Advertising + Marketing MY - Dec 2014 by Marketing Magazine Group

advertising + marketing malaysia

DECEMBER

2014

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AR E YO U G U N N IN G FO R T H E S E C U BE S IN 2015? Enter the only agency awards in the region judged solely by client-marketers. Join us to discover who these cubes belong to in 2015

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ED’S LETTER ................................................................................................................................................................................................................

MEDIUM OR MESSAGE: WHAT’S YOUR PICK? Elizabeth Low, Deputy Editor elizabethl@marketing-interactive.com Rezwana Manjur, Senior Journalist rezwanam@marketing-interactive.com Editorial – International Matt Eaton, Editor (Hong Kong) matte@marketing-interactive.com Oliver Bayani, Editor (Philippines) oliverb@marketing-interactive.com Production and Design Shahrom Kamarulzaman, Regional Art Director shahrom@lighthousemedia.com.sg Fauzie Rasid, Senior Designer fauzier@lighthousemedia.com.sg Advertising Sales Joven Barcenas, Senior Project Manager jovenb@marketing-interactive.com Johnathan Tiang, Senior Account Manager johnathant@marketing-interactive.com Trina Choy, Senior Account Manager trinac@marketing-interactive.com Joey Lau, Account Manager joeyl@marketing-interactive.com Jocelyn Ma, Account Manager jocelynm@marketing-interactive.com Events Yeo Wei Qi, Regional Head of Events Services weiqi@marketing-interactive.com Database & Circulations June Tan, Senior Database Operations Executive junet@lighthousemedia.com.sg Finance Evelyn Wong, Regional Finance Director evelynw@lighthousemedia.com.sg Management Søren Beaulieu, Publisher sorenb@marketing-interactive.com

It’s a topic worth debating, especially at a time where we hear “content is king” at every industry forum. About 100 years ago, Herbert Marshall McLuhan, a Canadian philosopher of communication theory and a public intellectual, coined the expression the medium is the message in his book. That raised eyebrows back then, in fact it still does. Many argue his concept was too simplistic. However, I came across a blog that supported McLuhan’s theory. John Naughton, an academic/writer, wrote in his blog: “In a way, his [McLuhan’s] really big idea was to spot that the word ‘medium’ has distinctly different meanings. “The conventional one is that a medium is a channel for communicating information – which is why much discussion about media up to his time focused on the content that was being conveyed by print, radio and television. But there is another, equally significant, interpretation. “To a biologist, a medium is an environment containing the nutrients in which tissue cultures – organisms – grow. Change the medium and you change the organisms. Our communications media, likewise, constitute the environment that sustains, nurtures – or constrains – our culture. “And if the medium changes, then so does the culture. In other words, the medium is far, far more than the message. In fact, it’s all we’ve got.”

The last sentence made me ponder. Think about it, hasn’t the iPad, and other mobile devices changed our social behaviour almost completely? To the point that we now have to make an effort to stay away from them; digital detox, digital downtime, you’ve heard about it all. What McLuhan said, basically meant that print media is more important than the articles written through print media. Similarly, television is more important than what the television programmes convey through television. Therefore, if the medium is more important than the content, then the medium is the content (or rather the message). As a keen observer of the industry, I’m curious though. What do you think? Is the medium more important than the message? Share your thoughts with me over email. Meanwhile, take a look at how various media owners in Malaysia stack up against each other in our special edition, based on our annual survey of marketers. Enjoy the edition.

Photography: Stefanus Elliot Lee – www.elliotly.com; Makeup & Hair: Michmakeover using Make Up For Ever & hair using Sebastian Professional – www.michmakeover.com

Editorial Rayana Pandey, Editor rayanap@marketing-interactive.com

Tony Kelly, Editorial Director tk@marketing-interactive.com Justin Randles, Group Managing Director jr@marketing-interactive.com

Advertising + Marketing Malaysia is published 6 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 offi ce. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in Advertising + Marketing Malaysia are not necessarily the views of the publisher. 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 ...............................................................................................................

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15/12/2014 7:11:59 PM

NEWS

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WANT MORE BREAKING NEWS? SCAN THE CODE TO FIND OUT WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE INDUSTRY.

Fuel woes Malaysians have been emptying out their pockets this year with the newly introduced GST and petrol hike. So how is the petroleum brand responding to the plight of its consumers? Petronas has launched the #Like2savefor campaign with the objective to educate its target audience on how to drive in a more fuel-efﬁcient manner, thus saving money. The thematic campaign was conceptualised by Leo Burnett, calling to action for fans to share what they would rather be spending their petrol cash on via the hashtag #Like2savefor.

Heartwarming collaboration Free-to-air TV channels MediaCorp Suria and TV3 paired up to release a new show. Kasih Berbisik (Whispers of the Heart) is jointly produced by MediaCorp Eaglevision and Primeworks Studios. The collaboration is aimed at producing a high-quality drama series that appeals to audiences in Singapore and Malaysia and leverages on both parties’ expertise in HD TV production. Set against a backdrop of Singapore, Malaysia and Bali, the 13-episode drama series debuted for the ﬁrst time simultaneously on TV3 and MediaCorp Suria on 1 October 2014.

It’s a hit Astro and Rewind Networks launched HITS channel on 16 November. HITS is Rewind Networks’ maiden venture with distribution on pay-TV platforms in Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and now Malaysia. Distribution will continue to expand into other Southeast Asian markets such as Hong Kong and Taiwan in the near future. In Malaysia, the channel will be available in Bahasa Malaysia and simpliﬁed Chinese subtitles.

Bidding goodbye Media ﬁrm Media Prima is making plans to cut its workforce by up to 10%, offering to pay its employees to exit the company as part of its staff cuts scheme. Known as the Mutual Separation Scheme (MSS), the company said this was “a part of the group’s rationalisation and consolidation plan”. The MSS scheme is on a non-obligatory basis and is expected to be completed by 15 December 2014. According to reports on the Malay Mail Online, the group is targeting 10% of its workforce to accept the offer. Creative ﬁrepower Grey Group Malaysia and Grey Digital hired Graham Drew as its new executive creative director. Drew has had extensive experience in through-the-line advertising with a focus on cross-platform creative ideas. After starting his own PR agency in 2004, Drew later founded VCCP Kin in 2010, the branded content arm of VCCP Partnership, a subsidiary of Chime Communications.

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Prestige in new hands The December issue of Prestige will be the last published by Rev Asia as the contract comes to an end. The title will now move under the new Hubert Burda Media company which will launch in Malaysia from December this year. Currently, Prestige is published on a monthly basis and the circulation is 20,000. It is not audited. Going forward, with the set up of Hubert Burda Media, Victor Omar Low, who is the publisher of E-Media Worldwide, will be tasked to set up the company.

Support for Lee Malaysian ofﬁcials said an unnamed national badminton player, which is widely speculated to be world renowned player Lee Chong Wei has failed a drugs test and tested positive for the banned substance dexamethasone. Lee (pictured) signed on to be the brand ambassador for isotonic beverage brand 100PLUS in 2008 and is currently still the face of the brand. According to the Badminton Association of Malaysia’s website, the sponsorship inked between Lee and the brand was cited to be one of the biggest single sponsorship deals for a badminton player from a corporate sector. The brand has expressed its support to Lee.

A Coke outfit Coca-Cola launched its first Coca-Cola clothing line in Malaysia. A spokesperson from the brand said this was a “great opportunity to stretch the brand to apparel” by capitalising on its already well-known status to “gain market share with little entry cost”. Malaysia will be the first country in Asia Pacific to launch the line, and the spokesperson added this was because the Malaysia market was a mature one for the brand. The Coca-Cola Preppy Collection also has a custom printed Coca-Cola depicting the brand’s 128 years of slogans – from “It’s The Real Thing” to “Always Coca-Cola”.

Radio retains its charm Malaysia came out on top once again with the highest radio listenership in the region. According to a study by research agency Nielsen, more than 17 million of its population aged 10 years and above tune in to a radio station daily. More than nine in 10 Malaysians spend an average of 18 hours weekly listening to their favourite radio station (94.4%) according to the latest Radio Audience Measurement (RAM) survey results released by Nielsen.

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NEWS

Volkswagen’s new appointment Volkswagen Malaysia appointed Martina Berg its new marketing director. According to several Malaysian news outlets, Berg will take on the role from Petra Schreiber. Schreiber will assume her new role within marketing at Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles in Germany. She has been with Volkswagen Group Malaysia since June 2011 where she was tasked to help build the brand in the country while growing its marketing and communications operations. Meanwhile, Berg will be moving into the role from Volkswagen Hong Kong. Name change Yolk(at)Grey, Grey Group’s digital and social media arm, is now known as Grey Digital in a move to create tighter brand integration with Grey Group. The Yolk brand, which has been such a part of the Singaporean digital landscape since 2001, will return to its roots as the Innovation Lab within Grey Group in Southeast Asia and will explore and test digitally innovative ideas.

Media pitch called Resorts World Sentosa called for a regional media pitch, Marketing understands. According to sources close to the pitch, the shortlisted agencies are incumbents Carat and Maxus and the pitch is currently ongoing. Resorts World Sentosa, Singapore’s ﬁrst integrated resort, is home to attractions such as Universal Studios Singapore and Adventure Cove Waterpark, as well as six onsite luxury hotels.

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More power for digital TBWA\Kuala Lumpur bolstered its digital and activation offerings with two senior hires. Aaron Gomez joins as head of digital, and Juliana Chua as business director and head of activation. Gomez joins TBWA\Kuala Lumpur after eight years in Singapore working at Bates, Young & Rubicam, and the past four years as head of interactive marketing at Cheil Communications. Chua spent the past four years at Zenith Media as general manager for activation. She also served in the Media Specialists Association as chairman of the Malaysian Media Awards in 2013, for which she was the deputy chairman just the year before.

New job for Tribal K & N Kenanga Holdings Berhad appointed Tribal Worldwide Malaysia as its social media agency. While Kenanga’s early success was based on its stockbroking business, the independent investment bank now offers investment options from unit trust, PRS, derivatives, Islamic banking to wealth management and online trading. Kenanga was named the number one retail broker in Malaysia by Bursa Malaysia Berhad. Its move into social media was in line with its focus to increase its retail market presence – which also included a brand image refresh – through its ﬁrst foray onto Facebook. TBWA\Group promotes Anand TBWA\Group Malaysia promoted Vijay Anand to the role of executive creative director. In the past two years, Anand was instrumental in building the creative reputation of Creative Juice Kuala Lumpur with iconic campaigns for Nando’s, Expedia, Tesco, Cornetto, Lux, Dove and Nissan, according to Aaron Cowie, chief executive ofﬁcer of the advertising network.

Business promotion MEC Malaysia promoted Lim Kay Chye to the role of business director. Lim has been with MEC since 2008 and has led a business team with a diverse portfolio. He has worked with clients such as Lenovo, Chevron, Michelin and Nando’s. In addition, he has been responsible for bringing in key accounts Epson Printer, Dunlopillo and Himalaya to the agency.

SCA gets Wild SCA Hygiene, which owns Drypers Singapore, appointed Wild Advertising & Marketing for its digital account to roll out various campaigns and marketing initiatives. The account was won in a three-way pitch and is for one year. The brand said it was faced with the challenge of engaging young parents who are digital natives, as well as turning its strategy towards digital and social media. Sensing a change Havas Worldwide Siren has started using a new strategy called the “uncommon sense” to equip existing and potential clients with new ways of breaking through the clutter of today’s information in the region. According to the agency, other markets are already using this strategy. The uncommon sense approach is being adopted across Havas Worldwide’s agencies in Southeast Asia and is integrated into Havas Siren’s creative process.

Kicking off Phnom Penh Crown Football Club (PPCFC) appointed the Singaporebased sports marketing subsidiary of Dentsu, Dentsu Sports Asia (DSA), as its strategic partner. The two-year deal sees DSA provide PPCFC with a host of marketing, branding, commercial and sponsorship opportunities. Earlier, DSA signed a formal partnership with the Football Federation of Cambodia in February, procuring sponsors for the 2014 edition of the Hun Sen Cup. Growing its base AirMedia, a leading OOH operator in China, which launched in Singapore six months ago, is looking to make Singapore its regional hub in SEA. In a conversation with Marketing, a spokesperson said it aimed to introduce and lead advertisers to its platforms in China. It is also looking to expand its frontline staff to take care of clients in different countries within SEA.

Shutting down Teens magazine, under Eastern Holdings, is no longer being published. Marketing understands the last copy of the magazine was published in August. A spokesperson for Eastern Holdings has told Marketing its website and Facebook operations would remain in place and new content would be published there. The company will also be taking an event focus for its other magazines such as Motherhood and Golf.

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NEWS

New appointment The Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth appointed Havas Worldwide Siren for its marketing communications and consultancy services. The agency will be tasked to promote Youth Corps Singapore. According to GeBIZ, also vying for the account was Ogilvy & Mather and Omnifluence. The appointment is for a year. Havas will also be handling digital media, communication, media buying and creative executions for the ministry. Outage and outrage Following the power outage of more than three hours, the Singapore Exchange (SGX) drew criticism from deputy prime minister and minister for finance, Tharman Shanmugaratnam. According to The Straits Times, securities and derivatives markets were halted as the hardware which enables connectivity was disrupted by power supply issues. He said the incident put in jeopardy Singapore’s reputation as a financial hub. Bottoms up Pernod Ricard appointed Bates CHI & Partners as the agency of record for Martell and Chivas Regal. “It is a rare privilege to be working with two of the world’s most iconic drinks brands like Martell and Chivas Regal,” said Christina Chong, managing director of Bates CHI & Partners Singapore in a press release. This comes hot off the heels of the Team Singapore/Sport Singapore win by the agency.

T3 magazine finishes Publishing house Playworks has stopped publishing T3 Singapore. Issue 106, published in September, was the last one for the magazine. In a statement, a spokesperson told Marketing the company “has decided at this point to pivot its business and focus its business in the digital space”. The magazine ran monthly issues and underwent a revamp in 2011. Flash mob a big hit Local furnishing brand Lorenzo staged one of the largest flash mobs at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore. The flash mob took place minutes before the start of the first semi-final. Lorenzo worked with its creative agency, The Fat Oracle, to pull off the activation, with more than 100 dancers – aged between eight and 17 – who danced to Taylor Swift’s latest hit Shake It Off.

On the lookout Telekom Malaysia has called for a branding pitch. The recently launched pitch has agencies from Singapore and Malaysia vying for the account, conﬁrmed Izlyn Ramli (pictured), VP of group brand and communication at Telekom Malaysia, to Marketing. Meanwhile, UM’s social media arm was recently appointed to handle Telekom Malaysia’s social media account. UM’s digital team also handles Telekom Malaysia’s digital account.

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Spreading the magic The Walt Disney Company, through the Disney Media+ team, will work with SMRT for an 18-month collaboration to bring Disney into the SMRT public transport, retail and digital networks. Both companies will engage commuters and customers through SMRT’s transit network, and also at the Kallang Wave Mall in the Singapore Sports Hub and SMRT’s e-shop and iMOB Shop. Promotions will be centred on upcoming movies in 2015.

Big birthday bash Last month, a Hello Kitty run was held to celebrate the mascot’s 40th birthday at Sentosa. While the event kicked off with much hype, it didn’t run without several bumps during the 17,000-strong event. Postevent, organisers saw numerous complaints on their page. Doubling the value SMRT Media unveiled its latest initiatives where advertisers can get on board with the company’s latest ﬂeet of double decker buses from December onwards. In a press statement, SMRT said its latest ﬂeet of double decker buses would allow “for double the exposure and double the impact, non-stop, all throughout its 18 hours on the road, as it plies the CBD and Orchard routes”. Adding new clients Starcom MediaVest Group Singapore bagged two new clients. Zespri International Limited and Avenza signed the media agency as their AOR. Zespri is the world’s largest marketer of kiwi fruit with a presence in more than 60 countries. Avenza Singapore is a life sciences company that focuses on research and development of health-enhancing solutions. The agency is handling media planning and implementation.

New technology push Mindshare partnered with beacon technology company Footmarks to bring relevant and personalised solutions to brands across Southeast Asia looking to create leading-edge retail experiences for their customers. The alliance will be managed out of Mindshare Singapore’s “Discovery” unit. Christopher Smith (pictured), head of Mindshare Discovery, said the beacons were becoming a vital link in delivering the growing demand of engagement in retail. Tap and read Clear Channel Singapore has partnered JobStreet.com, Juice Media, Magazines Integrated, and SPH Digital to bring content from their respective web and mobile sites to commuters. Consumers can now access this variety of content on smartphones by tapping or scanning the interactive tags found on 3,800 of Clear Channel’s signature six-sheet advertising panels and 30 digital advertising panels in the city.

Getting creepy Homemaker IKEA played homage to Stanley Kubrick’s cult classic, The Shining, in a new Halloween web ﬁlm. Created by BBH Asia Paciﬁc, the iconic IKEA showroom lanes serve as a perfect setting for the re-enactment of the infamous Overlook Hotel scene of a small boy cycling a tricycle along eerie corridors to equally eerie music.

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Advertising & Marketing size: bleed: 220mm (w) x 290mm (h) trim: 210mm (w) x 280mm (h) type: 183mm (w) x 241mm (h)

NEWS

Revving up Audi rolled out an enhanced version of its “Singapore – Land of quattro” campaign with a microsite dedicated to Audi’s signature quattro technology. This online portal serves to educate consumers on the history of quattro and its beneﬁts in all road and weather conditions. As part of the new campaign, a Facebook photo contest has also been launched on favourite scenic routes in Singapore. HSBC’s digital campaign HSBC launched a digital SG$10,000 campaign which ran until 30 November. The campaign aimed to create awareness for HSBC’s personal internet banking capabilities through a gamiﬁcation approach. The marketing approach for this challenge focused on multi-digital channels, moving away from traditional marketing platforms. Promotions were done via the microsite, web banner on the corporate website, EDM blasts, and digital banners on ATM digital screens and branches.

Girl power NTUC Women’s Development Secretariat appointed social and mobile agency KRDS Singapore following a multi-agency pitch. The agency will handle the social media mandate for the organisation. It is in charge of NTUC Women’s Development Secretariat’s Facebook page, as well as the organisation’s media spends on the social network.

Property push SPH Interactive acquired a 60% equity stake in the privately held CoSine Holdings. The purchase consideration of SG$30 million was for the 60% stake on a willingbuyer, willing-seller basis and was paid in cash. Cosine is the holding company for the StreetSine Technology Group, which consists of StreetSine Singapore, StreetSine Hong Kong, and the digital platforms Singapore Real Estate Exchange and Hong Kong Real Estate Exchange.

New pitch for Frank OCBC is looking to launch a creative pitch for its Frank brand. Marketing understands R3 is currently running the pitch and the agency appointed would be handling duties for through-theline executions. R3 declined to comment on the pitch details. OCBC was last working with Arcade for the Frank brand. Before that, Wild Advertising & Marketing was working on the digital aspects of the brand.

Driving communications LEWIS PR, the global communications agency, was appointed the Asia Pacific agency of record for Harvey Nash, the global executive search and leadership services firm. LEWIS is helping drive Harvey Nash’s regional communications strategy out of Hong Kong, with a focus on raising the profile of the firm’s executive search services. Harvey Nash has tasked LEWIS with driving communications around the company’s industry leading capabilities.

KRDS wins WWF account Following a multi-agency pitch, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) awarded the redesign of its gift catalogue e-commerce site to social and mobile marketing agency, KRDS Singapore. The new website aims to improve and redeﬁne the user experience, and also ease the process of donating to the WWF. In addition, the agency is in charge of the media campaign for the launch of the NGO’s website.

Growing in style Local creative digital and technology company Section clinched deals with ﬁve brands – Bata Singapore, De Dietrich Asia, Din Tai Fung Singapore, RamenPlay Singapore, and Mary Chia. The company also partnered with local celebrity Wong Li-Lin. With these account wins, Section adds social media marketing, with a focus on strategic content planning and outreach strategy, to its portfolio.

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Outage and outrage Following the power outage of more than three hours, the Singapore Exchange (SGX) drew criticism from deputy prime minister and minister for ﬁnance, Tharman Shanmugaratnam. According to The Straits Times, securities and derivatives markets were halted as the hardware which enables connectivity was disrupted by power supply issues. He said the incident put in jeopardy Singapore’s reputation as a ﬁnancial hub.

Microsoft expands remit Microsoft Asia Pacific expanded the public relations and communications agency IN.FOM’s remit as its agency-of-record (AOR). The agency now covers corporate and citizenship function in the region. IN.FOM has been partnering with Microsoft Asia Pacific since September 2013, where it took on its commercial and consumer AOR remit. With this appointment, the agency will become the single communications AOR for Microsoft at its Asia Pacific HQ level.

New name Corporate communications agency Ryan Financial Communications rebranded itself as Ryan Communication, dropping the word “financial” from its name. Damien Ryan (pictured), founder and managing director at Ryan Communication, said the new name reflected the agency’s diversification from crisis and issue management for financial companies into content, digital and social media marketing for financial and non-financial B2B corporations. The diversification started two to three years ago. Creating new friends Nescafé Singapore launched a nationwide campaign called “Creating Friendships” in lieu of “Good Neighbour Day”. The real-life social experiment aims to bring across the importance of neighbourliness as a building block for strong community bonds, throwing back to the Singaporean kampong spirit. The campaign will see Nescafé working with various residents committees to organise “Know Your Neighbours” parties from November to December.

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NEWS

Two sides of a story Honda and Wieden+Kennedy London came together for an ad to promote the new Civic Type R alongside its predecessor, the regular Civic. The ad, “The Other Side”, is a double-sided story. While the protagonist remains the same, viewers have the option of toggling between the parallel stories by pressing and holding “R” on their keyboards at any time during the video. A separate entity Procter & Gamble (P&G) announced its Duracell battery business would be split off as a separate brand as the company zooms in on its faster growing brands.

AUDIT WATCH

Quitting early International advertising agency M&C Saatchi Sydney launched a tactical anti-smoking campaign for QUIT, the UK charity aimed at helping smokers quit the habit. The integrated campaign incorporated cigarettes to depict hands on a clock set at 2am, the exact time when people in the UK had to reverse an hour, marking the end of daylight savings on 26 October.

A unique look Diet Coke brought its brand value to life with an “extraordinary collection” of two million bottles, each with its own one-of-akind design. According to global reports, the concept was conceived by Coca-Cola Israel in collaboration with Gefen Team, Q Digital and HP Indigo.

MAKING AN HONEST LIVING SINGAPORE

Having been audited since 2006, Expat Living magazine completed its latest round of circulation auditing for the year ended December 2013. Its circulation stands China Getaways Return to Angkor Boats for Hire at 18,455. In a market where few do official audits, what is the benefit of auditing? Marketing asked. “We feel it’s important to audit as it has helped us to gain clients’ trust and opened us up to a new sector of advertisers who respect the transparency of audited figures,” said a spokesperson for the magazine. While sometimes a fairly arduous process, it is worth the time and cost, said the spokesperson. “It’s important to us that our advertisers know exactly what our

October 2014

circulation is, and we feel an audit is the Inside only true reflection HOMES of this. We now FAMILY audit both print and digital versions with Our the ABC,” said the Favourite STEAKS spokesperson. Storage Ideas Expat Living’s audited net circulation stands at 1,738, according to reports on the Audit Bureau of Circulations Singapore. This has had an effect on advertisers as well, said the spokesperson. “We’ve been able to attract bigger clients and agencies since we’ve had our figures audited as they can be sure they are making decisions based on accurate information and targeting the right audience,” she said.

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Running free Publicis Groupe acquired Run, a real-time data management and multi-channel programmatic buying platform. Run boasts a mobile-focused data management platform (DMP). The platform is aligned with Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) and is available as a resource to all networks of the Groupe, including ZenithOptimedia, DigitasLBi and Razorﬁsh. VivaKi is using Run’s DMP and DSP technology for Publicis Groupe-wide solutions to boost its programmatic offering – audience on demand.

PORTRAITS

Lamps & Lights

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Getting fit Havas Media Melbourne bagged its first local client – localfitness. com.au – for which the agency is overlooking both the planning and real-time buying of display advertising. Damian Kovach, co-founder of LocalFitness, said: “With a huge demand for gyms across the country, the Havas Media team and its state-of-theart data and technology platforms will help us grow and help more Australians find their best fit.”

Hasbro has a dream Hasbro is in talks with DreamWorks Animation for an acquisition plan, according to global reports. According to Deadline.com, a family entertainment company called DreamWorks-Hasbro will be created and Jeffrey Katzenberg, DreamWorks’ CEO will head operations. Negotiations are still underway. Hasbro reported in its ﬁnancial results that net revenues for the third quarter of 2014 increased 7% to US$1.47 billion compared with US$1.37 billion in 2013.

Biostime appoints Y&R Biostime, a maternal and child nutrition brand, appointed Y&R Guangzhou its creative agency to handle the brand’s milk powder and probiotic brand strategy and creative communications. The new advertising campaign will be launched in February 2015 and will include all aspects of strategic planning, communications, creativity and execution. This is the ﬁrst time Biostime has chosen to work with an international 4A’s advertising agency.

Underwater party Lager brand Skol launched a campaign for its new Beats Senses beer in Brazil. The campaign was created by F/Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi. The television commercial depicts an entirely blue party – a reference to the colour of the Skol bottle – where the DJ, barman and partygoers are shown partying underwater. The actual ﬁlm was shot underwater using specialised imported equipment.

An explosive campaign Electrolux, together with creative agency F/Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi, launched a new campaign to promote its DT52X. According to a press statement by Electrolux, it is the first refrigerator in Brazil that will be “focused on healthy eating, making way for balanced eating habits”. A good cause TBWA Sri Lanka and PHD Sri Lanka joined forces to put forth a media-first initiative for International Day of Elders. Given that sight weakens with age, both companies sought to find a way to allow these elders to continue to read their favourite newspapers effortlessly.

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NEWS ANALYSIS

THE SECRET SAUCE OF MCDONALD’S MARKETING POWER What is it about McDonald’s that has kept the brand going for so long, and how does it keep bouncing back? Ambrish Bandalkul and Andrew Davy write.

Despite facing a number of recent challenges, data and experts suggest the McDonald’s brand will once again hold strong in the long run. So what is it about McDonald’s that has kept the brand going for so long, and how does it keep bouncing back? We asked branding experts what they thought was the secret behind the McDonald’s brand. “They’ve played the monolithic brand card very well,” said Nick Foley, president of SE Asia Pacific and Japan, at Landor Associates, a brand consultancy. Advertising + Marketing spoke with Foley and Charlie Cookson, strategist at Landor Associates, to find out some of the reasons behind the brand’s longevity. It becomes clear that even with the current negative associations circling the brand, it continues to hold its own in a highly competitive category. The fast-food giant has faced a series of PR challenges recently, including the food scandal with meat supplier Husi Shanghai in China. But has the media backlash been fair? “I think they’re unfairly labelled … and because they are a very mass market brand they can easily be a target,” Foley argued.

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According to Landor Associates’ “Brand Asset Valuator” (BAV) – an online survey of consumer likes and dislikes about brands – McDonald’s is still holding strong against competitors in key markets across a number of areas, including “relevance”, “knowledge” and “esteem”. Look at the charts below. “It’s unusual to see a brand with this kind of global footprint that has been around for this long with these levels of relevance and differentiation,” Foley said. So how do they do it? McDonald’s branding success and longevity boils down to what Foley calls a “restless progression”. About 10 to 15 years ago the brand’s key selling point was its consistency and what Foley calls the “quarter pounder pricing principle” – the same products and American style were available in every store. Now, the game has changed and McDonald’s has shown it’s able to make the switch to increased innovation and adaptation.

“They’re not afraid of being innovative and that’s really worked for them” he said. A key area McDonald’s must focus on, as indicated by Landor’s BAV survey, is differentiation from competitors by continued expansion of offerings. McCafé, first launched in Australia in 1993, is one way the brand did exactly that. According to McDonald’s’ 2001 Annual Report, the “McCafé coffee concept” is designed to allow customers to “enjoy premium coffees, cakes and pastries – all at a value price compared with typical coffeehouses” and to “have a cosmopolitan atmosphere with distinct adult appeal”. The McCafé brand has developed to the point that from 2015, McCafé-branded bagged coffee beans will be sold in US retail stores in

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NEWS ANALYSIS

partnership with Kraft. It will be marketed as a premium product. Foley said: “I think it’s got really hard. That’s why with their brand architecture they have brought in things like McCafé because it allows them to have a slightly different conversation with their target audience … you would not be scoring that level of relevance (on the BAV test) if you do not have menu items that cater to a wide variety of needs.” Adds Cookson: “They seem to have their finger on the pulse. They seem to know what’s happening at any one time.” The great comeback kid McDonald’s has indeed remained relevant across more than 30,000 restaurants in 120 countries. Lawrence Chong, CEO and co-founder of design consultancy Consulus, believes “the secret sauce of McDonald’s marketing power is the company deeply understands the idea of globalisation”. Chong told Advertising + Marketing he sees McDonald’s as “the great comeback kid”. Many people in the past have dismissed McDonald’s, but time and again, it has always found a way to make a comeback by being ready to discard an earlier doctrine in terms of thinking in product and messaging. Chong explains: “They make great efforts to localise their offerings and messages by paying close attention to the ground. For example, McDonald’s does not even sell its signature product in India – you won’t find beef burgers in their restaurants because cows are considered sacred.” Maintaining this balance between consistency and diversity is the key to McDonald’s continued strengths, according to Andrew Hipsley, SVP and chief brand officer for McDonald’s Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa. It comes down to the brand’s “think global act local” approach, Hipsley said in an interview with Advertising + Marketing. “For example, in Asia we serve a bigger range of spicy products and generally more chicken options, in India no beef and a bigger range of vegetarian options, Halal in Muslim markets, and chicken and rice in lower socio-economic markets.” According to Hipsley, enhancement of the company’s existing strategic global “plan to win” “will focus on affordable and convenient, relevant and differentiated menu choices, a modern and relevant restaurant experience and being a positive contributor to the local community”. Over the next 18 months, McDonald’s is embarking on a rebranding campaign focused on building customer trust through transforming its service, marketing and operations. For example, “web and mobile ordering for

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BAV in action. USA QSR category Interpreting pillar patterns

Source: Landor Brand Asset Valuator, USA Adults 2014 Q1 segment

BAV in action. China QSR category Interpreting pillar patterns

Source: Landor Brand Asset Valuator, China Adults 2014 segment

delivery will play a big role in transforming our customers’ experience before, during and after their visit”, said Hipsley. Recent efforts as part of the overall strategy to combat brand difficulties, include the launch of the “Our Food Your Questions” campaign in America last month. Pioneered in Canada, it also remains a major programme in the Australia and New Zealand markets. Aimed at increasing food transparency, the campaign invites customers to ask any questions about McDonald’s food over social media. It opened with consumers asking questions such as, “Is there ‘pink slime’ in a Chicken McNugget?” “Are there worms in your beef?” and “Why doesn’t your food rot?” “It’s about embracing your negatives and turning them around into positives in a brand

sense,” Landor’s Cookson said. This approach to transparency indicates McDonald’s is not afraid of tackling the big issues head on to remain relevant and keep the conversation going with consumers. While fearlessness and adaptation are crucial for survival, McDonald’s’ core principles remain the same. “The success of our brand so far has been the result of our relentless focus on brand relevance and brand consistency – built on our founder Ray Kroc’s legacy of “QSC and V” (or quality, service, cleanliness and value),” Hipsley said. This relentless focus on balancing adaptation and innovation with consistency has ultimately kept McDonald’s relevant across many markets over the years.

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d ia e m t a ok ferred o l a s e k ta keters’ pre om t r o p e r l ua ch are mar aysians – fr home n n a s ’ A+Mpanies whi rgeting Mal to out-of- s in com ce when ta o, magazine the winner choi t, TV, rad i d all about prin d igital. Rea ages. and following p th e

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METHODOLOGY HOW DID WE ACHIEVE THIS? from questions in Advertising + Marketing The Media of the Year rankings were derived Survey. Advertising + Marketing Research Research’s annual Media Spend Benchmarking eting yed its database of client advertisers and mark employed an online questionnaire and surve rtising Adve by given by respondents were considered services agency professionals. All answers + Marketing when finalising the rankings. TS QUALITY RECIPIENTS AND RESPONDEN ine the Media Spend Benchmarking Survey. Genu More than 700 respondents participated in across key agency-using industries were well advertising decision-makers and influencers from various marketing services. represented as were agency professionals nts were manager-level decision-makers and Nearly 87% of client advertiser-side responde – and s of client advertisers – CEOs, MDs or GMs above, with 10% from the most senior rank eters. another 18% were VPs or director-level mark ), agency side were CEOs, MDs or GMs (32% the from nts The majority of the responde were 29% ining were sales personnel. The rema 16% were marketing personnel, while 23% operations, creative and media personnel. banks, FMCG companies, property and Advertisers from major and local international as well as those from travel and tourism construction, IT and telecommunications firms, ces cy professionals across the marketing servi companies participated in the survey. Agen spectrum were also well represented.

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OUT OF HOME MEDIA OF THE YEAR

It has been nimble, innovative and resilient in a digital era, which is why the out-of-home medium remains a key part of the marketing mix, and one exciting space to watch. In this report, we see how marketers have ranked their preferred OOH media partners.

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OUT OF HOME MEDIA OF THE YEAR

1 | BIG TREE OUTDOOR

Big Tree Outdoor has been voted as the most preferred OOH media platform in this year’s Out of Home Media of the Year by marketers and advertisers. This year saw several major promotions, chiefly Ling Siew Lan to general manager of sales for its Big Drive platform and Gan Kai Wen to general manager of sales for Big Ride, Buy, D’gital and Fly. As for new initiatives, there were many. For example, it ran a news live feed from Harian Metro newspaper’s portal on its LRT station’s digital screens. It also launched a new offering allowing advertisers to exclusively position their brands with select train stations with station naming rights. To secure the deal, advertisers must submit their proposal on a tender basis. The stations available are the Bukit Bintang station (KL monorail train system); Universiti station (Light Rail Transit (LRT) and Bangsar station (LRT). In another new launch, three new LuMi pillars were created, located in the heart of KL fronting Concorde Hotel in Jalan Sultan Ismail, aimed at reaching motorists and pedestrians. Big Tree also secured the premium spot on Intermark bridge in the middle of Kuala Lumpur’s financial and business district, and strategically positioned in the busiest intersection of Jalan Ampang and Jalan Tun Razak. Earlier this year, Big Tree won the first runner-up award for Most Improved Offering by a Media Owner at the Spark Awards for Media Excellence 2014 in Singapore held by Marketing magazine. The category was awarded to any media owner that had significantly improved one of its products or services through compelling content, innovative solutions, product effectiveness and standout team performances across any of the 10 Southeast Asia markets.

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OUT OF HOME MEDIA OF THE YEAR

2 | ASIA MEDIA

Asia Media ﬁnished in second place for Out of Home Media of the Year as voted by advertisers. Asia Media is wholly owned by Asia Media Group Berhad and is a digital out-of-home transit TV company. This year saw the company complete the transmission towers set-up to provide digital live transmission network coverage in Klang Valley. It is in the process of expanding the network coverage of the southern and northern region. A full launch will be done upon the completion of all planned transmission sites in Malaysia, said the company. It has not restructured its organisational team, but maintained the senior management team to maximise its expertise in the

speciﬁc departments, added a company spokesperson.Asia Media has been keeping up its good record with clients such as U-Mobile, Bio-Green, Mydin, Zalora, PKNS, USJ19 Mall, Daiya, Mie Sedaap, among others. It has also embarked on many sponsorship programmes, mainly with University Malaya (UM), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, USM, UPM, KBU, UCSI University, BAC, Sunway University and Taylor’s University Lakeside. The ﬁrm has been recognised as the “Largest Transit-TV Network” in Malaysia by the Malaysia Book of Records. According to its site, it has 3,993 LCD screens installed in 1,800 buses travelling in the market-centric hubs of Klang Valley and Johor

Bahru. The company says it reaches more than 500,000 viewers daily travelling in these hubs. Asia Media partners with strategic bus network partners.

rising number of passengers. It now has 216 screens in its network targeting travellers coming through KLIA and klia2. It also upgraded its Lot 10 Cube with higher brightness LED panels. The Lot 10 Cube is a major attraction for shoppers, tourists,

pedestrians and motorists along the iconic Bintang Walk, which pulls in more than five million pedestrians and motorists, in terms of monthly traffic rates. The upgraded Lot 10 Cube continues to be one of the most valuable and effective advertising mediums in the Golden Triangle of Kuala Lumpur, said the company. It also offers advertisers the option of organising road shows, launches and campaigns at Lot 10 Shopping Centre. Examples of property companies such as Mah Sing and Gamuda, and well-known brands such as Maggi, Nescafé and Brand’s have organised campaigns and road shows at the shopping centre throughout 2014. Its key advertisers include the likes of General Electric, CK, Turkish Tourism, MasterCard, Casio Baby G, AirAsia, Resorts World Sentosa, Mah Sing, Gamuda Land, UEM Sunrise, Marina Bay, KFC, Nestlé, Golden Screen Cinemas and Ford. Info Screen provides an effective and efficient advertising platform through its screens located in and around key venues in Kuala Lumpur, as well as content production, editorial and technical support, said the company. It provides creative solutions to advertisers through its IS Creative arm.

3 | YTL INFO SCREEN

YTL Info Screen comes in third in this year’s ranks. In the past year, it has been nothing short of busy growing its network. It doubled the number of screens on the KLIA Express Rail Link and upgraded all its high deﬁnition LED screens by 20 inches to reach the

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FA-infoscreen-AM-210x280-03-02-B.pdf

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OUT OF HOME MEDIA OF THE YEAR

4 | BRANDAVISION

BrandaVision has come fourth in this year’s OOH Media of the Year. In the past year, the company has been placing emphasis on digital advertising, particularly by executing more augmented reality based campaigns, as well as through live screenings on its LED screens. “We strongly believe this concept will strengthen interactions between targeted audiences with advertisers through consumers/ audience engagement,” said the ﬁrm. Traditional advertising pulls weight for the ﬁrm’s business, however. One example is the

giant wallscape erected on the mall façade along Jalan Bukit Bintang featuring the Omega timepieces. Other campaigns in the past year included the 60th Macau GP AR and live screening of the GP; Christmas AR at Pavilion featuring the Dance with Santa; live screening of Malaysia F1 2014; Magnum Gold Vault; the Carlsberg Friendtastic Machine; Tune Insurance AR game for World Cup 2014; live screening of the World Cup 2014 ﬁnals match and the live screening of the Malaysia Open tennis 2014 ﬁnals match.

Key advertisers include Tissot, Omega, Magnum Gold, RHB Bank Bhd, Citibank, Maybank, Macau Tourism, Zenith Watch, Burberry Fragrance, Coach, Tumi, Montblanc, Audemars Piguet, Club Twenty-One, Puma, Bell & Ross, Limkokwing University, Sacoor Brothers, Bvlgari and more. “Traditional advertising still works for all business of all sizes, therefore, we make sure we customise the best advertising message for each and every customer to ensure their campaign resonates with the right target audience,” BrandaVision said. “With a compelling unique selling proposition and offers, we offer our clientele the chance to showcase their products and brands through innovative, creative and eye-catching methods.”

5 | POS AD GROUP

Pos Ad Group comes in ﬁfth place this year. The group’s primary line of business consists of in-store media aimed at shoppers. Helmed by group managing director, Chew Sue Ann, the company recently saw another addition to its senior ranks with Sam Chan taking on the chief executive ofﬁcer role. Previously the managing director of Geometry Global, Chan brings experience in integrated brand communication and 360 media and digital marketing across multiple brand categories. “Armed with a proven track record of growing the agency’s business and capabilities

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in digital, data and integrated communication, Sam will not only add value to Pos Ad Media, but also to the Pos Ad Group,” said a company spokesperson. He has been tasked to drive Pos Ad’s growth particularly in the area of digital retail communication. In May 2014, a time-sensitive radio channel was launched in Giant hypermarkets and supermarkets in order for brands to target shoppers for communication at speciﬁc occasions and time of day. By year-end, Pos Ad will combine digital with its retail media to introduce a new way for shoppers to interact with brands. This digital interactive platform at retailers will

allow shoppers to engage with brands’ recipes, contests, participate in loyalty programmes, interactive games and more. Key campaigns in the year included ones for Sunsilk Shampoo, Shokubutsu Active Guard, Dutch Lady GUM 6 plus, L’Oréal, Milo UHT, Sensodyne and more. Under the Pos Ad Group, it currently owns several retail advertising brands. Pos Ad Media for in-store brand-building solutions; Captivate as its in-store product demonstration agency; Jump Retail for product displays and more; Paragon Premiums for premium (gift) ideas and OfferStation – its online buying guide for consumers.

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THROUGHOUT 2014, WE HAVE BROUGHT TRAFFIC, JOY, FUN, EXCITEMENT, FRIENDSHIP, & LAUGHTER...

-JoyWorldcup'14_AR

-FunCHRISTMAS_AR

VIA ENGAGEMENT AT THE RIGHT TIME & RIGHT PLACE

-FriendshipCHRISTMAS_AR

‘Platinum Award - Best Shopping Mall'

Kuala Lumpur Mayor's Tourism Awards 2014

THANKS TO OUR CLIENTS AND PARTNERS WHO BELIEVED IN US. In partnership with:

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OUT OF HOME MEDIA OF THE YEAR

6 | REDBERRY RETAIL

Redberry Retail comes in sixth place this year. A media and entertainment group that owns and operates some of Malaysia’s most respected and relevant media properties, Redberry delivers integrated communications solutions across multiple media platforms – from TV to out-ofhome, retail, print and more. It is also the operator of Bernama TV,

Malaysia’s only 24-hour news channel which reaches three million households, as well as The Malay Mail newspaper and all-business daily, The Malaysian Reserve. As the exclusive concession holder for Malaysia’s major highways and its airports, the out-of-home solutions business, which includes Focus Media, Pointcast and Meru Utama,

reaches more than 900,000 people every day along with millions of visitors to Malaysia every year, said the company. The company’s philosophy is “rethink your world”. Its retail arm Redberry Retail has an exclusive partnership with the Carrefour, Tesco and Jusco hypermarkets. Through MagiqADs, it offers advertisers a huge retail network across Malaysia. In November 2014, MagiqADs Sdn. Bhd. acquired a media partnership with a new retailer, Kedai Rakyat 1Malaysia (KR1M). The partnership hopes to attract both FMCG and non-FMCG clients within the 97 stores across Malaysia. This partnership represents a novelty also for MagiqADs, taking into consideration KR1M represents a government-owned convenience store. In September 2014, HK Ch’ng joined the MagiqADs team as a business director leading the non-FMCG sales team. He brings a strong industry background with more than 17 years of sales and marketing experience and more than seven years of in-store, outdoor and out-ofhome media experience. The company claims an ability to target Chinese or Malay shoppers more efﬁciently, depending on chain selection and geo-targeting, as well as a reach of 970,000 shoppers across 84 stores every day.

7 | PARISIGN MH17 poster installed on 31st July 2014

Maya Hotel Concorde Hotel

Coffee Bean

Wisma Goldhill Legend MH17 Poster publish on 31st July

Plaza Berjaya

Parisign has ﬁnished in seventh place this year. A wholly Malaysian-owned company, which specialises in signage manufacturing, it has come to this position as a one-stop signage solution centre providing consultation, design, marketing support, fabrication, installation, maintenance services and events and exhibitions consultation services.

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The company has progressed to become a major owner of outdoor advertising media through the privatisation of Kuala Lumpur, Petaling Jaya and Shah Alam city street furniture such as bus and taxi shelters and free standing signs with major local city councils in Malaysia. Its latest initiatives include the implementation of Parisign’s inventory system in Petaling Jaya

and Pulau Pinang with traffic statistics in PCU, LOS and graphs; the launch of static light boxes with industrial LED screens on Jalan Raja Laut as well as green technology media through its solar powered air conditioned bus shelter at Bayan Indah – Queensbay Mall Penang. The latter will launch by the end of the year. Key advertisers include MSIG, Fujifilm, INTI, Aspen Group, Ivory Properties, Disney Channel and Bank Islam. According to its site, it is one of the eight approved signage suppliers for McDonald’s Corporation International worldwide since 1986. Also, in 2003, it was appointed the official signage and showroom supplier for Toyota Motor Corporation in Malaysia and China, as well as the official events and exhibitions contractor for the Malaysia Trade and Tourism board in China.

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OUT OF HOME MEDIA OF THE YEAR

8 | REDBERRY AMBIENT Redberry Ambient comes in eighth this year. Also part of media and entertainment Redberry, it owns OOH media in lift lobbies, waiting areas, aisles and check-out counters and airports. The company claims a reach of 900,000 PMEBs, 30 million travellers and eight million shoppers through its network. It has 290 screens at 90 commercial buildings, 90% of which are in the Klang Valley; 200 screens at strategic waiting areas in KLIA and LCCT and 600 screens at check-out counters and aisles across 18 Carrefour outlets, 12 of which are in the Klang Valley. In the past year it was appointed by major cinemas in Malaysia such as TGV Cinemas, Cathay Cineplexes and the upcoming CGV Empire as their advertising media partner. In terms of OOH TV, besides ofﬁce buildings, it also partnered with GCH Retail (Giant Hypermarket)

to have 340 LCD screens at its check-out cashier lanes. Key campaigns for the year included engaging Star RFM as its radio partner for its Giant TV channel and a “sight and scent” cinema activation – the ﬁrst in Malaysia, according to Redberry Ambient. This campaign is running in selected TGV Cinemas until February 2015. Key advertisers that have been added in the past year include OPPO Mobile Malaysia, Petronas and Proton. Redberry group owns and operates some of Malaysia’s most respected and relevant media properties – from TV to out-of-home, retail, print and more. It is also the operator of Bernama TV, Malaysia’s only 24-hour news channel which reaches three million households, as well as The Malay Mail newspaper and all-business daily, The

Malaysian Reserve. As the exclusive concession holder for Malaysia’s major highways and its airports, the out-of-home solutions business, which includes Focus Media, Pointcast and Meru Utama, reaches more than 900,000 people every day along with millions of visitors to Malaysia every year, said the company.

content, particularly for training and visual communications, it said on its site. In 2006, another milestone was marked with the collaborative partnership of CR Techmedia and Be Digital. This expanded its reach for digital content development past Malaysia to regional markets and the Middle East. In 2009, Be Digital formed a joint venture in Australia with creative

entrepreneurs to establish Be Digital International Pty, which specialises in digital signage solutions and digital content development. This allowed the company to make inroads into the Australian market with a major contract with an established university, among others. Clients of its digital media solutions include regional companies and MNCs such as Shell, Genting Malaysia, Giant, Telekom Malaysia, Aquaria KLCC, NTV7, Suntec City Singapore, Singapore Management University and Jeddah Shipping Port (Xenel). It also counts companies such as Mydin, Kayu Nasi Kandar, Wesria Food Courts and Nusmetro Properties as clients. In the media space, clients include Fireﬂy, Packet One, Maxis, GCH, MAMPU (PM’s Dept) and EMI.

Group encompasses a variety of companies, the tools needed to diversify our business were already in place,” said a spokesperson. It had success last year when it successfully hosted the World Marketing Summit (WMS 2013) in November, said the company. The event attracted leading ﬁgures from the industry to speak at the event to an audience

of 2,500, including senior members of the Malaysian government. The Youth Parliament 2013, held concurrently, also proved a resounding success, said Katchi. In the same year it also worked with several public and private sector organisations to develop national-level promotional campaigns. While it was a tumultuous year for the nation, with some of the campaigns put on hold, these will kick off in 2015. Campaigns it has run include ones for clients such as Malayan Banking Berhad, Samsung Electronics Malaysia, Malaysia Building Society Berhad, Bank Simpanan Nasional, Kraftangan, Axiata, BMW Malaysia, Nissan and tourism authorities of Thailand and India, and Tourism Malaysia.

9 | BE DIGITAL Be Digital comes in ninth place in OOH Media of the Year. It was incorporated in 2001 to spearhead the digital content development division of its parent company, Click Graﬁx Sdn Bhd. Be Digital has two lines of business: Provision of digital media solutions in the arena of digital signage solutions and the development of content; and the provision of media space for advertisers through out-of-home digital media in the form of digital signage networks in F&B and retail locations. Be Digital was awarded the MSC-status endorsement in August 2003 and was recognised in the industry for its strength and professional specialisation in 3D animation, visual effects, broadcast multimedia, dynamic digital signage and the development of digital

10 | KATCHI GROUP

Katchi Group comes in 10th this year. In the past year, the company diversiﬁed into project/event management, with a focus on national-level promotional campaigns. “All of our intended events are conceived in the spirit of doing good, doing well and focused on promoting the country, its people and the industry to a wider audience. Since the Katchi

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TV BROADCASTER OF THE YEAR

Traditionally one of the most resilient mediums, TV has seen its fair share of competition as the digital realm poses new threeats to the business, pushing broadcasters to innovate. Here are Malaysiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s top broadcasters according to marketers.

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TV BROADCASTER OF THE YEAR

1 BBC WORLDWIDE CHANNELS ASIA

Coming in at top spot is BBC Worldwide Channels Asia. The broadcaster launched BBC Knowledge HD in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Taiwan earlier this year. BBC News’ content is also now available on the smartphone instant messaging platform, LINE. BBC News claims to be the first international news organisation to have an official account on the app. The team also saw added manpower. David Weiland took up the role of EVP of Asia in April following his successful tenure as EVP of Western Europe. Monty Ghai is now SVP

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and GM of Southeast Asia for BBC Worldwide Asia. BBC Worldwide boosted its ad sales team in Asia, appointing John Williams vicepresident of ASEAN and India. He is based in Singapore. Katy Xu took on the role of vice-president of Greater China and North Asia and is based in Hong Kong. Amit Arora, head of business development for Asia, took on a strategy and business development brief across the region. Some of the key advertisers this year were

Indonesia Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM), Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board, Singapore Airlines, Allianz Global Investors, Asia Pacific GmbH, ANZ, IBM Singapore, Axiata Group Berhad, SC Global Developments Ltd, LG Electronics Asia and several others. New advertisers for the channel included the Maldives TSM and IBM. Across the region, BBC Worldwide also licensed more BBC dramas in China such as Orphan Black to meet with the growing demand. In January, the new series of the BBC hit drama Sherlock was launched on Youku, less than 24 hours following the UK telecast, becoming one of the first countries to do so. Aside from Sherlock, Hidden Kingdoms, a co-production with CCTV, also premiered on 13 August. As part of the BBC’s continued efforts to maintain a strong brand connection with Indonesian viewers, a three-month campaign was launched on BBC Knowledge on Indovision, where viewers stood a chance to win an all-expenses paid trip to the Sydney Top Gear Festival. BBC World News and BBC.com also jointly presented the annual Pub Quiz Challenge – in partnership with Marketing magazine (A+M’s sister publication) – in Hong Kong and Singapore where agencies battled it out to be crowned the “smartest agency in town”.

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TV BROADCASTER OF THE YEAR

2 MEASAT BROADCAST NETWORK SYSTEMS

Astro revolutionised its television viewing landscape in Malaysia with the first HD broadcast in 2009, when it introduced the B.yond hybrid DTH and broadband-enabled set-top boxes (STBs). Since then, Astro has remained a hot favourite of advertisers and marketers in Malaysia. This year the channel comes a close second in the rankings.

With the mass adoption of the B.yond hybrid DTH and broadband-enabled STBs, coupled with a positive response for its Astro on the Go platform, Astro is now able to offer customers content on multiple screens, be it TV, notebook, tablet or smartphone. With a total offering of 172 channels, of which 69 are Astro-branded, Astro continues

to lead Malaysia’s TV viewership with a share of 47%, said the company. Astro’s multi-screen content delivery strategy is also resonating well with Malaysians. Its unprecedented coverage of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil achieved a record-high TV viewership of 8.2 million and 1.9 million viewers on Astro on the Go and the Astro Go 2014 FIFA World Cup app. To further improve the customer viewing experience, Astro refreshed its on-screen TV Guide with a new user interface. The system now has a search engine for better content discoverability and is available in various languages for better accessibility for Astro’s multilingual customer base. The company also kicked off its “Same day as the US” campaign, enabling Astro viewers to watch TV drama series on the same day as they premiere in the US. As for movies, it introduced Astro First, which offers the latest local cinema titles as recent as two weeks from Malaysia’s cinema release. Going forward, said the company, with the increase in broadcasting capacity, Astro intends to launch more HD channels in the near future to improve its HD value proposition for its customers.

and TV9 – have been catapulted to greater heights with their diverse programme offerings which complement the emerging avenues for content consumption, and which have gained an enormous audience share. The intensive coverage of major sporting

events through aggressive communication and branding initiatives as well as strategic partnerships, have made Media Prima one of the top key players in the industry. The broadcaster also supports all international sports such as the Riuh Di Brazil activation campaign in conjunction with the 2014 FIFA World Cup; the 2014 Commonwealth Games (TV3 and ntv7); the 2014 Asian Games (TV3 and TV9); the Sultan Selangor Cup 2014; and the AFF Suzuki Cup 2014 (TV3 and TV9). Since 1984, TV3 continues to lead the local television landscape by providing Premium Mass Malays with content such as dramas, entertainment, news, magazine and documentary programmes. Every year, the Karnival Jom Heboh is held in different parts of the country which guarantees wholesome fun for the entire family and gives visitors a chance to get up close and personal with their favourite artists. Other than that, Malaysia’s first and biggest drama festival, Drama Festival Kuala Lumpur (DFKL), which was organised by TV3 and TV9, brought together thousands of aspiring young Malaysians and industry experts such as directors, producers and scriptwriters through various workshops.

3 MEDIA PRIMA BERHAD

Media Prima is taking home third spot in this year’s TV Broadcasters of the Year. This is a testament to its successful development initiatives that have been implemented as part of its strategic planning in 2014. All four of its channels – TV3, ntv7, 8TV

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TV BROADCASTER OF THE YEAR

4 FOX INTERNATIONAL CHANNELS At number four in this year’s rankings is FOX International Channels (FIC). Since FOX International Channels’ launch of the FOX Sports network in Asia in 2013, it has implemented a number of initiatives to upgrade its sports channels and offer fans the best possible sports viewing experience.

FIC has invested in significant changes to its sports operations for a more locally focused approach, including building multiple operational hubs across the region and offering commentary in more local languages which now includes Cantonese, Mandarin, Bahasa Indonesia, Bahasa Malaysia and Thai, in addition to English.

FOX Sports also had a massive rebrand initiative in August this year, which saw the FOX Sports network relaunched as a trio of HD channels – FOX Sports, FOX Sports 2 and FOX Sports 3 – each catering to different types of sports fan. The rebrand campaign tag line was “FOX Sports – where sport goes boom!” and included on-air TVCs, print and on-ground activations. On the evening of the launch date (15 August), FOX Sports aired a specially produced show called FOX Sports Presents to introduce all the new elements of the channel, including all the new on-air presenters. In September, FOX International Channels announced it had closed a deal with Malaysia’s fastest growing IPTV service, HyppTV, for carriage of SCM, FIC’s flagship Chinese movies channel. This marks the channel’s entry into Malaysia and joins a portfolio of top-tier FIC channels already carried on HyppTV, including SCM Legend, STAR Chinese Channel, FOX Football Channel, FOX Crime HD, Nat Geo People HD, Channel [V] International, Channel [V] Taiwan and Channel M. Key advertisers include Tourism Australia, Rolex, Petronas and Thai Airways.

Ravindranathan’s appointment to this newly created position reflected Bloomberg Media’s new strategy to expand its global media footprint beyond TV to multiple media platforms. This appointment ensures each of Bloomberg’s media products – from content through to distribution – are carefully tailored to serve each

distinct and individual market. Lau was a natural fit for Bloomberg’s daily morning business news programme, First Up, with more than 16 years of reporting experience in the US, Canada and Asia. She has brought to the show a perfect blend of deep roots in Asia, a great personality and strong international journalism experience.

5 BLOOMBERG Taking fifth spot in this year’s rankings is Bloomberg Television. The channel launched a multiple long-form business entertainment series as part of its efforts to deepen coverage of the Asia Pacific region. High Flyers with Haslinda Amin entered its third season with a robust line-up of business elites, including celebrity chef Justin Quek, accomplished fashion designer Ashley Isham, and Dilmah tea founder Merrill Fernando. Led by John Dawson and shot on-site in Kuala Lumpur, The Future of Energy uncovers technology’s impact on the world’s energy supply, with a panel of global experts and influencers. Premiering in 2014, The Power of ASEAN takes viewers into one of the world’s fastest growing regions to discover the challenges and opportunities presented to the Southeast Asian nations. From Myanmar’s energy ambitions to Indonesia’s infrastructure blueprint, Haslinda Amin looks into the ASEAN story from all angles. Bloomberg Media made a series of significant promotions this year, most notably in Hong Kong where it saw Parry Ravindranathan promoted to managing director for Asia Pacific and Angie Lau appointed lead anchor for the daily First Up morning programme.

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TV BROADCASTER OF THE YEAR

5 UNIVERSAL NETWORKS INTERNATIONAL NBCUniversal’s new initiatives in the past year have mainly revolved around the commitment to increased investment in three main areas – express programming, original productions and fresh franchises and synergies. “We recognise the importance of timely, up-to-the-minute information in this region. Thus, with new media technologies pushing the boundaries, it has been increasingly important to bring new content to Asian audiences as soon as they are available from the US,” said a spokesperson. Through a campaign called “Express from Hollywood” launched in March 2014, E! viewers have been able to catch up to 90% of their favourite programmes. It also produces original content such as E!’s Facing Up To Fazura, which is about Malaysian actress Nur Fazura, and DIVA’s original series SupermodelMe Season 5: Sirens. NBCUniversal International Television’s channels division continues to distinguish itself in the marketing-to-women arena via an APAC sponsorship package with TRESemmé. In addition to the US, TRESemmé’s sponsorship on E! covers the Philippines, Australia and Indonesia and includes bespoke content created for broadcast on E! revealing

what is hot on the New York runways. For Indonesia, the campaign extended beyond a programme sponsorship. The collaboration included specially produced content featuring Indonesian actress/model Mariana Renata – TRESemmé’s brand ambassador in the territory. Leading women’s entertainment channel DIVA also teamed with CNBC – the leading business and financial news network – on Running The Show, a 30-minute special that takes a look into the lives of some of the most

influential female figures today. The programme marked the return of premium perfumer and luxury fashion house Hugo Boss on DIVA. Other campaigns on the channel included the Marigold Peel Fresh sponsorship of Lisa Surihani’s E! News Asia Special; Dolce & Gabbana’s Fragrance journey and Subaru’s comedy skit for Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Key advertisers include Subaru, Hugo Boss, TRESemmé, Dolce & Gabbana, Escada, Marigold Peel Fresh and Malaysia Tourism Board.

6 DISCOVERY NETWORKS ASIA PACIFIC

Coming in at number six this year is Discovery Networks Asia Pacific. The year marked Discovery Networks’ 20th year in Asia, and fittingly, much of the year’s focus was on enhancing the company’s portfolio in the region. Its key advertisers this year were Tourism Malaysia, Hong Kong Tourism Board, Philippine Airlines, Thai Airways and Old Town White Coffee. In May, a new brand campaign, “How on

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Earth?!” was launched for Discovery Channel and, in July, its lifestyle flagship channel, TLC. Soon after, Discovery Turbo was rebranded DMAX – the definitive factual entertainment destination for young men. From cars and combat to extreme antics and enterprise, the channel covered it all. The channel’s audience saw an uplift of 40% among young males after the rebrand.

In August, Discovery Home & Health was rebranded Eve – the only factual entertainment channel created just for women in Asia. Audience numbers for the channel saw an uplift of 97% in Malaysia after the launch. To promote the premiere of the new series Manhunt with Joel Lambert, Discovery Channel launched an integrated marketing campaign that combined prominent out-of-home billboards and an aggressive on-air and online promotional plan to encourage tune-ins. The first phase included a teaser campaign to illustrate the show format and provide exposure for the main character, Lambert. An online game was created and supported by online ads, social traffic drivers and out-of-home billboards in Malaysia to increase game plays. The show was a global success. In Malaysia, Manhunt premiered 86% above the slot average among all people. In conjunction with Discovery Channel’s 20th anniversary in Asia and the new season premiere of hit series, River Monsters, it organised a threecity tour in Southeast Asia with renowned angler and biologist Jeremy Wade. The tour presented an exclusive opportunity for angling enthusiasts in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia to hear from Wade as he recounted the most exciting, scary and dangerous moments of his career.

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TV BROADCASTER OF THE YEAR

7 TURNER BROADCASTING Turner Broadcasting comes in seventh place this year. The past year has been rewarding for the company with its portfolio increasing in size, now to include general entertainment channel WarnerTV on HyppTV. Other flagship channels Cartoon Network and CNN International continue to entertain and inform audiences through the Astro TV platform. Turner welcomed its first new regional president in more than a decade with Ricky Ow taking the top Asia Pacific job in January this year. Subsequently, Ow bolstered his senior management team with new additions, namely Shitiz Jain (senior vice-president, finance), Marianne Lee (vice-president, content, general entertainment), and Gregory Ho (vice-president, corporate communication and marketing). Ellana Lee was also recently promoted to senior vice-president and managing editor of CNN International, while Phil Nelson was promoted to senior vice-president and managing director for North and Southeast Asia Pacific. On the ground, CNN Travel held a sixmonth digital campaign with Tourism Malaysia, highlighting the country’s diversity. During mid2014, CNN also unveiled its new “Go There” global branding campaign. Other initiatives included WarnerTV’s

“Gotham Villain Hunt” campaign that was launched in September in conjunction with promoting the new hit series Gotham. It was a penguin-themed scavenger hunt held all over Kuala Lumpur. Via the WarnerTV and HyppTV social media platforms, on-air and radio with Fly FM, WarnerTV revealed clues to participants, who stood a chance to win a limited edition

Gotham plush penguin along with other prizes such as a TV or camera. Another one was Cartoon Network where it built a custom-made inflatable jumping castle at a series of Planet Gempak carnival events across Malaysia. The inflatable was undoubtedly aligned with the Cartoon Network’s brand – fun and surprising.

8 SONY PICTURES TELEVISION NETWORKS, ASIA Sony Pictures Television Networks, Asia comes in eighth this year. Over the past year, there have been significant senior hires and promotions for the network. Gan Ling Sze joined as vicepresident of affiliates and media sales, while Jennifer Doig joined as executive director of marketing and communications for English content. Jeslyn Eng was promoted to executive

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director of media and sponsorship sales, while Derek Wong was promoted to executive director of production. Sony channel AXN commissioned Asia’s Got Talent, a pan-regional edition of the global hit Got Talent produced by FremantleMedia and Syco Entertainment. The show is set to premiere in early 2015. AXN also launched a campaign in September

for Voice Season 7. As part of the campaign, a themed MRT train featured in Singapore while the iconic red chair was brought to key locations in Singapore and Malaysia. ONE, the channel showcasing the latest South Korean dramas, organised a ticketed fan meeting with stars of urban action variety show Running Man last October in Singapore that saw a capacity crowd of 3,000 along with an autograph session for 4,000 fans. Hosts of the show, Song Ji Hyo, HaHa, Kim Jong Kook, Jee Seok-Jin and Lee Kwang Soo, are slated to meet with fans again for the second year running, this time in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. Sony Entertainment Television, skewed towards a female audience, was rebranded this year to Sony Channel, bringing the best in Hollywood entertainment to Asia’s discerning viewers with new titles such as Shonda Rhimes’ How to Get Away with Murder. To celebrate Animax’s anime programming, the third Animax Carnival Malaysia was held in March. Japanese band “angela” guest starred at the event that welcomed a record turnout of 22,000. Key advertisers working with the network include Bangkok Airways, Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board, Maybank, LG and Canon.

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TV BROADCASTER OF THE YEAR

9 VIACOM INTERNATIONAL Viacom International takes ninth spot for this category. The company saw senior-level hires this year. Mark Whitehead joined the team in August as executive vice-president and managing director of the company’s Asian operations. Paras Sharma also joined as vicepresident of the MTV and Comedy Central brands, and digital media Asia, in March. Over the past year, the company has had several developments. In April, VIMN Asia announced an expanded strategic collaboration with Sunway Group to develop the first

Nickelodeon-branded attraction, which is set to open in Kuala Lumpur in the first half of 2015. Comedy Central Asia, a channel under the network, also launched Comedy Central HD on HyppTV. The channel has also been made available on the HyppTV Everywhere mobile app. In addition, Nickelodeon’s My Nick Jr. will launch in Malaysia in collaboration with HyppTV, making it the first Southeast Asian market to do so. One key campaign this year was for the MTV World Stage Malaysia 2014. In its sixth instalment, this year’s show had new sponsors in Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, and William Grant & Sons. The event was also supported by Tourism Malaysia. This saw two initiatives: first, the MTV World Stage Insider, which allowed a candidate to take on a 10-day job as part of MTV’s social media team along with an engagement fee worth US$10,000; the second, the Dare To Be An MTV VJ For A Day, where MTV partnered with Acuvue, challenging four winners from all over the region to be presenters at the concert. The network also ran two MTV Sessions, a series of music shows recorded live in front of a 200-strong studio audience. The two artists showcased were Korean boy group B.A.P and soloist Guy Sebastian.

10 SCRIPPS NETWORKS INTERACTIVE

Scripps Networks Interactive secures 10th place for the year. In 2014, Scripps continued to strengthen its competitive position in Asia through its

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popular regional TV channels – Asian Food Channel (AFC), Food Network (FN), and Travel Channel (TC). In addition, the network recently announced the launch of top US network, HGTV,

on StarHub TV in Singapore this December, and regionally in 2015. Across its portfolio of lifestyle channels, Scripps has maintained its focus on producing compelling content that works for its viewers and its partners and sponsors. Working with partners and sponsors such as Philippine Department of Tourism, BERJAYA University College of Hospitality and Jakarta Tourism & Culture Office, the network has produced original programmes such as Amazing Food Challenge: Fun in the Philippines, Must Try: Asia, and Best Thing I Ever Ate: Asia. The Asian Food Channel was also given a refresh with a brand new on-air and online look and feel. Hundreds of hours of new programmes were also added to the roster, including shows such as Restaurant Redemption, Heat Seekers, and My Grandmother’s Ravioli. One of Scripps’ key strategies has also been to find and develop its own on-air talent. This year, Food Hero, an integrated initiative that ran online and on-air on Asian Food Channel and Food Network, was launched in the search for two talents for the channels. The successful campaign found two promising talents – Michele Lean from Malaysia and Sarah Benjamin from Singapore.

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Asia’s Premier Content Marketing Event is Back! Content 360 is your one stop immersive look into the world of best practice content marketing from across the region. Stay connected, gain insights to what’s trending, learn from our experts, share your ideas and join in the content revolution!

First line-up of speakers include: • Vaasu Gavarasana, head – digital marketing, AXA • Priyanka Nath, digital & social media lead, South Asia, Dell • Rupali Shah, digital marketing lead, Asia Pacific, Fuji Xerox • Nadeem Amin, regional digital marketing manager - ANZ, Asia Pacific, South Africa, Kellogg Australia • Myra Gorostiaga, social media analytics lead, Lenovo • Timothy Hou, director of communications and social media, Marina Bay Sands • Pete Mitchell, global media innovations director, Mondel z International • Don Nolan, editor-in-chief, Nissan Global Media Center, Nissan Motors • Aldrina Thirunagaran, assistant vice president, digital marketing, OCBC Bank • Miguel Bernas, director – digital marketing, PayPal • Kris LeBoutillier, digital content director, APAC, Visa …and many others to be named soon

When: 8 – 9 April, 2015 InterContinental Singapore 9.00 am to 5.00pm (Registration starts at 8) To book your seat and take advantage of our early bird rate until 6 February, contact Joven Barcenas at +65 6423 0329 / +65 9820 5195 or email jovenb@marketing-interactive.com

Brought to you by:

For questions regarding advertising and sponsorship, contact Soren Beaulieu +65 6423 0329, sorenb@marketing-interactive.com w w w. m a r k e t i n g - i n t e r a c t i v e . c o m / c o n t e n t 3 6 0 / s g

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RADIO BROADCASTER OF THE YEAR

WITH A BIG PRESENCE IN MALAYSIA, RADIO IS STILL GOING STRONG GIVEN ITS RESILIENCE AND APTITUDE FOR INNOVATION. IN THIS YEAR’S RANKINGS, MARKETERS IN MALAYSIA TELL US THE RADIO STATIONS THAT BEST HELP THEM REACH THEIR TARGET AUDIENCE.

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RADIO BROADCASTER OF THE YEAR

1 ASTRO RADIO SDN BHD

Claiming the coveted number one position is Astro Radio. It is one of Malaysia’s leading radio operators with 20 stations and a weekly listener base of 12.645 million. The broadcaster has nine FM stations, of which, ERA fm, MY FM, hitz.fm and THR Raaga are the top stations in four languages with the highest share of listenership and 55% share of voice. Going forward, Astro Radio’s key focus is to remain agile and forward-thinking in its approach to ensure it stays ahead of the game. “Everything we do from a content, technology, marketing and advertising

perspective is focused on being social, local and mobile,” a spokesperson said. “This is a result of continuous research invested in our listeners to truly understand what they want, when, where and how they want it. “We no longer view ourselves simply as radio station operators. The mindset has changed to being content creators, producers and aggregators, delivering content-rich experience wherever and whenever our audience wants it.” What this means for its advertisers, in the era of digital, is they are now able to define

their target audience and customise their communication messages. This can be done through streaming audio networks, identifying and targeting individual listeners based on gender, age and location or even published music preferences. Astro Radio has also set up a specialised digital sales team focused on offering innovative media solutions. It has also invested in East Malaysia and its efforts in localisation are paying off with a growing listenership and market share. Its client base in East Malaysia has grown by 10% across different market segments.

BFM is also aiming to address the untapped market of the thinking Malay-language urban audience with its video programmes. BFM Media mainly targets working professionals in the Greater KL area. The organisation also attracted several new advertisers. Land Rover and Jaguar were new additions to its core portfolio of car brands. Healthcare providers such as Ramsay Sime

Darby and Sunway Medical Centre also came on board. On the education front, providers such as Epsom College, Tenby International School and Kolej Yayasan Saad Melaka have also started advertising on the radio platform. Joining them are consumer brands such as Tesco, Eu Yan Sang, BonusLink, Popular bookstore and pharmaceutical companies such as Merck Sharp & Dohme. “BFM Media aims to be the most impactful media in Malaysia because it strives for positive changes in the Malaysian economy, business environment and society,” a spokesperson from the company said. Meanwhile, it also launched the BFM Business School which has successfully launched its second general management programme, which aims to transform functional specialists to become general managers.

2 BFM MEDIA

Taking home second spot is BFM Media. In the past 12 months, BFM moved into the video space addressing its core target audience of English-speaking working professionals. It did so with programmes such as Morning Headlines which discusses the morning newspaper headlines by its news and current affairs teams, and 89.9 Seconds where one current affairs topic is covered in 89.9 seconds.

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RADIO BROADCASTER OF THE YEAR

3 STAR RADIO GROUP Coming in at number three is the Star Radio Group. RED FM is one of the group’s leading English radio stations. It targets listeners aged 25 to 34. Famous for its tag line “Not For Kids Radio”, RED FM plays a range of music from rock to hip hop to indie. Early this year, RED FM collaborated with Petron Malaysia and FireFly in the Petrol Crazy campaign. This was a three-week campaign that rewarded listeners with RON97 petrol, worth up to RM72,000. RED FM also aired the forum called “Moderate Malaysians” that brought together eminent personalities such as Niki Cheong, Sharyn Shufiyan and Azmi Sharom, in an initiative to promote patriotism. Meanwhile, its Capital FM station targets female listeners aged 25 to 34. The station was

only available in the Klang Valley, but expanded its operations to Penang earlier this year where it saw growth in its listenership. Earlier this year, Capital FM introduced Life Class, which was a series of workshops dedicated to topical issues for listeners. Capital FM also had a tie-up with talkSPORT UK which

gave listeners the opportunity to catch the latest 2014 FIFA World Cup updates on air and online. 988 is one of the top Chinese radio stations in Malaysia. It is well-known for its tag line “Step Up Rise Up”, focusing on infotainment content. The station targets listeners aged 25 to 39.

and relevant in focusing and specialising in Gen Y content. As the demographic is dynamic and evolving very fast, research and getting constant feedback from the market is very important, says the company. In the past year the broadcaster added several capabilities such as TonTon Music which is a collaboration with Media Prima Digital that provides an experience in music consumption and listening via online streaming. Meanwhile, its social videos are an opportunity for clients to be a part of its large social media community. This is video-based content that enables clients to associate their brand with the stations’ announcers via a personalised approach and localised flavour. Projek Radio was an initiative to discover new radio talents for Hot FM using WhatsApp,

online submissions and on-ground auditions that garnered almost 1,500 entries. Hot FM continued this reality radio show with a series of webisodes showcasing the top 10 finalists as they went through classes, challenges and faced eliminations. Its main advertisers come from the telco and FMCG market with an increase in automotive advertising across its radio stations over the past year. Going forward, it will continue to evolve by converging with social and digital platforms, hence, creating a stronger bond of interaction between listeners and clients. MPRN will also continue to be relevant to the market in content, presence and approach, while becoming the preferred medium of advertising by offering innovative ideas that touch multiple platforms.

Taking fifth spot is Radio TV Malaysia (RTM). RTM radio is the main radio in Malaysia that provides information, news and music. There are all together 33 stations throughout the country that catch a different target audience. Of this, eight operate in Angkasapuri, Kuala Lumpur, which is its headquarters. There are six national radio channels namely NasionalFM (Malay), TRAXXfm (English), AIFM (Mandarin), Minnal FM (Tamil), Radio Klasik (Malay) and ASYIKfm (ethnic dialect). The rest include several local channels and are located in all the states within Malaysia. RTM has three TV channels, namely TV1, TV2 and TVi. RTM also broadcasts online both its TV and radio channels. The history of radio in Malaya began in 1921 when an electrical engineer from the Johor

government, A.L Birch, brought the first radio set into the country. He then established the Johore Wireless Association and commenced broadcasting through 300 metre waves. This was then followed by the establishment of the same association in Penang and the Malayan Wireless Association in Kuala Lumpur. In the early 1950s, broadcasting activities in Malaya were operated from its temporary studio in Jalan Young (now known as Jalan Cenderasari) in Kuala Lumpur and later in 1956 were moved to the Federal House in Kuala Lumpur. It was here that broadcasting in Malaysia grew with the establishment of several stations throughout the country, including Sabah and Sarawak. Commercial advertisements were first aired on radio in 1960. This became a new source of revenue for the government.

4 MEDIA PRIMA BERHAD

Taking fourth spot in the Radio Broadcaster of the Year is Media Prima. All three radio stations under Media Prima Radio Network (MPRN) serve the Gen Y market. Hence, its stations need to be fast-paced 5 RTM

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Taking the customer conversation forward Brought to you by:

The conversation around the customer has evolved such that loyalty, CRM and engagement are no longer spoken of in isolation. This is why we’re bringing to you our Customer Experience Conference in 2015. Some of you will remember our Customer Loyalty conference, which ran to great acclaim in 2013 and 2014. This conference is a continuation of that. We’ll be talking about loyalty and CRM, but we’ll also be talking about fascinating topics like UX design, complaint management, anticipatory customer service and more.

Dates / Time / Location: 11 - 12 March, 9am - 5pm Venue: InterContinental Singapore Prices: Pre-Early Bird till 9 January Client-side: S$990 Marketing Solutions Providers: S$1,690

speakers

Jon Sugihara Head of product RedMart

Enny Hartati Head of design Luxola

Souad-Marie Assaad Product manager Luxola

Karen Eidsvik Regional director, Asia Subway Systems Singapore

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NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR

This year we take a look at some of the newspapers which have come out on top by maintaining their steady readership and proving themselves attractive to advertisers. Here are the top newspapers in Malaysia and the region, as voted by marketers.

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NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR

LOCAL

1 THE STAR

It featured quotes from selected columnists and opinion leaders such as Marina Mahathir, Karim Raslan, Azmi Sharom, Zaid Ibrahim and Datuk Seri Wong Chun Wai who spoke about the nation. The six-week campaign generated

Clinching top spot in Newspaper of the Year is The Star. In conjunction with Merdeka and Malaysia Day, the publication launched its brand campaign in August, reinforcing its support for an open, rational and moderate Malaysia.

a total of 3603 conversations via the hashtags #moderateMY and #the starMY. The Star also participated in a cross-country collaboration between four newspapers from the ASEAN region, comprising itself, The Jakarta Post (Indonesia), The Nation (Thailand) and the Philippines Daily Inquirer (Philippines) for the CIMB-ASEAN ePaper. Through this, ASEAN readers can read all four regional newspapers within a single ePaper subscription with no added cost. The publication also introduced The Star Live earlier this year. The monthly talk sessions cover a range of topics in a bid to connect with readers and provide The Star columnists with an avenue to engage with the audience. Started in May, the sessions have had 716 participants to date. In terms of advertising, the publication launched a campaign in March this year – The StarWatch – that comes in the form of monthly eDMs. Through this, The Star continues to engage with its current advertisers by providing them relevant updates on the publication from both an advertising and content perspective. To reward loyal customers and drive circulation, The Star also organised the “Win With Words” contest.

2 THE EDGE MALAYSIA with this issue of The Edge

T H E STAT E OF T H E NAT ION

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Project 3B not in Edra Global’s IPO?

B Y JOSE BARROCK A N D BEN SHANE LIM

here could be material changes to the asset base of Edra Global Energy Bhd (formerly known as 1MDB Energy Group Bhd) that could affect the initially estimated value of the company and the timing of its planned initial public offering (IPO), sources say. It is understood that at press time, the promoters were talking about, among others, the exclusion of the RM11 billion Project Track 3B, a new coal-ﬁred power plant to be built with a

THE COMPANY THAT COULD

CO N T I N U E S O N PAG E 18

DBKL pays RM145m for Plaza Rakyat site

B Y KAMARUL AZHAR

Starting out with simple epoxies and moving on to manufacturing its own silicone and carbon nanotubes, advanced materials company Penchem is poised to introduce its graphenerelated products — a market with limitless potential.

uala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) has confirmed that it will pay RM145 million to a consortium of lender banks to settle a loan taken by troubled Plaza Rakyat Sdn Bhd (PRSB), the developer of Plaza Rakyat. DBKL has since secured the Plaza Rakyat site in Jalan Pudu for redevelopment. Mayor Datuk Ahmad Phesal Talib told The Edge last week that DBKL agreed to pay the sum after the matter was settled by arbitration on July 4. CO N T I N U E S O N PAG E 20

Cover picture: Graphene, the new wonder material that is taking the world by storm. It is a thin, nearly transparent sheet, one atom thick, extremely strong (100 times stronger than steel) despite its very low weight and a remarkable conductor of heat and electricity.

The Edge Malaysia comes in a commendable second for this category. The weekly financial and investment news publication introduced a new monthly pullout in September this year, Unlisted &

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Unlimited, which offers a fresh perspective on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Furthermore, it offers a platform to tell the unique stories of entrepreneurs and SMEs. These stories complement the

newspaper’s corporate pages that detail listed companies. In addition, the pullout contains one page that has been written entirely in Mandarin, while accompanied by a translated English version. The reason behind this decision was several SME entrepreneurs had been found to be more comfortable speaking when telling their own stories or listening to others, said a spokesperson for the paper. A new weekly column, Tong’s Value Investing Portfolio, was introduced into the newspaper in the 13 October issue in conjunction with the launch of The Edge Media Group’s new website www.theedgemarkets. com and the introduction of Insider Asia’s Stock Pick of the Day in The Edge Financial Daily. The column solely focuses on insights by Tong Kooi Ong, chairman of The Edge Media Group, where he shares with readers the stocks he is investing in as introduced in the section Stock Pick of the Day. The Edge Malaysia also has a strong social media presence with more than 134,000 followers on Twitter where it shares regular news updates. Furthermore, the newspaper has more than 15,000 followers on its Facebook page.

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NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR

3 THE EDGE FINANCIAL DAILY FBM KLCI 1838.56

4.79

KLCI FUTURES 1841.50

2.00

STI 3344.99

4.46

compact size with a more visually impactful front page. The revamp was shortly followed by the launch of The Edge Media Group’s new website, www.theedgemarkets.com.

In addition, links to download sponsored digital copies of the financial newspaper are regularly emailed to all registered users of the website every Monday to Friday, courtesy of leading property developer S P Setia Bhd. In conjunction with the website launch, three new columns have been introduced in The Edge Financial Daily as of 10 October this year. The first column – Stocks with Momentum – is aimed at helping readers to understand the stocks, which are generated daily by a proprietary algorithm at 2.30pm on market days. To help readers understand these stocks better, licensed investment advisory firm Asia Analytica Sdn Bhd does an analysis of these companies and the fundamental assessment is published in the next day’s issue of the financial newspaper. The second column is Tong’s Momentum Portfolio. In this section, Tong Kooi Ong, chairman of The Edge Media Group, shares with readers what he is investing in based on stocks highlighted under Stocks with Momentum on the website. Lastly, Insider Asia has come up with a new daily feature – Stock Pick of the Day. It focuses on the recommended stocks by Asia Analytica Sdn Bhd.

New Straits Times (NST) comes fourth in the rankings this year. The reputed English-language newspaper has won several accolades in the past year, namely a silver for Sport Photography at the WAN-IFRA Asian Media Awards 2014, and the winner in the “Best Use of Radio” category at A + M Agency of the Year 2014, among others. It has also made efforts to reinforce its brand positioning as a credible source of news

and information through a year-long “A Sharper Read” campaign, executed through print, TV, radio, outdoor and online platforms. NST also promoted its new special interest section, the Life & Times pullout. The newspaper embarked on three creative execution campaigns this year to deliver content in a creative manner for its advertisers. The first two were the Wonda Coffee 5D and Wonda Coffee Broadsheet campaign with Permanis Sandilands Malaysia in the months of March and June. The third was the Tropicana Twister Orange campaign in August. It conducted its Spell-It-Right flagship event for the seventh consecutive year. The English nationwide spelling competition, catering to children between the ages of 7 and 17, received a 50% increase in participation to a grand total of 14,905 participants. It also held its Business Times Insight Series this year. The series was an intellectual discourse regarding business and economic issues pertaining to Malaysia. Participants comprised prominent industry players, government agencies and business leaders. Another initiative was the NST Auto Show, which was a three-day show held at MATRADE where automotive brand owners showcased their cars, bikes and trucks.

RM/USD 3.3515

CPO RM2218.00

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5.50

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WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 26, 2014 ISSUE 1847/2014

FINANCIAL DAILY MAKE BETTER DECISIONS

www.theedgemarkets.com

New PKA chief on long leave 15 HOME

4 HOME BUSINESS

Selangor BN reps reject RM200,000 allocation 6 HOME BUSINESS

PAC lambasts MAHB for ignoring stakeholder AirAsia’s concerns about klia2 8 HOME BUSINESS

Mustapa: 1MDB investment in Cayman Islands ‘not an unusual practice’ 2021 FOCUS

Forex roulette

The Edge Financial Daily takes third spot in this category. The newspaper was launched in 2007 and recently unveiled its new look in September. The newspaper now has a regular

4 NEW STRAITS TIMES

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NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR

5 HARIAN METRO

In fifth place this year for Newspaper of the Year is Harian Metro (HM). The publication launched the Geng Rovers Harian Metro (GRHM) in September last year, becoming the first Malaysian publication with its own roving team similar to that of radio stations. The GRHM consists of five promoters driving around Klang Valley and other states to

promote the brand, and subscription of both the physical and digital HM. The team also conducts on-ground activities where the public can win merchandise and even sponsored products. Currently in its second year, GRHM is sponsored by Edaran Tan Chong. HM also continued its collaboration with

Tourism Malaysia for the second year running to organise the Harian Metro Mountain Bike Grand Prix Cuti-Cuti 1Malaysia 2014. Five rounds were held nationwide from August to December this year. Metro Ahad, the national Sunday edition of HM, revamped its look and feel in May 2014 and has retained its top position in terms of readership with a total of 4.2 million readers per day. To create brand awareness, HM launched the “Padat” campaign in August 2014. The thematic campaign was executed via a series of four print ads, a 40-second TVC, 30-second radio ad, online banners, content and onground events. The campaign utilised all of Media Prima’s platforms as well as social media.

eco-friendly printing. It has also updated its web page to allow for adaptive web viewing. This now enables readers to read its web content on all platforms, including PCs, mobile phones and tablets. Its senior management has remained the same in the past year. Key campaigns it has run in recent years included one for its 35th anniversary

celebrated in 2012, in which it helped a Chinese independent school raise RM 708,000. It also runs ongoing tours and visits for school children to the Asia Times printing plant. It also serves as the official media for several charity events. Asia Times Online was founded at the beginning of 1999 and is incorporated and registered in Hong Kong. It derives its revenues from advertising, the resale of original content to other publications and news services, and subscriptions to atimes.net. According to its online profile, Asia Times Online’s readers are investors, executives, diplomats, academics and journalists who need to know about Asian political, economic and business affairs.

The Sun newspaper comes in seventh place. According to the paper, it is the number one circulating English newspaper in Klang Valley and Penang, with more than 300,000 copies sent out daily, at more than 3,600 pick-up and distribution points nationally. The paper is audited by the Audit Bureau of Circulations in Malaysia, it says on its site. Its key readers are professionals, management, executives and business people, who come with a high purchasing power, keen interest in technology, are savvy investors in the financial and property market, and enjoy the good life of wining and dining. The paper had a tough time, with challenges on every side from the period of 2010 to 2012. “There was a lack of direction, despite strong interest from the Berjaya management to sustain The Sun and improve business operations,”

said a spokesperson. However, Chan Kien Sing, executive director of Berjaya Group and managing director of Sun Media Corporation, streamlined the operations, appointed a new editor Freddie Ng (from within) and hired media professional Prashun Dutt as chief marketing officer. Subsequently, the paper achieved a 26% growth in the period of January to December 2013, as compared to January to December 2012. It also saw a 20% growth during the financial year of 1 May 2013 to 30 April 2014, compared with the same period before. The Sun saw its demand rise during 201314, particularly in the lead up to GE13 and its aftermath. The newspaper maintains a free distribution business model and has its distribution concentrated in urban Malaysia.

6 ASIA TIMES

The Asia Times comes in sixth place this year. Some new advertisers that have come on board to support the publication include Hyundai, Honda, Mah Sing, S P Setia and local developer Sina Land. New developments the paper has undertaken this year include taking on a new colour separation technology by OnColor, allowing it options for

7 THE SUN

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NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR

8 SIN CHEW DAILY Chinese language daily Sin Chew Daily has come in eighth place for Newspaper of the Year, as voted by marketers and advertisers. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulation for the period ending 31 December 2011, Sin Chew Daily had an average daily circulation of almost 500,000 and was also the largest selling Chinese-language newspaper outside Greater China. According to Bloomberg, Sin Chew Media Corporation Berhad, an investment holding company, engages in the publication, printing and distribution of newspapers in Malaysia. The newspapers published by the company include Sin Chew Daily and Guang Ming Daily. Its other activities include the printing of newspapers for other publishers, publishing and distribution of magazines and other publications, providing content to web and mobile users, web

hosting and designing, web advertising, and web audio and video broadcasting. Sin Chew Media also acts as a newspaper circulation and distribution agent, and provides editorial services and contract labour. The company was incorporated in 1983 as Pemandangan Sinar Sdn Bhd and changed its name to Sin Chew Media Corporation Berhad in 2004. Sin Chew Media is based in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. As of April 23, 2008, Sin Chew Media Corp. Bhd operates as a subsidiary of Media Chinese International Limited. The paper is sold for a cover price of RM1.30. It targets a mandarin-speaking audience aged over 15. Sin Chew Daily was originally founded on 15 January 1929 by Aw Boon Par and Aw Boon Haw, founders of Tiger Balm as part of the Star Amalgamated Newspaper.

Key advertisers include TM, Maxis, Maybank, AXA Affin General Insurance, Mercedes, BMW, among others. The paper is printed by The Malaysia SME media group, established in 2005. The company focuses specifically on SMEs, both within Malaysia and globally. It has a portfolio of business newspapers, a community directory, business events, business sitcom and an online news portal. As the online publisher

of MSME News Network, a global SME news portal, it serves SMEs internationally. The Malaysia SME Newspaper, a fortnightly publication, boasts an audited circulation of 50,000 copies and the Malaysia SME Community Directory has an audited circulation of 130,000 copies annually, said the company. Wayne Lim, the company’s CEO and founder, has been actively involved with the SME community for more than 10 years. His involvement with the SME community began when he was attached to a Singapore PLC. There he started the SMI Business Directory with the SMI Association of Malaysia in 2001 and has been deeply involved in the business of SMEs. He founded the MSME™ media group in 2005 and subsequently conceptualised the Malaysia SME media brand.

The Malaysian Reserve (TMR) comes in 10th place for Newspaper of the Year. It runs in association with the International New York Times. From 1 December, The Malaysian Reserve’s online version sported a new look. It also repackaged its online portal to be served as a premium service that is free for print subscribers and, at a nominal fee to subscribers, but it will be free to all until 1 January 2015. Its portal has its own team of writers and editors who not only bring the latest in financial news, but also all the interesting news about general happenings, politics and events. It will also include more lifestyle-related stories which will be dedicated to trending topics, with reports ranging from book reviews, music and arts. On the social media platform, it is focusing on speed and accuracy, along with

giving an interactive avenue between TMR and its readers, with more photos, infographics and real-time updates available. It will also highlight selected posts from blogs as an added alternative voice to its news. “We are excited to present our refreshed website with a more elaborate content presentation which can be viewed on the go,” said TMR CEO Syed Fazilla Syed Hussain. He said the new portal would enhance the product offerings under The Malaysian Reserve brand which had been going from strength to strength over the past seven years. Commenting on the new portal, TMR group editor Zulkifli Othman said: “We are doing this to introduce new readers to the brand and, at the same time, enhance the experience for our loyal friends who are already our readers.”

9 MALAYSIA SME NEWSPAPER The Malaysia SME Newspaper comes in ninth place in the rankings. In April this year, the newspaper had a major facelift. The whole layout design was revamped to give its readers a better reading pleasure. The same senior management team remains at the helm for the running of the newspaper while a new sales director was brought in. Apart from being a publishing house, it continues to bridge the growth of the SME community through various channels, such as its regular business networking and seminar series, as well as hosting its annual SME networking event, the Malaysia SME Congress, which has seen tremendous growth in turnout over the years. Other events include its coffee table launch, Tales of Inspiration 2, SME sitcom and Engage dinner.

THE MALAYSIAN RESERVE

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NewsToday Talent Human Capital Production technology for the future — Catalyst for change PAGE 24

GENERAL NEWS & BRIEFS PG 8 & 20

CORPORATE Karex seeks to grow its global market share in 2015: Condom maker Karex Bhd expects to increase its global market share to 18% by financial year 2015 from 13% now on the back of a ramp-up in production capacity and new products. PG 2

Banking industry to invest RM1.1b on e-payment: The Malaysian banking industry will be investing a total of RM1.1 billion over the next six years for payment systems infrastructure development which involves further enhancement of payment card security and expand point-ofsale terminal network by adding another 570,000 from the current 250,000. PG 7

MONEY Beijing loosens monetary policy further as PBoC scraps repo sales: China’s central bank refrained from selling repurchase agreements for the first time since July, loosening monetary policy further as a report showed industrial companies’ profits fell by the most in two years. PG 9

WORLD Euro-area confidence unexpectedly rises: Economic sentiment in the euro-area unexpectedly increased in November, a sign the European Central Bank’s bid to boost growth and inflation is starting to hit home with companies and consumers.

Pic by Ismail Che Rus

Captoin

by Hussein Shaharuddin

DR M’S PRESENCE TURNS UP THE HEAT: A panoramic view of Putra World Trade Centre during the Umno annual general assembly. Whether Prime Minister (PM) Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Razak and his supporters were relieved to see former PM Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad turning up at the opening of the Umno general assembly yesterday is anybody’s guess. SEE P2 & P8

MMC acquires 15.73% in NCB for RM222m Acquisition by MMC is ‘strategic investment’ to boost its portfolio of ports

PG 21

by KAVITHAH RAKWAN MMC Corp Bhd has begun procedures to relist Malakoff Corp Bhd after agreeing to purchase a 15.73% stake in NCB Holdings Bhd from MISC Bhd for RM221.98 million cash or RM3 a share. The purchase of stake in NCB, which operates the North and South ports in Klang, will complement the group’s interest in portfolio of ports along the Straits of Malacca. MMC, controlled by billionaire Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary, already controls Johor Port and Port of Tanjung Pelepas in Johor. Syed Mokhtar also has control of Penang Port through

Seaport Terminal (Johore) Sdn Bhd, which is a major shareholder of MMC. MMC, via Malakoff, also has a 20% stake in Lekir Bulk Terminal at the Lumut Port in Perak, which handles coal movements for Tenaga Nasional Bhd’s power facility in Manjung, Perak. “The acquisition is in line with the initiative of MMC to make further strategic investment in MMC’s core business, the ports and logistics division and to further strengthen MMC’s financial position. “In addition, the acquisition will bode well for MMC, which is a key player in the ports industry in Malaysia. It provides a good opportunity for the MMC Group to acquire a strategic stake in an established company in the ports and logistics sector,” the group said in a note to the exchange yesterday. The stake sale is part of MISC’s move to divest its non-core

businesses and concentrate on its oil and gas-related business. A report by a business daily had speculated that MMC will use NCB as a listed vehicle for the backdoor listing of MMC’s port assets which, if true, will see MMC’s stake in NCB rise. NCB is currently controlled by Permodalan Nasional Bhd with a 47.71% stake. Kenanga Research revised its target price on MMC to RM2.41 from RM2.81 previously following the proposed stake buy in NCB, stating it’s unsure whether MMC has ever indicated intention to buy stakes in ports especially at an investment stake level. “Despite the group’s earnings delivery, uncertainties persist on the group’s direction on the back of recent newsflow which the market has perceived negatively. “We believe all these factors could SEE P4 COL1

Protasco EGM: Two directors removed by MOKHRIZ MOKHTAR PROTASCO Bhd shareholders overwhelmingly voted to remove directors Tey Por Yee and Adrian Ooi Kock Aun when they resumed their EGM yesterday, which was interrupted the day before. Group MD Datuk Chong Ket Pen, who convened the meeting under the company’s name, said with the directors out of the way, the company will now focus on getting its investment from Indonesian PT Anglo Slavic Utama (PT ASU) with which it had signed a botched oil and gas agreement. He said the company will also pursue its lawsuit against the two former directors for making secret profits and other fiduciary malpractice. SEE P4 COL3

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NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR

REGIONAL

1 FINANCIAL TIMES This year, the Financial Times (FT) newspaper was refreshed. With a profitable print circulation and a strong healthy global print readership, this investment was to reaffirm the newspaper was still a very important part of the organisation and its multichannel offering. By responding to evolving reader habits, the new FT will be a modern paper for current and future readers who place a high value on it. The new FT newspaper will prioritise original, agenda-setting news with global insights, analysis and context. Its new design will prioritise simplification and ease of reading. The new look will also hold a strong proposition for both readers and advertisers, delivering the very best of the FT’s journalism and keeping readers on the front foot of emerging trends.

FT has also restructured its commercial team to reflect its global nature and transformation to universal publishing. The new team is structured by the disciplines of B2C, B2B, trading, career management, education and emerging markets rather than region. The move allows the FT team to better serve clients and focus on areas of competitive strength such as special projects, luxury, weekend, education, emerging markets and growing regions. Last December, FT extended its tool Smart Match to global advertising clients after a successful initial trial. The technology, provided by Smartology, recognises the meaning of news articles, allowing advertisers to match their content to relevant news stories in real-time on FT.com. Campaign performance has since

increased up to 20 times. Similarly, because its web app is HTML5-based, FT can now support more interactive, user-centred creatives. Internally, FT is also creating a centralised design team and market insight/analytics programme to boost creativity, quality and client ROI.

2 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL The Wall Street Journal is one of the world’s largest publishers of business news and information for the web with 1,800 journalists in 78 editorial bureaus, filing several thousands of items a day. In Asia, an English-language edition is available in print, web, mobile and tablet app formats. Additionally, four local-language digital editions provide more in-depth coverage tailored to the specific information needs of Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Bahasa Indonesia speakers. The Wall Street Journal claims it commands more consumer confidence because it is both trusted and influential. With more than three times the news staff in Asia as its closest competitor, the paper is consistently ranked as the most important business reading in Asia by business

elites across the region. In 2014, a new CEO at parent company Dow Jones was determined to increase ad sales, and hence, the fundamental electronic publishing equation had to change. Mark Pope, VP of ad sales, was charged with a new role as managing director/publisher. Pope, together with Asia editor Paul Beckett, launched a series of editorial-based initiatives that were hits with advertisers, including a gala innovator of the year ceremony, an editorial package in Beijing, a topical event series across the region, and a full day with live programming devoted to technology in Tokyo. Increasing the video reach was also a priority, with a 13% increase in Asian video downloads year-over-year. Succeeding Pope, Hong Kong sales head Mark Rogers was promoted and now runs all regional ad sales. A savvy digital Dow Jones

Total Journalism In a Digital Age

veteran, Rogers’ focus has been on expanding advertiser use of custom content, and has secured significant commitments in his first eight weeks in the role.

3 INTERNATIONAL NEW YORK TIMES

The International New York Times (INYT) came into being in October 2013, when the International Herald Tribune was rebranded.

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Since then, it has strengthened the INYT’s position as a newspaper of the world and placed it at the centre of The New York Times Company’s global operations. The International New York Times readers have a sophisticated, global outlook and what unites consumers of all its products is their intellectual curiosity. In April 2014, the paper launched NYT Now and Times Premier, two radically different digital subscriptions to broaden its readership. NYT Now was created for an audience seeking slightly more content than their 10 free monthly articles, and at a lower price than the full news report. It is the first standalone news product that provides readers with its most essential stories of the moment, and is now its least expensive digital package.

Unlike NYT Now, Times Premier is a premium subscription service. It includes tailored content and experiences exclusively for Premier customers. NYT Opinion which was launched in June 2014, is the paper’s first digital product to offer a standalone subscription to all of The New York Times’ opinion coverage, along with a continuous feed of commentary from The New York Times and other reputable sources from around the web. Its new range of digital products have been designed and optimised for mobile because more than 50% of the articles are read on mobile devices. Since the rebrand, the paper has expanded its world-renowned opinion pages and included more international opinion contributors.

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MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR ................................................................................................................................................................................................................

One of the oldest mediums, print has taken its fair share of hits in recent years. Here are the industry’s top publications who have weathered the storm to come out on top – as voted by marketers.

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OVERALL MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR 1. Forbes Asia

2. CLEO

3. Harper’s BAZAAR

Publisher: Forbes Asia Frequency: Monthly Circulation: Combined circulation of 500,000 (publisher’s claim)

Publisher: BluInc Media Sdn Bhd Frequency: Monthly Circulation: 71,000 (publisher’s claim)

Publisher: BluInc Media Sdn Bhd Frequency: Monthly Readership: 25,000 (publisher’s claim)

Forbes Asia comes out as the clear winner not only within its category, but also as the overall winner in this year’s rankings. Forbes Asia presents relevant local features and authoritative reporting that is especially engaging to Asia’s most influential and successful business leaders. Launched in September 2005, it brings the Forbes style of journalism to the region.

CLEO comes a close second in the overall rankings this year. Launched in 1995, CLEO shot to the top as Malaysia’s best-selling English-language women’s title within three years, the publication says. In addition to its website www.cleo.com.my, now into its fifth year, CLEO launched its digital edition in August 2013 with editorial and creative buy value-add content for clients. The title is also active on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

Harper’s BAZAAR takes third spot in the overall rankings this year. It launched its new look with the June 2014 issue, featuring all the design hallmarks of the 146-yearold international magazine: the iconic Didot font, white space as a statement, typography as an artistic statement and circular motifs. New advertisers that have come on board include adidas, Comyns, Goenka Diamond & Jewels, Kate Spade, and Beauty Prestige International.

WOMEN’S MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR 1. CLEO Publisher: BluInc Media Sdn Bhd Frequency: Monthly Circulation: 71,000 (publisher’s claim) CLEO clinches top spot in this year’s rankings. The publication launched a new look in January with a style-and-beauty focused editorial direction. Just this October, it welcomed its new editor Claudia Low. In addition to its website, which is into its fifth year, CLEO also launched its digital edition in August 2013 with editorial and creative buy value-add content for clients. Some new advertisers onboard are Burberry and Henkel.

2. Harper’s BAZAAR

3. Female

Publisher: BluInc Media Sdn Bhd Frequency: Monthly Circulation: 25,000 (publisher’s claim)

Publisher: BluInc Media Sdn Bhd Frequency: Monthly Circulation: 50,000 (publisher’s claim)

Harper’s BAZAAR takes second spot in the category. It launched a new look in June this year featuring all the design hallmarks of the 146-year-old publication. Harper’s BAZAAR told Marketing it was working on its website launch for 2015 on top of its existing digital edition that was launched in August 2013. Adidas, Kate Spade and Samsung are among some of the new advertisers who have come on board.

Taking third place is Female magazine. Female celebrated its 40th anniversary this year with various sales initiatives, marketing campaigns and events, collaborations and new media projects, which included a 560page bumper issue, among other efforts. For its digital edition, the publication introduced more interactivity and boosted circulation with subscription campaigns.

MEN’S MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR 1. FHM Malaysia

2. August Man

3. Men’s Uno

Publisher: Astro Digital Publications Frequency: Monthly Circulation: Average net circulation per publishing day – 4526 (audited by ABC)

Publisher: E-Media Worldwide Sdn Bhd Frequency: Monthly Circulation: 30,000 (publisher’s claim)

Publisher: Astro Digital Publications Frequency: Monthly Circulation: 25,000 (publisher’s claim)

Taking top spot for this year’s rankings in the men’s magazines is FHM Malaysia. The publication is now fully digitised with a website, interactive e-magazine and social media presence on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. It continues to extend its reach to men aged between 18 and 35, who are high-value consumers of fashion, grooming, gadgets, travel and cars.

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This year August Man Malaysia takes second spot in the rankings. The magazine has plans of venturing into digital in the near future. There will be a change of hands as well with the title coming under Hubert Burda Media in the coming year. Hubert Burda already publishes the title in Singapore. The title targets professionals in their 30s who are edgy and have a pioneering spirit.

Men’s Uno comes in third. The publication is now fully digitised with its site linked to its regional counterparts in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China, and it also has an interactive e-magazine. With premium fashion and watch brands as advertisers, Men’s Uno has maintained itself as a comprehensive men’s fashion and lifestyle magazine, targeting men aged 25-45 with high spending power and a penchant for travel.

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LUXURY MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR 1. Prestige Malaysia

2. Tatler

3. The Peak

Publisher: Rev Asia Holdings Sdn Bhd Frequency: Monthly Circulation: 20,000 (publisher’s claim)

Publisher: Edipresse Media Malaysia Sdn Bhd Frequency: Monthly Circulation: 10,913 (audited by ABC)

Publisher: BluInc Media Sdn Bhd Frequency: Monthly Circulation: 15,357 (audited by ABC; up to 30 June, 2013)

Prestige Malaysia comes in second place under this category for this year’s rankings. The magazine continues to extend its reach to the affluent and influential social elite in the Malaysian market. Most notably, Hubert Burda Media is set to take over the publication in 2015 with Victor Omar Low at the helm as publisher and managing director. The company will have four titles under its umbrella of magazines – Prestige, August Man, PIN Prestige and Lisa.

The Malaysian edition of Tatler takes top spot in this category. The magazine underwent a revamp, adding new pages such as Behind The Scenes and The Great Debate. Its website MalaysiaTatler.com also saw an overhaul, with the introduction of a team that exclusively produces content for the digital version of the publication. Some advertisers who have come on board include Christian Dior, Carolina Herrera and Bang & Olufsen.

The Peak takes third spot this year. 2014 marked the publication’s silver anniversary in Malaysia and to mark the occasion, it organised several events. Digitally, the magazine is reaching out to more readers via Magzter and the App Store. Furthermore, it has also collaborated with AmBank, allowing AmBank, AmIslamic and MBF card members to download issues for free.

INFLIGHT MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR 1. Going Places

2. Travel 3Sixty

3. Jetstar Magazine

Publisher: Spafax Networks Frequency: Monthly Readership: 1.2 million (publisher’s claim)

Publisher: AirAsia Berhad Frequency: Monthly Circulation: 48,059 (audited by ABC Malaysia)

Publisher: Ink Global Frequency: Monthly Readership: 360,000 (publisher’s claim)

Going Places comes first place this year. The magazine’s design was refreshed in May 2014 and the team at Spafax Malaysia has seen an increase as well, including the hire of a new digital editor. To advance itself digitally, Going Places now has its own online version that went live in September. In addition, several new advertisers have come onboard, including Tiffany & Co, Sime Darby Property and the Ministry of Agriculture.

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Jetstar comes in a commendable third this year. It went through a major revamp in July departing from celebrity covers to a more conceptual direction with LIGHTS OPERA ACTION mixed media. The magazine has furthered itself online through various ticket giveaways on both Jetstar Asia Airways’ Facebook page along with the magazine’s own FB page, encouraging crossinteraction. Marina Bay Sands and Genting Malaysia are among its new advertisers. 09

Travel 3Sixty takes second spot in these rankings. The title is poised for a relaunch in 2015 and is now headed by regional head of corporate communications and branding, Jenny Wakana. Travel 3Sixty has two digital assets, its Facebook page for quick engagement and a website where readers can view or download the magazine.

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PROPERTY MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR 1. iProperty

2. Luxury Properties

3. Property Insight Malaysia

Publisher: iProperty Group Frequency: Monthly Circulation: 30,000 (publisher’s claim)

Publisher: Singapore Press Holdings Frequency: Bimonthly Circulation: 112,000 (publisher’s claim) for China

Publisher: Property Insight Frequency: Monthly Circulation: 30,000 (publisher’s claim)

iProperty takes top spot for this category. It recently revamped with an addition of new sections, namely Property Investment Data, Consumer Awareness, Points of Interest, Foreign Market and Tips & Tricks. It saw new managing director and CEO Georg Chmiel come on board in April. Digitally, it is available for download from its official website. The publication will soon be made available on iOS and Android platforms.

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In second place this year is Luxury Properties. It has undergone an organisational restructuring with editor-inchief Kevin Daniel Dwyer now being appointed as product chief as well. Come May, the publication will celebrate its 10th anniversary, hosting China’s first International Property Awards – LP Awards 2015. Also underway is a new digital push with a redesign and launch of its new website.

Property Insight Malaysia takes third spot in the rankings. The magazine has recruited new members to revamp its team and has continued to extend its reach to potential investors and property investors via Facebook (more than 84,000 followers), Google+ and EDMs. New advertisers that have come on board include CIMB, Aurora Sovo Bukit Jalil, and Baba Nyonya.

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MOTOR VEHICLE MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR 1. Motor Trader

2. TopGear Malaysia

3. Evo Magazine

Publisher: Proto Malaysia Sdn Bhd Frequency: Weekly Circulation: 40,000 weekly (publisher’s claim)

Publisher: Astro Digital Publications Frequency: Monthly Circulation: 11,881 (audited by ABC for the year 2013)

Publisher: iCarAsia Frequency: Monthly Circulation: 30,000 (publisher’s claim)

TopGear Malaysia comes in second this year. The publication has not seen major changes, aside from launching the Chinese edition in April. The digital LD! version for the Malaysian RLD ARS WWOORIGHRL AR T NOW STT CCAR EST THE BES market is currently under work. The magazine is circulated through East and West Malaysia. With an average of 40 ads per issue, it’s in constant collaboration with new advertisers. SECRET MILLIONAIRES: RALLYING AN F40 WITH THE YOUTUBE ENIGMASS

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Motor Trader comes in first place this year. The publication is in the process of expanding its editorial content, turning away from a classifieds-only magazine to one with the latest news about the developments in the motoring world. The management team at Proto Malaysia has been restructured with a new managing director coming on board.

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Evo comes in third this year in the motor vehicle category. The publication has introduced a new lifestyle section Evo Essentials, featuring timepieces and gadgets to appeal to its target demographic of affluent males between 30 and 60. This year, Evo has also signed on Lexus to pen articles exploring the history and inner-workings of the Japanese luxury brand. In addition, Evo is in talks with several luxury watch brands such as Panerai for various initiatives.

TRAVEL MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR 1. Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia

2. Business Traveller Asia Pacific

3. DestinAsian

Publisher: Media Transasia Thailand Ltd Frequency: Monthly Circulation: 60,000 (publisher’s claim)

Publisher: Panacea Publishing Frequency: Monthly Circulation: 30, 466 (audited by ABC for July – December 2013)

Publisher: DestinAsian Media Group Frequency: Six times a year Circulation: 35,300 per issue (average), audited by Baker Tilly International

Taking top spot is Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia. Its website saw a total revamp and was relaunched in February 2014. Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia offers various digital products, including a website, eDMs, custom-built microsites and a tablet edition of the magazine. It also publishes four digital destination guides every year. Also 11,000 copies are home-delivered to selected American Express card members as part of its card member benefits.

Taking second spot in the category, Business Traveller has strengthened its existing team with a new group publisher and staff writers for both the online and print editions. The magazine also went through a redesign with the addition of a new lifestyle section. The publication is available on both print and digital. Its accompanying online platform includes a website and a weekly e-newsletter to service readers with the latest updates.

DestinAsian ranks third for travel magazines this year. The magazine has been focused on Twitter and Instagram. Its site has also seen growth in page views by 98%, along with a 300% increase in Facebook followers since last year. Targeting affluent and avid leisure travellers in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong, DestinAsian has added several reputed advertisers such as Emirates, Incheon Airport and Marriott Bangkok.

CONSUMER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR 1. T3 Malaysia

2. Stuff

Publisher: Velocity Media Frequency: Monthly Circulation: 30,000 (publisher’s claim as stated in its media kit)

Publisher: Rev Lifestyle Sdn Bhd Frequency: Monthly Circulation: 35,000 (publisher’s claim)

T3 Malaysia has clinched top spot for this category. The consumer electronics magazine continues to cover relevant content regarding cutting-edge technology in the consumer world. T3 remains styleconscious, keeping in mind its readers aged between 23 and 38, both men and women. A typical issue will contain hardware reviews, competitions, design and photographic features plus other regulars. Areas covered include lifestyle, consumer products and gadgets, cars, HI-FI, mobile, communications, home entertainment, computing and video gaming products.

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Stuff comes in second place this time round. The publication’s editorial team is now headed by Sharil Abdul Rahman, who previously worked with PC.com and Majalah Tech. It also launched its website at stuff.tv/my where readers can access the latest news on launches, gadgets and the hottest products TWO SIDES in the market. Targeted towards a generally male demographic, Stuff’s audience is a 65/35 split between male and female readers. THE WORLD'S BEST-SELLING GADGET MAGAZINE

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W HOTELS ● RIMOWA W ● KOREAN AIR ● AMERICAN EXPRE WA MARRIOTT ● HERMÈS ● HYATT HOTELS ● ORIENT EXPRE PREFERRED HOTELS ● ST REGIS ● ROLEX ● SINGAPOREAIRLINE ● TURKISH AIRLINES ● ROSEWOOD HOTELS ● PA PATE ATE K PHILIPP ● LEX ● HILTON ● ASIA’S EXUS BANGKO K LEADING KO K AIRW RWAY RW WAYS AYREGIONAL S ● CA C NON ● BRUNE SOUTHEAST ● SOFITEL ● BERJ TOUR RISM R AYA ● LANGKAW RJ A I TOURISM AW SM ● C TRAVEL AND LIFESTYLE PUBLICATION HOTEL COLLECTION ● SHERATON ● LE MERIDIEN ● MA TOURISM ● FOUR SEASONS ● FA F IRMONT HOTELS ● SA TOURISM ● MÖVENPICK ● SALA ● ASCOTT ● ORISSA TOUR ● DUSIT ● THE WESTIN ● REGAL HOTELS ● MA D MACAU A ACAU TOU UR ● MARINA MAR ARINA INA NA BAY SA ANDS ● ME ANDS ME ER RITUS R TUS HOTELS ● O OUTRIGGE UTRIGGE UT R GGE LUXU UXURY UXU RY COLLECTION ● ANA RY ANANTA NANTAR NTARA A ● IINTE INTERCONTINENTA NTE RCONTINENTA ONTINENTA HOTELS ● SW SWISS ISS ● IINDIA NDIA TO TO OUR RIS R ISM ● A ISM AY YANA Y ANA BALI ● HA ROCK H ROCK HOTELS OTELS ● CON CONRAD CONR CONRA C ONRAD ONRA ONR ON R AD RA AD ● BINTAN RESO RESORTS RESOR RTS ● N NIKK IKK KO K O BA ● CE ● TH CENTARA E NTAR NTAR THE E RACHA A ● TUDO TUDOR ● KEMPINS KEMPINSKII ● PI PIMALAI P I MALAI IMALAI ● W HOTELS ● RIMO MAYA UB UBUD UBU UD U D●P PADMA ● INDIGO DIGO PEA P PEARL LOOK ● KOR KOREAN REAN EAN AI AIR A I R ● AME ME RI MERICAN RICAN CAN EX XPR XP RESS ESS SS ● M MA ARRIOTT SI●NEEMWHE HER MÈ REAP HYATT HOTELS ● ORIENT ORIENT ENT E EXP EX PR RE ESS SS ● PREF PR EF EFERRED HOTELS UNDIH REGIS EGIS ● ROLEX ● SINGAPO SINGAPO INGAPO GAPORE E AIR A RLINES AIRLINES AI LINES ● TURKISH IS ISH AIRL LINE SCOVEREDA SR IL AN KA ● ROSEWOOD ROSE D HOTELSTU●RKISPA PHA ATE TE K PH TEK PHILIPPE PHI ILIPPE LIPPE ● LEXUS US ● HILTON T IGH DE LANON BANG KO BANGKO K K AIRW RWAY RW WAYS AYS ● C CA A NON ● BRUNEI UNE I T UNEI TOURISM ● S SOFITEL FITEL ● LANGK BE RJ BERJ RJAYA J K AW KAW AW WII TO TOUR T OU R RIIISM SM ● CA CAPE A95 PE HOTEL COLLECTION LECTION ● LE ME SH RATON SHER R ER ERIDIEN RIDIEN RID IDIEN ID IEN ● M MA ACAU A CAU TOUR TOU OU UR RI SM ● FOUR S R SEASON ASON ● FA F IR R RMONT T HOTELS ● SAB SABA S SA AB ABA AB BAH BA AH A HT TOUR TO TOU OU RI RIISM RISM SM ● MÖVENPIC ÖVENPICK ● S ● ASCOTT A COTT ● ORISSA ISSA TO TOURISM TOU T OU OU UR RISM R ISM ● DU DUSIT D USIT U SIT ● TH THE E WESTIN ● REGA ● MARINA HOTELS ● MA MACAU M ACAU TOURISM ACAU TO O OURISM ARINA NA BAY SA SANDS S ANDS ● MER ANDS R HOTELS ● O OUTRIGGER ● LUXU UXURY RY COLLECTION ● ANA RY ANANTAR ANANTA INTERCONTINENTAL HOTELS ● SWISS ● INDIA TOURISM ● AYAN A BALI ● HARD ROCK K HOTELS ● CONRAD ● BINTAN RESORTS ● NI ● THE RACHA ● TUDOR ● KEMPINSKI ● PIMALA BALI ●Travel CENTARA + Leisure Southeast Asia would like to thank ● MAYA UBUD ● PA P DMA ● INDIGO PEARL ● W HOTELS ● RIMO all our clients and their EXPRESS agencies for voting for us ● KOR EAN ● AMERICAN ● MARRIOTT ● HE AIR HERMÈ as the best regional travel magazine of the year. HYATT HOTELS ● ORIENT EXPRESS ● PREFERRED HOTELS REGIS ● ROLEX ● SINGAPORE AIRLINES ● TURKISH AIRLINE ● ROSEWOOD HOTELS ● PA PATE ATE K PHILIPPE ● LEXUS ● HILTON BANGKO K K AIRW KO RWAY RW WAYS AYS ● CA C NON ● BRUNEI TOURISM ● SOFITEL BERJ R AYA ● LANGKAW RJ A I TOURISM ● CA AW C PE HOTEL COLLECTION SHERATON ● LE MERIDIEN ● MACAU A ACAU TOURISM ● FOUR SEASON ● FA F IRMONT HOTELS ● SABAH TOURISM ● MÖVENPICK ● S www.TravelandLeisureAsia.com ● ASCOTT ● ORISSA TOURISM ● DUSIT ● THE WESTIN ● REGA HOTELS ● MACAU A ACAU TOURISM ● MARINA BAY SANDS ● MER HOTELS ● OUTRIGGER ● LUXURY RY COLLECTION ● ANANTA RY MAY 2014

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REGIONAL NEWS & CURRENT AFFAIRS MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR 1. The Economist

2. TIME

Publisher: Economist Asia Frequency: Weekly Circulation: 130,152 (audited by ABC HK)

Publisher: TIME Asia HK Frequency: Weekly Circulation: 244,417(audited by ABC HK)

The Economist clinches first place in our rankings this year. With content on print, website and apps on tablet, smartphone as well as mobile, the magazine now has a larger global audience reach. Furthermore, there are two apps set to launch soon – Daily App, offering daily intelligence on-the-go, and the China App, the first local language edition of The Economist.

TIME comes in second this year. Under Nancy Gibbs, who was named editor in September 2013, TIME’s THE coverage and culture has undergone a complete UMBRELLA REVOLUTION transformation. In addition, its online edition, Time. com, has been overhauled into a 24/7 news site, hiring more than 60 new staff to allow the site to be more nimble. With a global audience of 1.2 million readers, TIME has 50 million unique visitors with more than 19 million social media followers on various platforms. OC TOBER 13, 2014

HONG KONG’S FIGHT FOR FREEDOM IS A CHALLENGE TO CHINA BY HANNAH BEECH

time.com

PARENTING MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR 1. Parenthood

2. Young Parents Magazine

Publisher: Today Publishing Frequency: Monthly Readership: 43, 500 (publisher’s claim)

Publisher: Singapore Press Holdings Frequency: Monthly Circulation: 22,000 (Nielsen Media Index 2013)

Parenthood magazine clinches first spot in its category. This year, it has added a new monthly segment KIDZ for parents with kids in their early school years, aged 5 to 10. Rather than going digital, the publication developed an e-magazine called Today’s Baby to complement Parenthood as a sister publication. A number of premium brands have come on board to advertise such as Dyson’s fans and vacuum cleaners (Visionary Solutions), Instax Camera (Fujifilm), PRUmy child (Prudential), StemLife, Philips AVENT, Nickelodeon channel (as screened on Astro), Hush Puppies (baby apparel), Poney (children’s apparel) and Natalina (a new toiletries brand from Canada), to name a few.

Coming in at second spot for the parenting magazines category, Young Parents has been around for more than 28 years, packed with in-depth, local features on pregnancy, health, education and development, along with expert tips from doctors, psychologists and educators. Furthermore, it publishes an annual education resource title, Young Parents Preschool Guide. The magazine’s digital edition offers exclusive extras from articles to videos, and it has also started a parenting blog on its website (www.youngparents.com.sg/blog), along with an Instagram account (@youngparents_sg).

ENTERTAINMENT & LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR 1. Time Out KL

2. VisionKL

Publisher: Mongoose Asia Frequency: Monthly Circulation: 30,000 (publisher’s claim)

Publisher: AsiaReach Media Frequency: Monthly Readership: The reach is audited by actual hotel receipts and regularly covers more than one million guests per month (publisher’s claim)

Coming in second this year, Time Out KL relaunched its website in June with a new overall look and enhanced content. The website also recently won the gold award at the WAN-IFRA Asian Digital Awards STREETS last year for the Best Magazine Website. In addition, the publication refreshed its Time Out KL app and started to produce video content to complement print and online features. It has seen a growth in advertisers in the F&B category, which has always been a stronghold client base for Time Out KL. Additionally, it is seeing more new advertisers from the education and hospitality industries, plus some from tourism and municipal bodies. However, its biggest commercial growth has been in the digital area, where more and more clients are benefiting from the huge traffic delivered by www.timeoutkl.com, the title says. MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR CITY

6.90 www.timeoutkl.com

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VisionKL comes in third place this year. The publication, which recently won the gold award for Best Local Print Media at the recent Mayor awards, continues to be the definitive guide to life in Kuala Lumpur. It has been made available in Arabic and Mandarin targeting affluent overseas visitors to the city. The magazine is available in all leading four and five-star hotel rooms across the Klang Valley area. Signature brands that have remained with VisionKL include Rolex, Cartier and Amex. The target audience of VisionKL is separated into several key segments. Affluent local families and the business community visiting the city for leisure and business needs, affluent tourists from all over the world and expats relocating to Malaysia.

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REGIONAL BUSINESS MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR 1. Forbes Asia

2. Bloomberg Businessweek

Publisher: Forbes Asia Frequency: Monthly Circulation: Combined circulation of 500,000 (publisher’s claim)

Publisher: Bloomberg LP Frequency: Monthly Circulation: 41, 978 (audited by ABC)

Forbes Asia retains its top spot in this year’s rankings. Having been around since 2005, the publication focuses its attention on Asia-based top management, entrepreneurs, and those aspiring to positions of corporate leadership. It also conducted key global events such as the Forbes Global CEO Conference that was held locally, calling for both the discussion and debate over key issues of global concern as well as the building of new partnerships.

Coming in joint second is Bloomberg Businessweek. The magazine, helmed by editor Josh Tyrangiel, continues to offer a global perspective, extending its reach to more than 150 countries. Its online site Businessweek.com has experienced a steady growth in traffic and its app, available across devices, offers yet another reading experience. Some new advertisers include Singapore Tourism Board, Economic Development Board (Singapore), Board of Investment Thailand and ANZ Bank.

2. Fortune

3. SME Magazine

Publisher: TIME Asia Frequency: 18 issues annually Circulation: 85,002 (audited)

Publisher: Business Media International Frequency: Monthly Circulation: 33,000 (publisher’s claim)

Coming in second, Fortune magazine saw a change in its team, with Alan Murray being named the editor CAN in August 2014. Its online version, Fortune.com, IBM was also relaunched in June, along with 24 new EVER BE hires in the recent months before the launch. The COOL? publication’s conference business has continued to grow with events such as the Fortune Global Forum that was held in Chengdu, China last year. It also launched a Most Powerful Women channel, and informed Marketing additional channel launches could be expected as well. 50 MOST POWERFUL WOMEN

GM’S CRISIS, MARY BARRA’S OPPORTUNITY By Geoff Colvin

A PROMISE KEPT AT BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY By Colleen Leahey

CEO Ginni Rometty’s plan for competing— and teaming up— with Silicon Valley. BY MICHAL LEV-RAM

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Taking second spot in the rankings this year, SME Magazine continues its aggressive roll out across the region and to target entrepreneurs and owners of small and medium enterprises as expected. Its social media reach has increased substantially with more than 57,000 likes on Facebook. Internally, Tan Hai Sup, formerly with the Malaysian Academy of Corporate Directors, has come on board as the chief operating officer, while Kumaran Subramaniam has been appointed editor. ASIA'S FASTEST GROWING BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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DIGITAL MEDIA OF THE YEAR

While the move to digital for most media platforms is imminent, not all do it well. Here are the ones that have come out on top, according to marketers.

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DIGITAL MEDIA OF THE YEAR

1 | GOOGLE (10. YOUTUBE)

Google is the marketers’ top choice for this year’s Digital Media of the Year when targeting Malaysians, while its video offering YouTube is also one of the top 10 finalists, coming in at number 10. According to Google, Malaysia is one out of only five places in the world (the others are all in Asia) where smartphone usage is higher than computers at 51% versus 39%. In fact, 35% of Malaysian users surveyed say they exclusively use their smartphones and no other device to access the internet, making Malaysia the No.1 country in the world when it comes to smartphone internet access exclusivity. About 28% of Malaysian web users say

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they shop online on any device and 41% of Malaysian web shoppers research products on their smartphones before buying. (The numbers in Western Europe are much lower: UK – 21% and Germany 20%.) About 28% of Malaysian web shoppers said they researched products on their smartphones in-store. Smartphones in Malaysia are also an entertainment destination. Over half (55%) of Malaysian smartphone owners use their mobiles to listen to music, 50% play online games and almost seven out of 10 (67%) watch online videos on their phones. In Malaysia the shift to mobile cannot be ignored – savvy businesses need to catch

up with the consumer to stay relevant in this fast-paced environment. According to Google, 72% of Malaysian web users watch online videos across devices of all types, and with this level of adoption (above countries such as Australia at 66% and the UK at 65%) it’s no exaggeration to say Malaysians love online videos. Every three months over the past year, Google has gathered together the top ads on YouTube and shared them on a leader board. Looking back over these, one clear trend stands out: Malaysian brands are vying with – and winning – against global brands for Malaysian viewers’ attention. On the latest leader board results, eight out of the 10 most popular ads were from Malaysian brands such as Maxis, Astro and TV3. Citing examples of Nestlé, Google mentioned how Malaysian businesses use online ads to reach customers. Nestlé reached them on search, display and mobile apps for its “Funtastik” competition. It saw impressive results: generating more than 104 million impressions with its customers in a single month. Maggi reached customers on mobile apps and YouTube for its “Kawen” campaign which it said generated 33 million impressions. Lings Service Network – a family run sewing machine sales and repair company – used AdWords to reach customers across Malaysia. It found that for every RM it spent on AdWords it had a return of between 35 to 50 RM.

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DIGITAL MEDIA OF THE YEAR

2 | FACEBOOK

Coming a close second in this year’s rankings is Facebook. As of September 2014, Facebook has more than 16 million Malaysians who access it monthly. Of these, 14 million access Facebook monthly through their mobile devices.

Facebook’s mission as a company is to give people the power to share and to make the world open and connected. In Malaysia, it has seen both big brands and small local businesses use Facebook to grow their business. One of the many success stories

for Facebook in the market is Avenue86. Avenue86 is an e-commerce business that sells affordable home ware, clothing, accessories and beauty products in Malaysia. It prides itself on its wide selection of unique products and its fast and efficient delivery service. It wanted to use Facebook to reach its target audience of Malaysian women more effectively, find new customers, drive traffic to its website and attract repeat business from existing customers. It hoped to achieve a 10 times return on ad spend. Facebook helped Avenue86 use its ad investment effectively to increase sales and web traffic. In one year, the campaign achieved a 6.9 times return on ad spend, 10 times increase in web traffic, 44% lower cost-per-conversion than Google AdWords and a six times increase in transactions, according to Facebook. Recently Malaysia Airlines announced the newest addition to its fleet of aircraft, the new A380, on Facebook. With its campaign on Facebook, and by reaching more than 4.5 million people, the airline saw a nearly six times lift in reach and generated more than 193,000 video plays, according to Facebook. Today, Facebook has more than 1.35 billion people globally who use it to connect to their friends and family on things and topics they like.

This base is growing by more than two new members every second. LinkedIn is also focused on helping companies transform the way they hire, market and sell. More than four million companies globally have company pages on LinkedIn, enabling them to engage with LinkedIn’s vast member base. It continues to refine and introduce products and features that add value to its members and clients. These include direct sponsored content, certified marketing partners for sponsored updates and sales navigators. In Malaysia, its biggest clients comprise many MNCs with operations in Malaysia as well as local corporations. These include Microsoft,

GE, Standard Chartered Bank, BMW, Etiqa and Maxis. Maxis, one of Malaysia’s biggest communications service providers, is a repeat advertiser on LinkedIn as its campaigns helped it target every spectrum of the affluent audience in Malaysia. The most recent was for MaxisONE, an internet plan with limitless talk, text and business grade services. The campaign enabled Maxis to reach its target industries and yielded a healthy interaction rate. For Etiqa, the insurance and Takaful arm of Maybank Group, LinkedIn is running a marketing campaign to help it increase the number of followers and raise the online awareness of its brand. Within two months, the followers to Etiqa’s company page on LinkedIn quadrupled, with 35% of the total followers being senior executives. The increase in the number of followers surpassed its initial target by more than 10%. With BMW, another major client in Malaysia, the marketing campaign for its launch of the BMW 5 Series also generated positive results. On average, 20% of its audience opened their sponsored InMails, about three-times higher than the usual response. Another 13.5% clicked on the call-to-action button.

3 | LINKEDIN

With more than one million members in Malaysia, LinkedIn takes third spot when it comes to marketers’ preference of digital platforms. More than 50% of traffic in Malaysia to LinkedIn comes from mobile devices and Bahasa Malaysia is one of the eight Asian languages supported on LinkedIn. In Asia Pacific, LinkedIn has more than 61 million members. LinkedIn has always been and continues to be focused on the professional context and is increasingly seeing a growing demographic in students and recent college graduates. More than 332 million members from 200 countries use LinkedIn to build their professional brands, networks and knowledge.

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DIGITAL MEDIA OF THE YEAR

4 | MSN

MSN comes in at number four in this year’s rankings. In September 2014, Microsoft released a new version of MSN which combines premium content from the world’s leading media outlets with personal productivity tools to help

consumers do more. The new experience is available on the web and will soon be available across all major device platforms, including Windows, iOS and Android. It partnered with 200 of the most authoritative global and local sources to hand curate a unique experience for Malaysia. Spanning multiple categories, the new MSN makes information “actionable” by incorporating personal productivity tools such as shopping lists, flight status and savings calculators into the new experience. Additionally, the new MSN allows users to connect to popular services such as Outlook.com, Facebook, Twitter, OneNote, OneDrive, Xbox Music and soon Skype, on the home page. This, it says, is providing advertisers access to an engaged and loyal audience of nearly 425 million unique visitors worldwide each month.

Earlier this year, in Malaysia, the company selected Better Digital Solutions, one of Southeast Asia’s largest premium digital media representatives, as the sales partner in Malaysia starting on 1 July 2014. This happened soon after its contract with Rev Asia was over. United International Pictures became the first brand to try out the new custom header for its movie Dracula Untold. It collaborated with MSN to take over one of the most popular sections on MSN – the entire news channel. The platform offered it a wide audience and an exciting creative execution to showcase its new trailer. UIP is now considering a long-term media partnership with MSN. Among other advertisers was P&G which ran its “Man Of Today” campaign on MSN Malaysia.

new ad formats, including Stream ads in Malaysia. Soon it’s planning to launch its platforms on mobile video, via its acquisition of Flurry, as well as its new audience buying platform. It previewed the offering to the

market during its Yahoo Next event hosted recently in KL. Advertisers are a big focus for Yahoo and it works with a host of them locally, across verticals such as travel, finance, FMCG and telcos. Some of the biggest brands it works with in Malaysia include MAS, Unilever, P&G and CIMB. The Malaysian market is one of young users – people who are perpetually plugged in, who use more than one device, and for whom the mobile phone is a connection to their own world. Yahoo in Malaysia caters to this audience and reaches the advertiser sweet spot for the ages of 21-34.

property market, the portal aims to reach a wider spectrum of audience through mobile and desktops. As a company focused heavily on innovation, it is continuously enhancing the property search experience on every platform to ensure property buyers and investors have the best search experience. In the past year in Malaysia, it introduced iProperty.TV which offers property buyers and investors insights into the development, its developers and the amenities surrounding the property. This, it says, adds to developers’ benefits greatly. “Not only will they receive a ‘warmer’ lead due to the buyer having spent threeplus minutes watching a video about the development, but these videos will also increase their chances of being on the front page of Google by 53 times,” it said in a statement. It also launched iProperty Buyers Club,

a loyalty programme created to connect likeminded individuals to leverage the power of group buying for larger, exclusive discounts from developers and home service providers. It has been developing relationships with a number of Malaysia and Southeast Asia’s top property developers, giving people first access to the property deals across the region. iProperty.com Malaysia also enhanced its search features having recently added the “Street View” tab in its property search online. With Street View, property buyers and investors are able to visually explore and navigate through a neighbourhood they are interested in via panoramic street-level photographs. The option enables them to view and navigate a 360-degree street-level imagery, providing greater understanding of a specific location.

5 | YAHOO Yahoo comes in at number five in the rankings this year. About seven million unique users in Malaysia come to the Yahoo network each month. In the past year, the company has made a slew of new product launches such as the refreshed mail, Flickr and weather apps. On the content side, it launched the refreshed Yahoo home page for desktop and mobiles and the international edition of the Yahoo News Digest. It also launched Aviate, an android app that automatically shows apps and information useful to visitors. All of this on top of the new Yahoo Mail app for iOS and Android users in Malaysia where it integrates news, information and communications together in one experience. From a business standpoint, it created

6 | IPROPERTY.COM

Working with Malaysia’s top developers and more than 10,000 real estate agents, iProperty. com Malaysia ranks high in this year’s rankings. The website claims to offer the largest online database of properties for sale and rent in the country. In 2013, iProperty.com Malaysia generated more than 420,000 leads per month for advertisers and garnered more than 1,570,000 unique visitors a month. Targeting those looking to invest in the

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5 March 2015 Shangri-La Hotel Singapore

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DIGITAL MEDIA OF THE YEAR

7 | INSTAGRAM

Instagram gives people a way to capture and share the world’s moments – from the everyday to the spectacular.

This year the social-sharing platform comes in number seven in the rankings. The vibrancy and diversity of its community has increased over the past four years, growing to more than 200 million people with 65% of its user base outside the US. This year, Instagram launched its latest standalone one-to-one visual messaging app Bolt in Malaysia and Australia. The two markets are the fourth and fifth countries to see the launch after the initial roll out in Singapore, New Zealand and South Africa. Users can sign up for Bolt using their mobile phone number, which will then sync with the contacts/address book to find friends who are also using Bolt. Users can select up to 20 contacts or “favourites,” and send them a message with a single tap.

The company is promoting the app through mobile instal ads on Facebook and Instagram, prompting users to download. Instagram has big ideas for the future, and part of making them happen is building it into a sustainable business. “We’re slowly rolling out ads, starting in the US, UK, Australia and Canada,” the spokesperson said, adding it is now focusing on delivering a small number of beautiful, highquality photos and videos from a handful of brands that are already great members of the Instagram community. “It’s still early, but we’ve seen strong results so far. With the Taco Bell campaign (US), the images where viewers of the ads could easily see themselves in those situations led to higher engagement, and we saw a 29-plus per cent lift in ad recall,” she said.

The Star online comes in at number eight this year in the rankings. Its average statistics for Q2 2014 stand at 43,752,170 average page views and 5,282,371 average unique visitors. The Star online launched its new look in

September with the objective of creating more content touch-points for readers. With the facelift, it says, it increased content links in the above fold of its home page from 27 to 51 links. This presented users with more content and ease of access to the content. Apart from that, it updated the story page design with “you may be interested” and “others also read” features at the end of the story. This provides relevance to the readers and, at the same time, increases time spent and traffic of TSOL. The online news portal also brought on board Roy Tan as head of the digital business. It targets a large portion of audiences who are PMEBs, with medium to high household income, as well as the general population who want to know what is happening in Malaysia.

FHM targets males aged 18 to 35, with collegelevel education and who have a good grasp of English, but it is also starting to attract its fair share of female readers, judging from the engagement it receives on Facebook and Instagram. This year, marketers have voted the portal one of the top 10 platforms they prefer, while reaching out to their target audience. “We’re proud of our editorial direction, whereby we give our readers access to great content that is compelling, informative and unique, all done in FHM’s signature tone and manner of humour and fun with substance,” it said in a statement. It said it had fully embraced the online component in the past year, making sure more people can access FHM “anytime, anywhere, be

it through the website or through its pioneering e-mag”. In the past year, it has had a bigger focus on online content, driven by various social media platforms. It has about 185,000 (and counting) Facebook followers, 5,800 Instagram followers, 1,700 Twitter followers and a unique readership of 14,000 visitors a month to FHM. com.my, averaging 60,000 page views a month. Last year, it put together a new team, with a new editor, web editor and writer, all of whom work together to create rich stories that are syndicated in various forms across all available platforms, be it print or digital. It has also focused on developing integrated tactical campaigns for clients which covers all platforms such as print, digital and on-ground. The key clients for the year were Carlsberg and Tune Talk.

8 | THE STAR

9 | FHM

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Unilever Malaysia blitzed the competition at the second annual Marketing Excellence Awards in Kuala Lumpur taking the overall title of Marketer of the Year for 2014. Find out all about the night and the winners in the following pages.

A+M would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to the following judges: JUDGES FOR THE AWARDS

Michael Tung, head of device marketing, Maxis Communications

Nurhaniza Mohd Khalil, vice-president, business development/communications, Affin Hwang Capital

Sarah Choo, general manager of marketing, Mitsubishi Motors Malaysia

Azran Osman-Rani, chief executive officer, AirAsia X Keni Kamaludin, head of marketing and communications, AmGeneral Insurance Sashi Ambi, head of corporate communications, BMW Group Malaysia

Nancy Tan, general manager of marketing, Pavilion Shopping Centres Raja Nor Izah Raja Jaafar, group head, sales and marketing, Pos Malaysia Hannah Yong, head of marketing, PropertyGuru International (Malaysia)

Pearl Lai, corporate communications and CSR director, Carlsberg Malaysia

Crystalle Lai, head of group public relations and mass communications, Quill Group of Companies

Chan May Ling, head of marketing services, DiGi Telecommunications

Elaine Soh, head of corporate marketing, Samsung Malaysia

Rafizah Amran, head of marketing and communications, Firefly Airlines

Sydney Quays, managing director, Malaysia and Brunei, Starbucks Malaysia

Kam Lee Lan, head of marketing and customer management, Great Eastern Life Assurance (Malaysia)

Menaha Nadaraja, head of brand communications and marketing, Tesco Malaysia

Sharifah Ruadi Syed Mustapha, head of marketing, commercial services, Malaysia Airports Holdings Fadli Hafetz, general manager, Mamee Double-Decker

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Philip Whittaker, chief marketing officer, Themed Attractions and Resorts Patricia Chooi, head of marketing, YTL Communications Luca Barberis, marketing director, ZALORA Malaysia

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MARKETING EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2014