the publisher for lowered 18 adverti s i ng + marketing | JA N UA RY / F E B R UA RY 2014

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prices. The business of selling remainder books is widely conducted in Western countries such as the United States and Europe. A typical book that may have cost US$20 could be purchased for US$3 as a remainder. Yap shared that they were not 100% sure the business module would work in Malaysia. “We don’t have the culture of shopping at factory outlets in Malaysia. To limit selling bargain books from a store wasn’t sustainable. It was also too small of a scale to make the impact we wanted.” Ng and Yap wanted to reach a wider audience after the small success they found with BookXcess. So it was only logical to do a warehouse sale. In 2009, the Big Bad Wolf brand was born. Ng said her goal wasn’t to target people who were already avid readers, but to encourage the group of people who weren’t invested in reading. “For someone who reads, not being able to read is an agony,” Yap said. “But for people who don’t read, how do we reach them?” Ng chimed in to say it was more important to them they introduced books to people, especially to children. “At BookXcess, we encouraged people to give books as gifts. No matter what the price of the book was, RM3, RM8, we’d offer to gift wrap them, with ribbons and bows, too. The objective is so that anyone receiving the book may develop the habit.” When Big Bad Wolf had its first sales, 120,000 books were up for grabs. Ninety per cent of the inventory was cleared. “When you attend sales of this size, you’d bring someone along – a brother, sister or a friend – as company or to help you carry books. That’s how people are introduced. They are brought by someone to be surrounded by books,” Ng said. At the conclusion of the 10-day, 240-hour non-stop sales in December last year, three million and one books were made available to the public. The event commanded more than 580,000 attendees, ranking the book sales as

the largest event in the whole country. But this success story didn’t pan out this way without a good marketing strategy. When Big Bad Wolf was first conceived, Ng and Yap only had a RM5,000 budget for A&P. They were adamant that wherever they spent that humble sum, it would reach the audience they wanted. The one page, black and white ad that simply asked readers to visit their website, was placed in the Metro section of The Star newspaper. Ng and Yap heavily invested time in online promotions. The Big Bad Wolf’s Facebook page has more than 160,000 followers to which Ng said, “our fans are the best customers any company could ask for. When they attend our event, they share it with their social networks, helping us grow again and again”. Ng and Yap engage a public relations agency to assist in managing their social media sites as well as the online website. Big Bad Wolf’s creative work and campaigns are designed by 430 Media, the agency that has worked with Ng and Yap since the start of the company. Of the eight-year relationship, Ng shared the agency already knew the brand and them so well that “whatever we want to do next, they’re on the ball”. This year, the Big Bad Wolf book sales will span over 17 days, with more than 400 operational hours. Yap said the formula of the number of books to the number of customers, the hours of operation and how many days was not perfect. “We’re still in our testing phase. But whatever it is, we’re not doing it for profit and we’ve stayed true to that. Regardless of how prices of everything have hiked, we’re still committed to making reading affordable for everyone.”

LUNCH BOX Guest: Jacqueline Ng and Andrew Yap Venue: LOKL, Kuala Lumpur Cuisine: Western Service: Friendly, welcoming and personal Ambience: Bright, cosy, and smells of coffee and brunch Got something to say? Got a favourite restaurant? Let us know and we’ll pick up the tab. Email vivianc@marketing-interactive.com

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11/02/2014 11:18:02

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11/02/2014 11:18:03

MEDIA WATCH

THE WRITTEN WORD,

DIGITISED

Page by page, newspapers and magazines have been thinning out and opting to go online to keep pace with today’s readers. Astro Publications has also joined the online world by launching six titles into e-magazines. Five pm on the dot and Naked Restaurant in Plaza Damas was piled up with local personalities, Astro Publications representatives and advertising partners. Within an hour, the official launch of Astro Publications’ latest venture into the digital realm began. “With immediate effect, Astro Publications

will now be known as Astro Digital Publications (ADPUB),” said Henry Tan, chief operating officer of Astro. Familiar titles under the Astro umbrella have gone digital: Style (English women’s fashion lifestyle), Car (automotive), InTrend (Malay women’s fashion lifestyle, FHM (English men’s

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lifestyle), Men’s Uno (Chinese men’s fashion lifestyle) and ifeel (Chinese women’s fashion lifestyle) all became available for download on iOS’s Apple newsstand. “Advertisers are no longer limited to advertorials in print magazines, but can benefit from a holistic yet innovative approach to their WWW. MARK E TI N G- I N TE RAC TI VE . C OM

07/02/2014 10:36:02

MEDIA WATCH

Read all about it: Astro is now giving readers the choice of reading its magazines in print or via Apple Newsstand.

campaigns through interactive magazines, websites, social media, activation and e-commerce opportunities,” Tan said. The e-magazines will feature their own set of content, separate from that of the print. Readers that prefer flipping through the physical magazine will not be sanctioned to repeat content that subscribers of the e-magazines have available. “The beauty,” said Sree Pathmanathan, chief operating officer of Astro Digital Publications, “is that our titles will now cater to two different groups of readers. If you enjoy the physical touch and feel of the magazine, and prefer longer articles, the magazine will still be available on the newsstand.” Pathmanathan further adds digital magazines are fully interactive. “It is now possible for content to come to life. For example, sports fans can download a digital sports e-magazine for free and enjoy their favourite sports in the full 360 format with more

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“It is now possible for content to come to life. For example, sports fans can download a digital sports e-magazine for free and enjoy their favourite sports in the full 360 format with more in-depth detail such as football action, pundits, tally of scores and so on.” Sree Pathmanathan, chief operating officer of Astro Digital Publications

in-depth detail such as football action, pundits, tally of scores and so on.” The e-magazines will also provide an outlet for creative agencies as well as advertisers vying to engage consumers in a different method by enabling embed video. The reach of the six titles combined may potentially result in the largest distributed digital platform in the country for Astro. According to Pathmanathan, “Sixty per cent of Astro households own smartphones or tablets. Assuming that two individuals of each of these households read our magazines, we have the

estimated collective readership of four million quality consumers.” The e-magazines are now available for download at the Apple newsstand. An Android version will be ready by May 2014. Astro customers will have access to five of the six magazines free of charge starting 10 February. FHM will be available at US$0.99 per edition for both Astro and non-Astro subscribers. “The new world is readily available anytime, anywhere – on multi devices for our customers who can keep abreast with the latest in fashion, lifestyle, motoring and more,” Tan said.

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07/02/2014 10:36:04

SNAPPED AkzoNobel Paints Malaysia (Dulux) ushers in auspicious 2014 DATE 8 January VENUE Kuala Lumpur 1 CW Goh, managing director, AkzoNobel Paints (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, tosses Yee Sang alongside Dynas Mokhtar and Master Kenny Hoo, feng shui ambassador, AkzoNobel, with friends of the media. 2 Master Kenny Hoo sharing colour feng shui tips for the Year of the Horse 2014 to encourage friends of the media to capitalise on new and exciting opportunities. 3 Master Kenny Hoo and CW Goh pose with each other at the AkzoNobel Chinese New Year media luncheon.

FIFA World Cup Trophy Tour by Coca-Cola DATE 3 January VENUE Astro, Bukit Jalil 1 (From left): Annamaria Gazda, global Coca-Cola representative; Wong Siah Ping, vice-president, media sales, Astro; Lee Choong Khay, vice-president, sports business, Astro; Agustinus Gunadharma, franchise director, Coca-Cola Far East Limited Malaysia; Dwight Yorke, FIFA ambassador; Rozaini Mohd Sani, chief financial officer, Astro; and Mohd Kadri Mohd Taib, public affairs and communications director, Coca-Cola Malaysia, pose together with the FIFA World Cup trophy.

2 (From left): Agustinus Gunadharma, Dwight Yorke and Lee Choong Khay have their photo taken with the FIFA World Cup Trophy. 3 Agustinus Gunadharma and Dwight Yorke reveal the FIFA World Cup Trophy.

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SNAPPED Heineken #Thirst2013 DATE 14 December VENUE Sepang International Circuit 1 Thirst Green Moment. 2 David Guetta in action. 3 The appearance of Rehab. 4 Guest enjoying the show.

Monster High 13 wishesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; movie scream-iere party DATE 13 December VENUE Cineleisure, Petaling Jaya 1 (From left): Frankie Stein, Draculaura, Clawdeen Wolf, Lagoona Blue, Ghoulia Yelps, Cleo de Nile and Deuce Gorgon. 2 Monster High ghouls in the cinema. 3 Fans await the arrival of the Monster High ghouls.

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07/02/2014 10:36:49

PROFILE

DEFINING MALAYSIAN BUSINESS,

BLOOMBERGWAY

THE

MICHAEL CHAN, CEO OF BLOOMBERG TV MALAYSIA, TELLS VIVIAN CHONG WHY HE WON’T REST ON HIS LAURELS, BUT INSTEAD, ASPIRE TO BE NUMBER ONE.

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07/02/2014 16:36:36

Art Direction: Khairul Hasbullah; Photography: Safwan Asyad — https://www.facebook.com/PixsAndClicks; Location: Whisky Tango Foxtrot — http://www.whiskytangofoxtrot.my/

PROFILE

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07/02/2014 16:36:36

PROFILE “Your angle is how a CMO got to become a CEO, right?” Michael Chan, named CEO of Bloomberg TV Malaysia late last year, stated. With Chan, you never get what you bargained for; you get so much more. An advertising veteran and marketing talent, Chan weaves his strategies to position Bloomberg TV as Malaysia’s number one business news channel into his life story. “I started life in advertising as a copywriter and have always wanted to stay in the industry. You know,” he says, “the quality of the advertising industry back 20 years was just shameful. So I thought I’d go to the client side and that’s how my career as a marketer started, with DiGi.” Switching to the client side created many opportunities for the aspiring marketer. Chan was soon headhunted by Astro, which would kick off his streak of ties with the media industry. By 2000, the dot-com era penetrated into Southeast Asia, and Chan was again headhunted by a dot-com company for a regional marketing role. “A month before I was to start, the CEO in Hong Kong called me and said that the second round of funding fell through. He told me I still had a job, but it’d be that much harder and I thought to myself, ‘do I really want to do that?’” Despite the setback, a silver lining came from a very important phone call. Dato Sri Mohd Effendi Norwawi, founder of Malaysia’s first commercial English TV station, ntv7, rang up to recruit Chan to handle the channel’s marketing department. So began the friendship and partnership that would eventually lead up to the current expenditure with Bloomberg L.P. “I’ve been associated with Effendi for nearly 13 years. We’ve become friends since,” says Chan in a moment of acknowledgement of the former chairman of Encorp. After Chan left ntv7, he went back into advertising for a short stint under the Berjaya Group. Berjaya later closed down its advertising division and started exploring new media with MITV, where Chan sat as its chief marketing officer. “At one point, Maxis started hounding me. The CMO at that time said they’ve got a business I couldn’t refuse. It was the Apple iPhone.” Chan moved on with Maxis and in 2010, launched the country’s largest marketing campaign for the World Cup featuring international footballers as well as local legends. “It was incredible. I loved it,” shares Chan. “We tried to build an entire conversation around the brand and these legends. It upped the standard of campaigns for the country.” Chan was on everyone’s radar, including Bloomberg. “Bloomberg was looking for a partner in this part of the world. They thought that I would be able to introduce a partner to them,” Chan explains. “But one day, I thought ‘I want this for myself.’” Bloomberg had interviewed four people in the market by then. Bloomberg was looking for a certain fit. The partners needed to understand the local market (and the space) and maintain a level of integrity. “They talked to a lot of people before landing on Effendi and I. When they were sure we were the right fit, we went to New York, signed the papers and came back to devise a plan on how to launch the business in Malaysia.” Chan has some ambitious plans for Malaysia, starting with localised content. BRIDGING GAPS Marketing in Malaysia is as tough as it gets. Politics, language barriers, cultural differences and conservative practices make it nearly impossible for any brand to find successful engagement with one campaign. It is not uncommon to see brands releasing creative work in four languages and airing radio ads that only a small portion of listeners will respond to. Despite Bloomberg’s practice of creating news in the local market’s 2 6 adverti s i ng + marketing | JA N UA RY / F E B R UA RY 2014

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language, Chan believes business news needs to be reported in English in Malaysia. “Business in Malaysia is still predominantly conducted in English,” Chan says. “However, we will still be able to produce content in Bahasa Malaysia, Mandarin Chinese and Tamil.” Chan says on weekdays, news will follow Bloomberg’s standard and be reported in English. On the weekends, the content will be more localised to suit the market. “The content strategy will be formulated against what we believe is our core target market and the market we want to attract.” Chan and his team are currently heavily invested in market research. He says it is their fundamental belief research will provide Bloomberg TV Malaysia with a baseline of its audience. “It’s a year-long study. We want to serve the people we have as well as the younger generation, people who would potentially trail into business. It starts with engaging the thousands of public listed companies and getting management-level professionals to tell us what they want to see on Bloomberg. Then we’ll expand into the younger group of working executives.” WWW. MARK E TI N G- I N TE RAC TI VE . C OM

07/02/2014 16:36:38

PROFILE

“WE’RE PUTTING A LOT OF EMPHASIS ON DIGITAL. BUSINESSMEN ARE SWITCHED ONTO DIGITAL. WE MIGHT ALL CONSUME IT DIFFERENTLY, BUT WE HAVE THIS IN COMMON. THE KEY IS GETTING MARKETERS TO SEE THAT THEY ARE ALSO CONSUMERS, TO EXPERIENCE IT FIRST-HAND.” REELING IN ADVERTISERS AND CLIENTS Chan says what will differentiate Bloomberg TV Malaysia from its competitors is branded content. Bloomberg news is targeted to business professionals; it complies with a code of conduct and a stringent reporting style. Developing content that can assist brands will provide a deeper understanding to Bloomberg’s viewership in Malaysia. The task for Chan is striking a balance between lending a hand to brands looking to engage with its audience and creating news that is relevant to Bloomberg’s viewers. “Today, if you look at Bloomberg, it’s great because they’ve got fantastic reporting – things like Game Changers. The challenge now is finding out what we can do for the local market. What do we do for brands here? What do we do, say, for a bank? How do we help them get their message across?” A CEO’s job is to manage the fine line between maintaining the integrity of its brand and driving revenue. Chan understands that, from a marketing perspective, despite the brand being an internationally known product, it WW W . MA R K ET I N G - I N T ERA C T IV E.C O M

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is crucial to define what that product means to the local market. He says certain advertisers and clients he has approached have told him exactly how they want their campaigns to look on Bloomberg. “Our clienteles know the Bloomberg brand. They have a clear idea of what we stand for, but even then, it’s going to take the whole of the year to see whether our formulation works,” Chan explains. INFILTRATION AND INTRODUCTION Bloomberg TV Malaysia will launch its first segment in March. To date, the company has signed on two anchors and is under a massive recruitment process. Chan says Bloomberg will see 30 editorial staff with an additional 10-15 operations and sales crew. Bloomberg will launch the first of its campaigns in February through every medium, including digital, mobile app and social networks. “The idea is to be everywhere and anywhere you need to consume us,” he says. “We want to drive this aspect of content. The bigger goal is to drive business in Malaysia. We want to be number one. Full stop.” JA N UA RY / F E B R UA RY 201 4 | a dvert i s i ng + m a r ke t i ng 2 7

07/02/2014 16:36:39

FEATURE: FAKING LIKES

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11/02/2014 10:33:59

FEATURE: FAKING LIKES

BIG BUSINESS OF FAKING LIKES

CELEBRITIES AND BUSINESSES HAVE BOUGHT FANS AND FOLLOWERS JUST TO GAIN CLOUT ONLINE. ELIZABETH LOW INVESTIGATES WHAT FAKING LIKES REALLY COST A BRAND.

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11/02/2014 10:34:00

FEATURE: FAKING LIKES As businesses rapidly move to boost their digital clout, the lure of taking the quick route to success has also been on the rise. Recently, the spotlight has fallen on the lucrative business of click farms and selling fake followers, fans or likes on social media. According to an Associated Press article, Dhaka, in Bangladesh, is an international hub for click farms. Quoting the CEO of Dhakabased social media promotion firm Unique IT World, Saiful Islam, he says he pays workers to manually click on clients’ social media pages, making it harder for Facebook, Google and others to catch them. This is because this makes those accounts genuine. The article pointed out Dhaka as the most popular city for many, including soccer star Lionel Messi, who has 51 million likes. These click farms have many, usually lowly paid, workers simply tapping away on Like buttons, viewing videos or re-tweeting comments. While these businesses have drawn much controversy for being the digital age’s sweatshops, there are also many implications for brands. SOCIAL MEDIA “INFLUENCE” GOING CHEAP Businesses selling followers are proliferating online. According to AP, BuyPlusFollowers sells 250 Google+ shares for $12.95, Instagramengine sells 1,000 followers for $12 and Authentichits sells 1,000 SoundCloud plays for $9. More examples are proliferating such as TheSocialBoost selling Instagram followers online, and another selling Twitter followers on

eBay. And these are getting cheaper. According to Jeff Hurmuses, vice-president of APAC for security solutions firm Barracuda Networks, there are currently 52 sellers on eBay selling Twitter followers and who are also making fake Twitter accounts more affordable. “A year ago, 1,000 fake followers could have set you back US$25, but now the average price is US$11. At an estimate, these dealers have several thousand buyers who spend an average of US$65. In fact our researchers found one dealer who may have generated US$1.4 million just by selling fake Twitter followers,” Hurmuses says. Nearly 63% of fake accounts are created by duplicating the information of real users by appending their screen name with a few characters while still using the same profile photo, location and description, adds Hurmuses. “Spamming using Twitter lists is another trend we have discovered. Twitter accounts barely a few hours old can add over 90,000 people to various lists,” he says. But, as of now, there is no way to block such activities other than by manually blocking these suspicious users. While this may work in the short-term, Hurmuses says it will be a tedious process for users that have been added to hundreds of lists. THE BIG CLEAN UP – IS IT ENOUGH? In 2012, Facebook made a major announcement – a move to clean up fake likes. This move

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affected many brands regionally. Despite the move, a Facebook spokesperson said it still needed to focus on dealing with abuse for fake accounts. “We’ve made a lot of progress by building a combination of automated and manual systems to block accounts used for fraudulent purposes and Like button clicks. We also take action against sellers of fake clicks and help shut them down,” a spokesperson from Facebook said. This includes catching fake accounts at various points of interaction with Facebook, including registration, friending, clicking the Like button and messaging. “We write rules to catch anomalies that signal fake accounts, and we use classifiers based on machine learning to help us identify suspicious behaviour. To validate and improve the quality of our automated decisions, we often use user prompts and other techniques to help us better determine if an action or account is real,” she said. A Google spokesperson said it had also placed methods to check for clicks and views. “And we take action against bad actors that seek to game our systems,” she said. But she did not give details on how it was doing this. Twitter could not be reached for comment at the time of printing. THE REAL PRICE OF FAKING IT While this takes place across the region, one agency executive highlighted how rampant the situation is in China. Florian Pihs, senior planning director of strategy, innovation and optimisation at SapientNitro China, says his team comes across click fraud often. While the agency largely works on creative, his team encounters it in the analytics and optimisation aspect of the business. “There is a huge amount of click fraud in China. When we are trying to look at how the site is performing and segment it – in terms of search traffic, traffic from social media and so on – you never see any media platform miss their target. They usually over perform their targets by around 50%. Then when we go down into numbers on where this is from, where did they arrive from, which landing page, what did they do from there, we see a lot of irregularities, in terms of paid traffic that is coming in from odd hours,” he says. However, he laments that clients and media agencies have not had a genuine incentive to address the issue when brought up since both parties will temporarily appear to have achieved their objectives on clicks and traffic. Few clients are eager to get genuine traffic, he adds. “That is a behaviour that is rewarded in China at this point in time,” he says. Ryan Lim, business director and coWWW. MARK E TI N G- I N TE RAC TI VE . C OM

11/02/2014 10:34:01

FEATURE: FAKING LIKES

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11/02/2014 10:34:02

FEATURE: FAKING LIKES

Buyer beware: In the long-term, bought fans are all cost and no benefit, says Ian McKee, CEO and founder of social media agency Vocanic.

founder of Blugrapes, says that this was prevalent in Singapore more than a year ago, but he sees much less of it now the market is more sophisticated. HOW IT HURTS BRANDS “It slowed when marketers realised that they couldn’t sustain it and their fans dropped when they couldn’t pay,” Lim says. Also, it was not promoting real growth for a brand. The problem with this is that it dilutes a brand’s effectiveness online. “The impact of your digital activation is reduced by the amount of fake traffic,” Pihs says. “Right now what you are measuring is just clicks and traffic, you are hoping that awareness will lead to preference,” he adds.

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“A year ago, 1,000 fake followers could have set you back US$25, but now the average price is US$11. At an estimate, these dealers have several thousand buyers who spend an average of US$65. In fact our researchers found one dealer who may have generated US$1.4 million just by selling fake Twitter followers.” Jeff Hurmuses, vice-president of APAC for security solutions firm Barracuda Networks

But these fake clicks will do nothing towards that goal. In the long-term, bought fans are all cost and no benefit, and will cripple a brand’s ability to justify an ongoing budget for social media, says Ian McKee, CEO and founder of social media agency Vocanic, adding he has

seen this outside of China in the region as well. “Bought fans are empty calories, while the fan count will grow, the engagement rate will plummet with no possible way to lift it. The brand is left with a dead weight to manage,” he says.

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11/02/2014 10:34:03

FEATURE: FAKING LIKES

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