Marketing Magazine SG - Jan/Feb 2014

MARKETING MAGAZINE SINGAPORE EDITION

THE ART & SCIENCE OF CONNECTING WITH CONSUMERS

SINGAPORE

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2014

marketing-interactive.com

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Marketing Magazine P.ai

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

Editorial Rayana Pandey, Editor rayanap@marketing-interactive.com 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 Vivian Chong, Editor (Malaysia) vivianc@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 – Singapore Che Winstrom, Sales Manager chew@marketing-interactive.com Mercy Soh, Senior Account Manager mercys@marketing-interactive.com Johnathan Tiang, Account Manager johnathant@marketing-interactive.com Trina Choy, Account Manager trinac@marketing-interactive.com Yuru Wong, Account Manager yuruw@marketing-interactive.com Advertising Sales – International Josi Yan, Sales Director (Hong Kong) josiy@marketing-interactive.com Ginnee Leong, Head of Sales (Malaysia) ginneel@lighthouse.com.sg Events Yeo Wei Qi, Head, Events Services weiqi@marketing-interactive.com Marketing June Tan, Regional Marketing Executive junet@lighthousemedia.com.sg Finance Evelyn Wong, Regional Finance Director evelynw@lighthousemedia.com.sg Management Søren Beaulieu, Business Director sorenb@marketing-interactive.com

MARKETING’S REAL-TIME CHALLENGES Singapore’s latest internet sensation is Anton Casey, and for all the wrong reasons.

The 39-year-old expat, who finally sneaked out of the country, riled millions of locals with his mindless rant on social media about the “poor” commuters on public transport. A can of worms fell open, naturally.

What irked netizens even further was him hiring an agency to manage the crisis, as most said a heartfelt apology would have gone a long way in making amends.

Well, Casey has lost his job and is in Perth now.

For brands, there are some key takeaways here; firstly not always do you need an agency to manage a crisis. You can do without one especially when it comes to apologising to your consumers during a crisis.

There are also other lessons in it such as being relatable, more human, rational and sensitive on social media and so on, but these are pretty well-known to brands already.

What’s an important lesson here, however, is to keep your ears and eyes open to something which gets your audience all passionate online.

We are talking about marketing’s one big challenge here – real-time marketing. Gauging the right sentiment and smart thinking can take brands places, and Scoot did just that.

Just a few days post the entire debacle making headlines, one of Scoot’s online ads read: “Escape Plan: Fly to Perth Cheap Cheap, Poor or not!”, offering a 50% discount on a return ticket to the Western Australian city.

The Amazingly Cheap (AC) Escape to Perth sale, by the way, sold out in half a day.

We are talking of brands’ muscle memory quotient here, something Twitter’s Parminder Singh quoted in one of our recent events, The Futurist Live!, and what marketers are hailing as the next big trend, shaping a brand’s persona online.

While examples of muscle memory are aplenty – think Oreo’s “dunk in the dark” campaign or adidas’ ad during the Champions League featuring footballer Bastian Schweinsteiger – only a handful of brands are driving it. The reason? Fear of experimentation, more so on social media.

Despite the growth in the medium scepticism and phobia in the minds of brands are preventing marketers from loosening up.

To know the power of social media is one thing, to adapt to it and ride the wave, is another.

What do marketers need to do to break out of the dated practices of planning campaigns?

Is there something fundamentally wrong in the way they are approaching social media?

This special edition talks about such fears and the ways to overcome them to truly make marketing real-time.

Enjoy the issue.

Aravind Menon, General Manager (Malaysia) aravindm@lighthousemedia.com.sg Tony Kelly, Editorial Director tk@marketing-interactive.com Justin Randles, Publisher jr@marketing-interactive.com

Marketing is published 12 times per year by Lighthouse Independent Media Pte Ltd. Printed in Singapore on CTP process by Sun Rise Printing & Supplies Pte Ltd, 10 Admiralty Street, #06-20 North Link Building, Singapore 757695. Tel: (65) 6383 5290. MICA (P) 180/03/2009. For subscriptions, contact circulations at +65 6423 0329 or email subscriptions@marketing-interactive.com. COPYRIGHT & REPRINTS: All material printed in Marketing is protected under the copyright act. All rights reserved. No material may be reproduced in part or in whole without the prior written consent of the publisher and copyright holder. Permission may be requested through the Singapore office. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in Marketing 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 198755 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 Malaysia: Suite 11.7 11F Bangunan Yee Seng, 15 Jalan Raja Chulan, Kuala Lumpur 50200, Malaysia Tel: +60 3 2072 0355 Fax: +60 3 2072 0395 To subscribe to Marketing magazine, go to: www.marketing-interactive.com

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J AN UARY- FE BRUARY 2 01 4 M ARKE TI N G 1

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CONTENTS

16 NEWS ANALYSIS 18 10 TRENDS FOR 2014: 2013 KEPT UP THE TREND OF

CONSUMERS ARE BOTH WELCOMING AND RESISTING TECHNOLOGY’S GROWING OMNIPRESENCE IN THEIR LIVES. HERE IS ONE AGENCY’S PREDICTION FOR 2014 WHEN IT COMES TO CONSUMERS.

MEGA MERGERS AND DIGITAL’S BREAKNECK ADVANCE. ELIZABETH LOW SPEAKS TO INDUSTRY LEADS ON THEIR TAKE FOR THE YEAR AHEAD PLUS MORE EXPERT COMMENTARY.

20 EIGHT DIGITAL TRENDS AHEAD: WONDERING HOW DIGITAL WILL EVOLVE FURTHER IN 2014? HERE ARE A FEW TIPS.

58 MOB-EX AWARDS 2014: THE BEST EXAMPLES OF MOBILE MARKETING IN 2013 RECOGNISED. 50 “IT SHOULD BE SO 35 “THE MOST SUCCESSFUL MARKETERS WILL HAVE TO WEAR 33 “THERE

SPONTANEOUS THAT WHEN SOMETHING HAPPENS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD, YOU THINK ‘IS THIS THE RIGHT MOMENT FOR MY BRAND TO BE A PART OF?’”

MANY HATS – AS A FUTURIST, AN IT ADVOCATE AND A REVENUE GENERATOR FOR THE COMPANY, TO NAME A FEW.” – SABRINA LIN, CISCO ASIA PACIFIC

54 “THIS IS WHEN MARKETERS NEED TO EDUCATE CEOs THAT IT IS

– PARMINDER SINGH, TWITTER

26 “THE CLIENT-AGENCY RELATIONSHIP IS NOT A MARRIAGE OF EQUALS. IT’S MORE SUPPLIER-BASED RATHER THAN PARTNERSHIP-BASED.” – RICHARD BLEASDALE, ROTH OBSERVATORY INTERNATIONAL W W W .MA R KET ING - INT ERAC TIVE . COM

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ACTUALLY THE BRAND THAT DRIVES THE BUSINESS.” – CHRIS WEI, GREAT EASTERN

28 “IT IS INTERESTING HOW WE FIND THAT MARKETERS WILL OFTEN HAVE AGENCIES AND SUPPLIERS PROVIDING SERVICES WITHOUT THE SECURITY OF A VALID AND CURRENT CONTRACT.” – DARREN WOOLLEY, TRINITYP3

IS NO LONGER A FORMULA FOR MARKETING SUCCESS. FOR THE MARKETER WHO CAN READ THE RIVERS AND ADAPT TO ITS EVER-CHANGING CONDITIONS THEREIN LIES AN OPPORTUNITY.” – AYUMI UYEDA, BAYER HEALTHCARE

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NEWS

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

A sign of the times IKEA launched a new campaign “IKEA Zodiac 2014”. The campaign allows customers to shop for products through the IKEA Zodiac Facebook app. The campaign was created by BBH Asia Pacific. By keying in your birth date or clicking onto your zodiac sign, the app will give you product recommendations. The campaign was especially created for Chinese New Year for IKEA Singapore and IKEA Malaysia.

A free reign Korean cosmetics company Amorepacific Corporation appointed Blugrapes as the official social media agency of Innisfree.

The agency is supporting the expansion plans of Innisfree, starting with the Singapore market. Blugrapes is responsible for advising, conceptualising and deploying social media solutions for Innisfree. It will also be handling consumer engagement and management. The decision was made after an invitation-only closed-door pitch.

Growing in style Home-grown fashion label Raoul inked a franchise deal in the Middle East market with the Chalhoub Group. The franchise agreement will see nine standalone Raoul stores open by 2017, the first two in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain next year. This will bring Raoul’s franchise network in the Middle East, China and Sri Lanka, to a total of 37 stores over the next five years.

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Spreading the joy Kit Kat, along with JWT Singapore, created a Christmas Facebook app for Singaporeans to identify their closest social media friends and create customised Christmas e-cards for them. The campaign was aimed at Kit Kat’s youth market. By accessing the fans’ timeline, the Facebook app identified the top “Likers” and “Commenters” and presented fans with cheeky slogans to use on the different Kit Kat e-cards.

Grooving to a new move Local telco M1 signed an exclusive partnership with global music streaming service Deezer.

Singaporeans have always been music lovers and this is echoed by the “tremendous interest and uptake in our services since we launched in Singapore last year”, said Clément Gossé, business development manager for Asia Pacific at Deezer.

M1’s postpaid mobile customers can enjoy unlimited access to more than 30 million songs from international artists.

More funding for Zalora Zalora Group, one of Southeast Asia’s fastest growing fashion and beauty online stores, has secured US$112 million (SG$141 million) in funding. This comes from privately held investor group Access Industries. In May 2013, Zalora also attained US$100 (SG$126) million in funding. Most recently, it launched its first private brand Ezra and has focused on extending its assortments to offer a broader variety of fashion and beauty items.

A good move Local social media agency GOODSTUPH is looking to make its mark in the region with plans of opening two new agencies.

Bangkok and Hong Kong are next on the agency’s expansion list. The agency is set to start up in Thailand with an approximate six figure billing. Meanwhile, the Hong Kong office is slated for a mid-2014 launch. The agency is also looking to hire local leads in both markets.

A new start CMO Chris Reed (pictured) has left social media marketing agency Mig33 to start his own LinkedIn marketing consultancy, Black Marketing. He was at the agency for nine months. The boutique marketing consultancy specialises in enhancing a brand’s personal LinkedIn reputation, creating LinkedIn brand profiles and creating B2B content to engage on LinkedIn. It also helps brands market products and services through LinkedIn.

Into the wild Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS), parent company of Jurong Bird Park, Night Safari, River Safari and Singapore Zoo, launched its multiplatform marketing campaign, the “Ultimate Wildlife Experience”. The campaign puts on centre stage the parks’ rainforest settings and animals to reach out to locals and tourists at high traffic areas and tourist hotspots. The six-month campaign is featured in various OOH media.

Breaking news Riding on the wave of brand journalism, Microsoft Asia Pacific is the next brand to launch a news room. The Asia Pacific News Centre is similar to the global Microsoft News Centre, a onestop-shop for all things Microsoft in Asia Pacific, including news, press resources and opinion pieces. Most recently, payments technology firm Visa launched its own newsroom, covering the Asia Pacific region.

Not so odd after all Dentsu reached an agreement with the principal shareholders of Australian advertising company group Oddfellows Holdings to acquire a 51% stake in the company. Under the terms of the agreement, Oddfellows Holdings will become a wholly owned subsidiary by the end of 2017. Oddfellows Holdings owns three companies: Advertising agency Oddfellows Pty Ltd; digital communications specialist @odds Pty Ltd; and art and design studio @tack Pty Ltd.

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27/1/2014 2:41:23 PM

NEWS

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If the shoe fits Global footwear brand ECCO appointed OMD its media buying and planning agency, Marketing understands. The appointment is for the Singapore market.

Currently no time frame has been slated. Marketing understands the account is worth nearly a million dollars. ECCO could not be reached at the time of publishing.

The incumbent for the account was UM, which was also vying for the account when a closed-door pitch was called earlier last year.

A bitter pill to swallow Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline will stop paying Singaporean doctors to promote its products. However, it will pay them for their help in clinical studies and market research, it said. This is following a global announcement made in London and is a first for a pharmaceutical company. Following the regulations, the pharmaceutical company will also stop providing financial support for doctors attending medical conferences and events.

Landing a big fish Kantar, a WPP wholly owned data investment management business, agreed to acquire the entire issued share capital of Fisheye Analytics, a media monitoring and analytics services business based in Singapore.

Founded in 2009 in Singapore with an R&D centre in Hyderabad, the company will become part of Kantar Media. It works with sports governing bodies, international organisations and governments from Europe and Asia.

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Carrying on the relationship The Ministry of Health appointed Addiction Advertising for its campaign for CHAS (Community Health Assist Scheme). The agency was the incumbent for CHAS’ first campaign and the account is worth about SG$1.2 million. This is a nation-wide campaign on above-the-line and below-the-line media mediums. The campaign features local actress Chen LiPing as spokesperson and the TVC features local film maker Roysto ston Tan. Royston

Criteo expands presence Criteo, a global technology company specialising in performance display advertising, launched its operations in Singapore. With Singapore as the head office for the region, Criteo is looking to expand its presence in nine geographic markets, including Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam. It has offices in Australia, China, South Korea and Japan. Yuko Saito (pictured), managing director of Southeast Asia, is leading the Singapore operations.

Going global NBCUniversal increased its digital presence in Asia with a new look E! Entertainment Television mobile app. The app’s facelift aids distribution plans for the E! online mobile app to expand to users in Australia, New Zealand, Asia Pacific and Africa. Improvements for advertisers include static full-page ads, video pre-roll, expandable banners and full-page interstitials in the photo gallery stream.

Joining forces Nine independent advertising, design, interactive and branding agencies have come together to form the Independent Agency Network (IAN). The agencies include Alchemy Partnership, Arcade, Blak Labs, BS Advertising, Convertium, FLABSLAB, Kult, Up&Up and Wild Advertising & Marketing. IAN will also launch a “Made In Singapore” initiative for local businesses that will provide local brands with the opportunity to get branding and communication advice.

Powering along Castrol Power 1 launched its firstever pure-play digital marketing campaign, “How Do You Feel When You Ride?” Primarily running on Facebook and YouTube, the twominute campaign video features a biker powering along the open road. It will run throughout 2014 with a planned content calender, various activations, competitions and events. To create the video, bikers from key Asian markets were interviewed about motorcycling.

An Epic appointment HTC appointed local PR shop Epic PR for its Singapore duties, following a pitch in Q4 last year.

Meanwhile, social media agency GOODSTUPH won HTC’s account for social media marketing in Singapore. GOODSTUPH pitched for the account in early December and beat three other agencies.

Indonesia and Thailand are also the other two markets currently conducting the pitch.

Pairing up Ogilvy & Mather Asia Pacific, in partnership with Singapore’s Economic Development Board (EDB), launched a new brand innovation unit. Based in Singapore, K1ND is touted to be the first such brand innovation business in the region with a strong focus on technology and design. EDB and Ogilvy also launched the Marketing Analytics Centre of Excellence, which aims to help global brands penetrate Asian markets more effectively.

Fit for a king Burger King appointed Havas Media its media agency in Singapore for a year. The agency will handle media buying and planning on both the online and offline sphere and upcoming ads will run on print, TV and OOH mediums. Havas Media will also be conducting market research, competitive tracking and performance-based media for Burger King. The account is worth SG$5 million. iROO appoints agency Taiwanese fashion label iROO appointed PR Communications to boost its media awareness in Singapore and handle all media relations programmes. The agency has been appointed for a period of 14 months. iROO’s advertising is developed by its head office in Taiwan.

Apart from PR, the agency will also develop new media strategies, and recommend media for both traditional media and new media buying.

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Watch this space The Walt Disney Company SEA and pay-TV operator StarHub launched a new mobile video streaming service and new innovative entertainment apps – Watch Disney Channel, Watch Disney Xd and Watch Disney Junior. StarHub’s TV customers, who subscribe to Disney Channel, can stream these channels live on the multi-screen service StarHub TV Anywhere. Non-authenticated users can download the Watch apps to access selected content.

A public service Asia Pacific Breweries (APB) Singapore launched a digital project aimed at discouraging the public from drinking and driving.

To get this going, it asked the public to share creative ways of getting to a party without driving.

The digital campaign forms part of the ongoing “Don’t Drive to Drink” campaign launched by the Traffic Police and the Singapore Road Safety Council.

A new beginning Home-grown agency Arcade launched an office in Indonesia.

The agency is led by co-founders Gary Caulfield (pictured) and Alfa Aphrodita. The pair will take the agency forward as the CEO and ECD respectively. The founding client of Arcade Indonesia is Unilever. Arcade will work with both international clients looking to market their brands in Indonesia, as well as local entrepreneurs and brand owners.

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Sporting pitch The Singapore Sports Council called for a pitch looking for a social media agency. The contract period is for 15 months and the agency will provide services for a social media campaign for the 28th Southeast Asian Games.

This is the first time the council has looked for a social media agency. The agency will also have to handle public relations duties as part of the contract.

NEA appoints consultant The National Environment Agency (NEA) appointed Roth Observatory International (ROI) its marketing consultant to make its marketing processes more efficient. The appointment is for a period of one year. ROI, previously known as The Observatory Asia Pacific, is tasked to improve work processes with NEA’s appointed agencies.

An NEA spokesperson also added ROI would help with monitoring the agencies.

Tough love Faced with stiff competition from the likes of Google, media trading technology company Brandscreen, with offices in Australia, Singapore and China, entered the process of administration to evaluate the company’s future prospects, including a possibility of a sell off. The administrators, Sule Arnautovic and Roderick Mackay Sutherland, of Jirsch Sutherland, were appointed as voluntary administrators of Brandscreen on 31 December 2013.

A healthy appointment Global pharmaceuticals and healthcare products company Abbott Singapore appointed MEC to handle its media buying and planning. MEC is taking on duties for a period of two years. The appointment is for the Singapore market and does not include social media, which is handled by the brand in-house. According to Adex, the account is understood to be worth about SG$6 million.

Showing you care Under the new Care & Share Movement, a fundraising and volunteer movement, the government is matching donations to the social services sector.

The objective is to mobilise more resources to help the disadvantaged and to promote the spirit of giving among Singaporeans in the run up to Singapore’s 50th birthday in 2015.

The matching of eligible donations runs until the end of 2014.

Getting festive KFC rolled out a Hong Kongthemed campaign to promote its range of products around the Chinese New Year. Under the tag line “Hong Kong Classic Series”, the chain has added some Hong Kong-flavoured titles onto its standard global products.

A 30-second TVC will run until mid-February, featuring locals from different walks of life showing how they made their first bucket of gold.

Revitalising Vitagen Malaysia Dairy Industries appointed Grey Group Singapore as its advertising partner. Grey Group is tasked to revitalise Vitagen Less Sugar for the Singaporean market. Grey Group Singapore’s chief executive officer, Subbaraju Alluri (pictured) said that its goal was to increase its reach in the Singaporean market. Malaysian Dairy Industries has annual sales revenue of more than $260 million in Singapore and RM600 million in Malaysia.

Barking up the right tree Infront Sports & Media appointed Dog Digital to provide digital and technical consultancy services following a competitive pitch.

Infront is working with Dog Digital from its UK and Singapore offices on a range of projects, including redeveloping the Infrontsports. com website, developing digital platforms and branding for Infront-owned sports events in China and Europe, and also enhancing Infront’s global digital communications strategy.

A concrete jungle Wildlife Reserves Singapore launched an OOH campaign for its latest River Safari, Asia attraction. The campaign, created by boutique creative shop Blak Labs, runs on a series of subway posters, bus shelters and taxi wraps. A number of the instillations include 3D animal structures which allow the public to interact with the ads. The media agency behind the campaign is Zenith Optimedia.

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27/1/2014 2:41:36 PM

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Roaring ahead PUMA appointed JWT New York as its global creative agency with immediate effect. JWT is assuming a leadership position over all PUMA advertising and creatives on a global basis, with reach across North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia Pacific and the Middle East/Africa. JWT is working with PUMA to develop and define a fast-moving creative process poised to capitalise on culturally relevant sporting moments.

Danone sues Fonterra In August last year, a bacterial scare by New Zealand’s dairy company Fonterra led to the recall of baby milk formula products by other brand companies which used Fonterra ingredients. Danone was one of these companies.

Investigations later found Fonterra’s warning to be a false alarm. As a result, Paris-based Danone is launching legal action against Fonterra for compensation from the loss of sales.

HOW MUCH DOES THAT COST?

CHRISTMAS IN STYLE

For the seasonal Christmas campaign “Double Up On Joy This Christmas”, Pizza Hut not only ran ads on traditional print media, but also on ground activation and events. This was to garner consumer awareness of the latest Christmas offerings.

Harley-Davidson bikes were rented and outdoor activations were planned for two weekends. The bikes were then fully decked out in Christmas gear and had “santarinas” riding about town, handing out

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Pizza Hut’s festive deals promos to consumers. In total, five Pizza Hut Christmas Harleys travelled through town, CBD areas and selected neighbourhoods such as Tampines and Jurong. A showcase of the Harleys was also held at Jurong Point from 9 to 12 December for public photo-taking opportunities.

The cost of dressing up each bike was SG$1,500 while the bike rental cost was about SG$269 per day for a four-hour period per bike.

Yahoo’s new products After a year of aggressive acquisitions, Yahoo is making clear its plans to be at the centre of the online advertising ecosystem with a line-up of new products. Yahoo launched a unifying brand, Yahoo Advertising and a buying platform, Yahoo Ad Manager, aimed to create a central suite of tools for online advertisers to manage their buys, both on Yahoo inventory as well as other platforms. This will allow buyers to execute buys across all of Yahoo’s channels.

A new arm GroupM launched a new TV business unit that hopes to offer clients superior targeting and engagement capabilities in a technology driven, data-fused, addressable media environment.

The unit is called Modi Media and is led by Michael Bologna (pictured), GroupM’s director of emerging communications.

Solutions offered by Modi will include dedicated advertiser channels, commercial overlays for lead generation, smart TV applications and e-commerce.

Grey adds more business WPP’s Grey agreed to acquire a majority stake in RC&M, one of India’s largest rural communications and marketing services providers. Specialising in experiential marketing, RC&M offers solutions such as integrated activation, encompassing creative designing to production and implementation. RC&M has a reach of 400,000 across Indian villages and 5,000 towns.

Founded in 1990, RC&M is headquartered in Delhi, with offices in Mumbai and Bengaluru.

Looking for hidden gems JWT Disco, a talent scouting initiative set up by JWT Jakarta, is on the hunt to discover the country’s next advertising star.

It opened the floor to aspiring creatives, planners and suits. JWT Jakarta kicked off a 10-campus tour to generate buzz, and released two teaser videos on YouTube. The top prize is a fulltime role at JWT Jakarta.

Flying into trouble Japanese carrier All Nippon Airways (ANA) had to fend off criticism for a TV spot after being accused of racial stereotyping.

An ANA spokesperson said the ad had since been pulled, and apologised for offending the public. “The commercial was intended to be a humorous way of highlighting the increased number of international services ANA is operating from Haneda Airport,” she told Marketing.

Brand new channel Brand New Media launched a new IPTV channel, healthyMEtv in Australia. Content is available through media company Seven West Media’s PLUS7. HealthyMEtv offers more than 150 programmes covering fitness, nutrition and healthy living. Channel hosts include sports legend George Gregan, news presenter Kellie Sloane and media personality Shelly Horton. The channel employs the AMAA’s Audited Website Measurement Service for accountability to its partners.

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NEWS

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A grand performance The Premier League and digital sports content company Perform have paired up for another three years. Perform has exclusive responsibility for global advertising sales on the Premier League’s official website. The premierleague.com site attracts 12 million unique users per month, with 325 million pages viewed, as well as 4.4 million unique users via mobile devices. The renewal hopes to see Perform attract and manage major advertisers.

A chocolate bonanza The Hershey Company is introducing a new line of chocolate spreads – one of which may just hit close to home for Italian company Ferrero, creators of the creamy hazelnut spread Nutella. Hershey said the new line of chocolate spreads included chocolate, chocolate with almond and chocolate with hazelnut.

The new line is supported by an integrated marketing campaign that will continue through 2014.

The house of LUX To ensure female consumers using LUX Skin Treats feel feminine, LUX developed a digital “House of LUX” along with its global digital agency SapientNitro and content partner Yahoo. The “house” builds a community where users can access customised content based on their usage and feelings. The 12 rooms in the house were created to represent emotions evoked by the different fragrances of LUX Skin Treats.

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AUDIT WATCH

SURFACE RESURFACES

PHD still in the driver’s seat Following a competitive pitch, PHD Worldwide retained Porsche’s global media business. The agency has been working with the German luxury sports car maker since winning the business in May 2010 and will manage all media activities. The global account is co-ordinated out of PHD Germany, Frankfurt. The global gross media budget per year is in the middouble-digit million euro range, said the agency.

GroupM clicks into gear GroupM agreed to acquire a majority interest in ClickMedia, a social media marketing agency in Vietnam. The announcement was made jointly by Mark Patterson, GroupM CEO of Asia Pacific and chairman of China, and Nguyen Thi Hai Ha (pictured), managing director and founder of ClickMedia.

ClickMedia is a full-service social media marketing firm with a staff of 55. It was established in 2008.

Global domination A new version of the Facebook for Business website was launched in Korea, Japan, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Brazil.

This resulted in 11 new sites across the following languages: Korean, Japanese, Taiwanese Chinese, simplified Chinese, UK English, German, French, European Spanish, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese and Latin American Spanish. Facebook for Business will be the core hub of information for all marketers.

Surface magazine has undergone a revamp, and will span all disciplines of innovative design, including fashion, product design, interiors, transportation, technology, art and culture, architecture and hospitality.

It will be focused on the Asian region and see the magazine changing its corporate identity – such as the logo and page layouts. This is a turn from its skew towards architecture and interior design.

The magazine is published on a bimonthly basis, and is led by editor-in-chief Adele Chan, who also leads the sister publication Nylon Singapore. Chan told Marketing the company was thinking about sending the magazine to be audited one year after its revamp.

It is also looking at reaching new advertisers such as Chanel, Hermès, Calvin Klein, Rolex, Tudor, and Cartier. Existing advertisers of Surface Asia include Patek Philippe, Lexus, BMW, Space

Making it a reality Kimberly-Clark, through the Kimberly-Clark Digital Innovation Lab, partnered with Mindshare and several venture capital firms to create an innovation competition.

Kimberly-Clark provided briefs that were sent to a pool of preselected start-up and technology firms through Mindshare’s venture capital partners. A shortlist of companies were invited to pitch and have a chance to make their start-up ideas a brand and business reality.

Off and running From 1 January 2014, Aegis Media and Dentsu Network officially combined to form the Dentsu Aegis Network, led by Nick Waters in APAC. Waters is responsible for the management of the business and the development of the network’s specialist and local brands across the region. Dick van Motman took on the role of CEO for the group in Southeast Asia.

Furniture, Gaggenau and bulthaup, among others.

The company also recently hired Eugene Tan as managing editor of Surface Asia. He was formerly the marketing manager of Rimowa and Longchamp under RAM Pacific.

Combined efforts Aegis Media launched a fullservice media and digital creative services business, Huckleberry.

Huckleberry brings together the clients and staff of Aegis Media and digital creative agency Rodeo, under a new agency brand. The business is run by joint managing directors, with Melissa Roberts (pictured) as MD of media and Aaron Tobin MD of creative. They will report to Aegis Media ANZ CEO, Luke Littlefield.

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

1 Campaign Perfect From Every Angle Brief Beauty retailer Jean Yip launched a rebranding exercise with a SG$3 million campaign. The campaign covers mediums such as TV, print, online and OOH and runs in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and China. With the latest campaign, it also hopes to target a younger and trendier audience and strengthen its position as a market leader in the beauty and wellness industry.

Client

Jean Yip Group

Creative

Addiction Advertising

Media

Bioperfect Marketing

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2 Campaign Double Up On Joy This Christmas

Double up on joy

Brief The campaign was created during Christmas to promote The Double Decker Pizza. Along with the traditional print media, it also included on-ground activation and events to promote the campaign. Pizza Hut also sponsored pizzas for Promise Land Community to distribute pizzas to low income families to add cheer to their lives during the Christmas season.

Pizza Hut Singapore

Creative

JWT Singapore

Media

Mindshare Singapore

Chicken pepperoni with a cheesy stuffed crust isn’t enough! A tortilla decked with Christmassy Turkey ham and cheese sits above it, drizzled with tangy mango mayonnaise.

Two layers of Yuletide flavours to double your Christmas joy!

Visual is for illustration purposes only.

Client

this Christmas

Double Layers Double Toppings

Order at

phdelivery.com.sg 62-35-35-35 2

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

3 Campaign Together We Are Stronger Brief The campaign aims to reacquaint and reconnect Singaporeans with the nation’s athletes by moving away from the past focus on elitist performances to drawing on commonalities and traits that athletes share with everyday Singaporeans. The campaign features athletes in heartland settings such as food centres, parks, HDB void decks and also includes athletes’ support network of family, friends, mentors, favourite hawker uncles and aunties and fans to connote that everyone is a part of Team Singapore.

Client

Singapore Sports Council

Creative

Bates CHI & Partners

Media

PHD Singapore

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4 Campaign Remembering Yeo’s Brief The objective of the campaign is to announce the new bottle shape and label designs for Yeo’s Asian drinks.

The out-of-home campaign depicts brand ambassador Pornsak in a series of animated scenarios and going through various life stages in which Yeo’s has been his constant and loyal drink companion. An additional element of a “Spot the Difference” game has been incorporated into the creatives whereby almost identical posters are mounted on the two sides of platform doors at train stations to engage and delight commuters while they wait for trains.

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Client

YHS (Singapore)

Creative

UOAT

Media

City Life

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

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OPINION: AD WATCH/WEB WATCH

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Jac Rodrigo Creative director JWT Singapore

AD WATCH HOT: McDonald’s Ebi Burger TVC

NOT: L’Oréal’s Revitalift Laser X3

Ask people around you what’s their favourite or least favourite ad and heated discussions will follow, punctuated with many hand gestures, no doubt. Add three words to your question – that ran locally – and then there is that pregnant pause. We all know why, just as we know we’re partly responsible for … hmmm … the pause. So anyway, after mulling over it, I can quite honestly say I like the McDonald’s Ebi Burger commercial. No concept behind it, but it’s likeable at the very least. Never mind the not-so-great lighting. The tune was catchy. The talents were charming. The Japanese voice over at the end was a nice touch. Very importantly, I believe the ad worked.

One campaign I’m not too keen about is the L’Oréal Revitalift Laser X3. Concept? It seems like a “first-thought”. And with all our first thoughts, we know there really isn’t much to say about them. Well, OK … there is this to add – a campaign? Really?

I just don’t find the idea good enough to stretch across a series of ads. We also know that if the idea is average or even just plain old good but not great, then all the more, craft is absolutely key.

Every single detail matters. With this campaign, I must admit I find it challenging to comment on the craft behind it. At best, it’s perhaps average.

Lizi Hamer Associate creative director SapientNitro

WEB WATCH HOT: namesforchange.org

NOT: moodstream.gettyimages.com

It’s just stuff. Until you don’t have it. As Names for Change points out, even the smallest item can make a big impact on the life of a person facing poverty and homelessness. So every item that’s needed to provide its clients with food, shelter and a future is for sale at namesforchange. org. Meaning you, yes you, could be the proud owner of a Fork of Mass Nutrition (perhaps to help eat your breakfast of hot deliciousness).

The site uses cut-out images and duo-toned graphics to illustrate the individual items. This simple style demonstrates the need for basic necessities, yet gives each one (yes, even the adult diaper) a sense of dignity. Once you select an item, the well-crafted copy leads you towards buying its naming rights. Frankly, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to stub out stubbed toes with the Lizi Hamer Light Bulb of Brighter Tomorrows. Donation is simple, made through PayPal, and is recognised with a certificate of honour for you to share. In short, this is a site that makes you think about stuff you might not usually think about – and gives you a warm fuzzy feeling while you’re at it. Lovely.

Where do I start with Moodstream from Getty Images? Let’s set the scene by explaining that it’s a “pull that lever”-type, idea-generation and mood board-assisting tool.

It all sounds lovely. Unfortunately, however, the designers/developers/ creators appear to have taken a wrong turn on the way to subsidised lager at the Student Union and ended up at Getty’s instead. Before you get the chance to try anything, for example, there’s a heavy handed product and price push. Seriously? At least try and woo me first before you try and get into my wallet. Moving on, the tool itself seems as confused and unresponsive as a navel-gazing teenager; there are varying resolutions and quality of images and videos, the image selection itself is dull, cropped incorrectly and uninspiring, while the changes in music are badly mixed and completely random. Yes, I know it’s staggeringly unreasonable to expect 100% perfect synchronisation between audio and visual concepts, but considering the extensive portfolio available, this is more than a tad disappointing.

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DIRECT MAIL CASE STUDY

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OCBC POWERS UP ITS CHRISTMAS GREETING OCBC got its message across in the midst of Christmas cheer with a direct mail campaign.

Powering along: OCBC used cookies to create a wow-factor Christmas message.

Our client OCBC has always been known within the media circle for being creative with its Christmas party gift ideas; and for its 2013 media Christmas party, it had to be better than previous years.

The brief was simple. For its Christmas 2013 gifts (which were to be hand-delivered to respective recipients), OCBC knew it wanted to give out a “power-bank” (where partial proceeds from the sale of the “power-bank” would go to the Singapore Children’s Society) along with Christmas cookies which flavours were specially customised and baked by an artisan.

The challenge for our agency was, however, not that simple – how could we associate something like a power-bank with cookies? The idea also had to tie into the festive greetings.

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We knew we definitely wanted the gift to create a wow-factor, but more importantly, we wanted to leave recipients feeling like OCBC had once again surprised them with their creativity and ingenuity.

Our creative solution came in a DM kit which was cleverly conceptualised to look like a gigantic battery that was being charged by a power-bank.

The battery was made up of 12 cookies (each to represent one day of Christmas) and the cookies were intricately coloured and flavoured to look like how a battery would look like when being charged – red to signify it being flat and green to signify it being fully charged.

To better strengthen the overall concept of the Christmas DM, the cover had the simple festive greeting of “Power up your holidays”.

THE MAIL Objective: To create a gift to remember for recipients.

Idea: A set of cookies made to look like a power bank.

Results: A memorable touch for OCBC’s customers.

Jason Lee Senior account manager Addiction Advertising

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The Mob-Ex Awards 2014 DATE: 16 January 2014 VENUE: Singapore Marriott Hotel 1 Guests at the awards ceremony.

2 Paulo Koelle, managing director Shave Care, RBU, AAIJK, P&G, after winning the Mob-Ex Best of Show – Brand.

3 Robert Woolfrey, managing director, Southeast Asia, Millennial Media.

4 Team Active Network.

5 Team Fonterra and Mediacom.

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6 Team DBS. 7 Team Brand New Media.

8 Team MEC. 9 Team Millennial Media.

10 Team SMU and Wild Advertising & Marketing.

11 Team Mondelēz.

12 Team P&G and Mediacom the overall winners of the night.

13 The trophies for the awards night.

14 The dining room at the Singapore Marriott Hotel.

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15 Vivian Yeung, general manager, MediaCom, after winning the Mob-Ex Best of Show – Agency.

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MARKETING SPECIAL FEATURE: THE FUTURIST

Images courtesy of: moterangrua.wordpress.com; www.youtube.com; www.africanleadershipacademy.org; commons.wikimedia.org; www.independent.co.uk ; www.hollywoodreporter.com; gadget-tech.org; www.businessinsider.com; www.nbcwashington.com

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WITH LAST YEAR’S MAJOR SHAKE-UP TO THE AD INDUSTRY, WHAT CAN IT LOOK FORWARD TO THIS YEAR? 2013 was a year of many changes for the advertising industry. First, it will be recognised as the year of mega advertising mergers, as Publicis and Omnicom’s merger followed shortly after Dentsu’s acquisition of Aegis Media. Ripples of these developments are still moving through the industry, as both agency and clients watch to see the impact.

Gary Lim, regional connections director of

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Asia for Johnson & Johnson, highlighted these moves as the biggest developments to hit the industry in the past year.

“How the differing holding company cultures will impact collaboration between the new partners; how the scale and consolidation will impact the industry and clients is yet to be seen. Clients and competitors will be definitely keeping a careful eye on these developments.”

As the deal slowly gets past regulators in the various regions (at the time of print, it has cleared hurdles in the US and Europe), industry watchers are expecting more consolidation within POG’s agencies. One of them is WPP’s chief Sir Martin Sorrell. He told Adweek: “They may say ‘we’re not going to consolidate the agencies’, but in my view, looking at it from the outside, they’re going to have to if they’re going to

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MARKETING SPECIAL FEATURE: THE FUTURIST

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make it work.” According to him, the multiplicity of traditional agencies in markets such as Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, France and possibly the UK, will be too costly to maintain separately.

This year also saw further power shifts in the media, particularly with digital mediums gaining even more clout. Key events in the social media space, for example, the Twitter IPO, have demonstrated the value and huge power social media now plays.

Cheuk Chiang, CEO of Omnicom Media Group, Asia Pacific, highlighted the rise of social apps such as Line, WeChat and KakaoTalk, particularly in the Asia Pacific region.

Another key event of note was the rise of digital streaming services to compete directly with traditional broadcasters. For example, the

Netflix-produced House of Cards became the first online production to win an Emmy last year to prove it had become serious competition to HBO, added Chiang. This only makes the drive into digital more urgent.

“The days of only ‘the digital people’ thinking and handling digital are numbered,” said MasterCard’s head of marketing Sam Ahmed.

This will mean four major areas of impact, he added.

“The war for digital talent and digitally savvy talent will keep heating up, affecting business as usual and salary banding if you want to attract top staff,” he said.

Also, training all marketing staff in digital will become vital. Finally, the typical digital strategy, structures and processes will need to evolve

to become more integrated with the whole business, particularly the marketing planning cycle and commercial rhythm, he said.

As for the local market, the past year saw the Singapore government striving to make itself a “hub” for digital and marketing services, as it foresaw the rise of other Southeast Asian markets such as Indonesia becoming serious competition.

More than ever before, agencies are finding the local market too small, and are quickly putting out their feelers into the rest of the region.

What does the rest of the year hold? We speak to top marketers, media owners and agency leads to get their take in the following interviews.

WHAT ARE THE MOST URGENT FOCAL POINTS THE APAC INDUSTRY NEEDS TO LOOK AT IN 2014?

HERE’S WHAT INDUSTRY LEADERS HAD TO SAY: – Real-time insights: How we can get insights on demand to impact development of highly relevant and targeted marketing programmes.

– Data and analytics: Implementing technologies, measures and processes in place to collect and manipulate data to create effective marketing campaigns.

– Agile marketing: Designing and distributing relevant brand content in real-time.

Agencies in Asia-Pacific need to move from creating work that is world-class, to producing work that is world changing. Opportunities in the market allow us to take risks and bring new ideas to the fore, but to be successful requires a culture of creative leadership at all levels, and integration of capability within the agency.

Jeffrey Seah, VivaKi country chair, Southeast Asia and chair of Asia Digital Leadership Team, SMG Asia

The industry needs to reassess the best way it can bring value and solutions to its clients. Social media means communications is constantly evolving – crowd-sourcing, native content, engagement – our industry has to work out what we are best at as we move into the coming years.

The industry is really starting to mature, but I think both the lack of self-confidence and a scarcity of the best talent may be the factors that hold us back.

Talent is the obvious one and enough has been written about it over the year, but self-confidence less so. As an industry we need to be more self-confident about what we do, the value we create and the fees we charge.

Wayne Arnold, global CEO, Lowe Profero

Technology is fuelling new and empowered consumers who depend daily on mobile, social and digital platforms to interact with their world. And it’s requiring brands and businesses to completely rethink their entire customer approach. In order to truly connect brands and customers going forward, you will need to be a top-notch business consultant, advertiser and technologist – all in one.

Chris Foster, chairman and CEO, Saatchi & Saatchi Asia-Pacific

John Zeigler, chairman and CEO, DDB APAC

Agencies and clients should be looking at increasing the return on marketing investment. Marketers should be benchmarking their ROMI, and with so many analytics at our disposal this is increasingly achievable.

Matthew Godfrey, president, Asia Pacific Young & Rubicam

Joy. Can our industry stop complaining and start enjoying what it does. Embrace the future. Get on with it.

We are some of the luckiest people in the world.

Charles Wigley, chairman, Bartle Bogle Hegarty

Kim Douglas, vice-president and managing director, SapientNitro

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NEWS ANALYSIS

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10 TRENDS FOR 2014 Technology’s ubiquitous presence has both a positive and negative effect on consumers. Here is one agency’s prediction for 2014 when it comes to consumers.

Consumers are both welcoming and resisting technology’s growing omnipresence in their lives. For many, technology serves as a gateway to opportunity and the solution to a growing impatience, but those who are most immersed are starting to question its effect on their lives and their privacy.

One result is that more people are trying to find a balance and lead more mindful and in-the-

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moment lives. And, in a world that’s become all too polished or mass-produced, they are also embracing imperfection.

JWT’s 10 Trends for 2014 report is the result of quantitative, qualitative and desk research conducted by JWTIntelligence throughout the year specifically for this report.

Trends don’t happen in isolation. They tend to intersect and work in tandem with each

other. Many are extensions or outgrowths of trends formerly spotted; after all, trends with real significance can’t be assigned to just one calendar year. Here’s what they are, according to JWT: 1. Immersive experiences Entertainment, narratives and brand experiences will become more immersive and altogether

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NEWS ANALYSIS

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more enveloping in a bid to capture consumers’ imagination and attention.

Example: To bring the tag line, “Fill Your Home with Music” to life, Sonos, the maker of internet-connected wireless music systems, created immersive installations in New York and Los Angeles. Digitised colour washes, lighting and animation co-ordinated the colour and mood of a room to the music playing through Sonos speakers.

2. Do you speak visual?

We’re shifting to a visual vocabulary that relies on photos, emojis, video snippets and other imagery, largely supplanting the need for text.

“Visual” is a new lingo that needs to be mastered.

Example: Tinder and similar apps simplify the online dating process by eschewing wordy profiles in favour of photos that can be scrolled through quickly. Users of Tinder are tallying up 350 million swipes per day – swiping right indicates interest, swiping left indicates a decline.

3. The age of impatience With the mainstreaming of the on-demand economy and our always-on culture, consumer expectations for speed and ease are rising exponentially. As businesses respond in kind, making the availability of their products and services more instant, impatience and impulsiveness will only continue to increase.

Example: eBay, Google, Amazon and grocery services, including Walmart To Go, have introduced same-day delivery options in some markets and are steadily expanding their availability – and some are shrinking the delivery window down to as little as an hour. The eBay Now service provides delivery from local merchants in about an hour for a $5 fee.

4. Mobile as a gateway of opportunity In emerging markets, the mobile device is coming to represent a gateway to opportunity – helping people change their lives by giving them access to financial systems, new business tools, better health care, education and more.

Example: Developed by Vodafone in collaboration with Turkey’s Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Farmers’ Club sends SMS messages about government regulations, weather and market prices, tailored to farmers’ locations. A partnership with Şekerbank lets users pay by mobile phone at the end of the year.

5. Telepathic opportunity Thanks to the rise of brain-computer interfaces and emotion-recognition technology, brands are getting more adept at understanding consumers’ minds and moods, and reacting accordingly in a very personalised way.

Example: To showcase the power of a Kit

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Love-hate affair: While technology offers many great things, some are starting to resent and fear it.

Kat break, JWT Singapore and Nestlé wired up students with headsets that tracked their brainwaves while they ate a Kit Kat bar, then generated a unique piece of art that reflected their state of mind. Students who entered the “brain booth” could see what happened to their brain after they consumed a Kit Kat. 6. The end of anonymity Thanks to an array of new technologies and a growing drive to collect personal data, it’s becoming nearly impossible to remain unobserved and untracked by corporations and governments. As anonymity becomes more elusive, expect pushback from consumers and a growing paranoia around technologies and services that affect privacy.

Example: Tesco’s 450 gas stations in the UK will start using screens made by Amscreen, a digital advertising firm, that analyse the faces of people approaching the register and target ads based on gender and their rough age; they also track how long people look at the ads.

7. Raging against the machine As we move further into the digital age, we’re starting to both fear and resent technology, fretting about what’s been lost in our embrace of unprecedented change. We’ll put a higher value on all things that feel essentially human and seriously question (while not entirely resisting) technology’s siren call.

Example: A growing number of bands and music festivals are asking crowd members to put their phones away and experience the concert “in 3D”, as She & Him have requested. Others who have objected to the usual sea of phones held aloft include Jack White, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Prince and Björk.

8. Remixing tradition With social norms quickly changing and a new

anything-goes attitude, people are mashing up cherished traditions with decidedly new ideas, creating their own recipes for what feels right.

Example: While religious affiliation is declining in the US and UK, congregations such as the Calgary Secular Church and Sunday Assembly are aiming to bring people together regardless of a central belief in a deity. Many atheists and agnostics are recognising the benefits that come with the ritual and community traditionally offered by organised religion.

9. Proudly imperfect Imperfection and even outright ugliness – the quirky, the messy and the clearly flawed – are taking on new appeal in a world that’s become all too polished or mass-produced. The imperfect is coming to feel more authentic, and also more comforting and meaningful.

Example: In October 2013, the Austrian grocery chain BILLA, part of Germany’s REWE Group, launched a private label line of “nonconformist” produce dubbed “Wunderlinge”, a made-up word that combines the terms for “anomaly” and “miracle.” Another German retailer, Edeka, has tested selling ugly produce at a discount, branded as “Nobody is perfect”.

10. Mindful living Consumers are developing a quasi-Zen desire to experience everything in a more present, conscious way. Once the domain of the spiritual set, mindful living is filtering into the mainstream, with more people drawn to the idea of shutting out distractions and focusing on the moment.

Example: Virgin Atlantic commissioned content from the meditation gurus at Headspace for the in-flight entertainment system. Designed to help passengers meditate and deal with the stressors of travelling, the videos address topics such as how to get sleep and deal with boredom.

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NEWS ANALYSIS

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COMMUNICATING A NEW WAY 2014 will be the year when communications truly comes of age as a data-endorsed discipline.

1. Data rocks the socks off comms 2014 will be the year when communications and public relations truly come of age as dataendorsed disciplines. It will be the year in which the application of performance-based analytics and data to mine real-time, predictive insights fuel content development and brand storytelling.

Brand communications, shaped by data and insight, will sit at the table alongside the art of brand storytelling – across platforms.

2. If content is king, then contextual content is King Kong Content has always been a key driver of brand marketing and corporate communications. What will change in 2014 is that content will begin to exist in a more meaningful planning ecosystem – one that is fuelled by data-driven insights to provide context to communications and brand stories.

Rich content will be at the heart of digital communications with three core pillars: creativity, context and care. We will see the continued rise of visual storytelling. Micro-videos will gain momentum and infographics will become the norm for brands to share ideas and concepts, internally and externally.

3. Fully measured brand engagement Brand engagement in all its forms will come under the scanner of ROI. CMOs and organisations will seek more measured value out of platforms and channels. This will force the “KPIs of engagement” to be much more than “clickthroughs, likes and number of fans” across the spectrum of agency deliverables. Measurement will require the integration of agencies under a single ROI model for the business.

Business impact will be the new flavour of choice for brand communicators in 2014. Digital, mobile and social media strategies will evolve to be linked to tangible business goals.

4. Ubiquitous mobile and the hidden trove Much has already been written about “the ubiquitous mobile device” – but without much meaningful action by brand communicators in India and Asia Pacific. 2014 will be the year when brands uncover this hidden trove of mobile brand communications. Instant messaging (IM) and “chat-based” social networks such as Whatsapp, WeChat, SnapChat, LINE and others will be utilised for brand communications, as a way to carry branded content to audiences in a targeted manner.

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Looking ahead: Hybrid teams, social customer relations and data-driven insights will be the future.

Where possible, mobile advertising and other forms of brand engagement across IM platforms will become a dominant feature of digital plans.

While it will take time to become the new normal for brands, in 2014 there will be a few campaigns across Asia Pacific that will reveal the true power of these mobile networks for brands in the region.

5. Social customer relations and service In 2014 we will see more consumer-driven agenda and purpose marketing. Brands will continue to struggle to cope with customer reactions in real-time. Social CRM will at last become truly meaningful in the context of the allied growth in big-data systems, predictive analysis modelling for brands, and social-driven e-commerce.

The much overused and hyped concept of “online reputation management” will find few takers in 2014 – instead, “social care” will be the new mainstream of service-led communications; only a lot smarter, more insightful and linked inextricably to the traditional CRM and customer loyalty solutions of brands and businesses.

6. Digital’s new normal – omni-channel The new year will witness omni-channel, transmedia campaigns as the new paradigm in how communications and marketing works.

Importantly, multi-channel campaigns will be mapped against how consumers consume branded content to make decisions and form opinions around brand consideration,

advocacy and purchase. This new process for campaign development will be a triumph for communications and marketing ROI. 7: Communications creates commerce As brand marketplaces across platforms mature to the point of no differentiation in any feature other than pricing and branding, brand communications will take its rightful place as a key differentiator and driver of commerce across platforms.

Technology aided interventions will get stronger through compelling storytelling that delivers brand, customer experiences and targeted product content more seamlessly.

8: Hybrid teams Birds of the same feather flock together. Well, not really! Marketing and communications teams within organisations and agencies across Asia Pacific will become hybrid in 2014 – to bring in diverse skill sets while collaborating across the development of transmedia, omni-channel brand campaigns.

On one hand, this will mean that specialised agencies will come together more often to collaborate at campaign ideation stage.

On the other, integrated agencies will invest to acquire the skill sets of specialised agencies in an attempt to deliver the promise of full-service offerings across a complex and increasingly fragmented digital landscape.

This article was written by Zaheer Nooruddin, APAC regional studio D lead and Soumya Dev, India Digital Lead, Waggener Edstrom Worldwide.

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B

Sample Store is here to make Tryvertising easier for you.

wider audience. More than 100 brands are already on board, so this isn’t something you want to miss out on!

Like Evonne and Celia, Tryvertising allows consumers to experience your product in their daily lives, establish

-PROVIDES TARGETED LEADS by giving samples of your product to interested or relevant consumers only.

-SPREADS THE WORD with social media integration. As consumers use your product, they provide feedback and reviews both online and offline.

-MONITORS AND EVALUATES performance so you can focus on selling your product.

Don’t get bogged down by statistics and having to track where your samples end up. Leave that all to us.

MARKETING SPECIAL FEATURE: THE FUTURIST

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In 2014, CMOs who lead will obsess over their customers from all angles to make sure they have the right message for each buyer’s stage in the purchase journey.

Three key strategic imperatives will dominate their actions: 1. Make data the foundation of the marketing strategy; 2. Focus brand efforts on the buyer, not the business; 3. Organise to deliver buyers’ needs, not channel-led requests.

Imperative No.1: Intertwine data as the foundation of 2014’s strategies and plans.

In 2014, Forrester expects data to form the basis of nearly all successful marketing executions. As the year progresses, CMOs will: • Invest in tying data to planning. In 2014, B2B CMOs will take that data opportunity on by using data to guide their plans for product and messaging.

• Define the questions they want answered upfront. In 2014, B2B CMOs will define the questions for which they need answers and spend the first half of the year collaborating with the chief information officer (CIO) to figure out how those questions will get answered.

• Start with the data they know. In 2014, B2B CMOs will start to mirror Citrix’s approach, using lead management vendors such as Leadspace and Lattice to identify patterns that predict future intent.

What it means: CMOs must shift their attention from data volume to data variety, incorporating new nontraditional data sets from product suppliers, complementary businesses, government agencies and customers to expose new insights. CMOs will start down the path towards adaptive intelligence: the real-time multi-directional sharing of data to derive contextually appropriate, authoritative knowledge that helps maximise business value by sharing low-risk data and piloting participation in a data exchange. However, CMOs will not see significant return on investment from adaptive intelligence until 2016.

Imperative No.2: Redefine B2B as “businessto-buyer”.

The consumerisation of the B2B buying process

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now requires CMOs to stop targeting companies and speak directly to buyers as individuals. This does not mean adopting consumer marketing tactics. Instead, we believe that in 2014, CMOs will reframe their B2B marketing approach as business-to-buyer rather than business-tocompany. This business-to-buyer approach requires CMOs to: • Meld content and brand strategies into one. In 2014, those B2B marketers will hire journalists to help them change the way their brand story is told. Case in point: Former journalist Stephanie Losee serves as Dell’s global managing editor of communications.

• Target the brand story across all phases of the buyer’s journey. Forrester has found that brands must engage buyers in a twoway dialogue to drive trust, relevance and engagement throughout the buying journey.

• Distribute content consistently across channels. B2B buyers use social channels as a critical source of information and engagement throughout their buying journey. In 2014, CMOs will shift their focus from channel optimisation to content and experience optimisation. Social channel use that is tuned to target the specific channels and preferences of senior decision-makers will further spread 2014 brand messages.

What it means: IBM has a goal of becoming a media powerhouse, with more than 40,000 internal content producers and brand journalists deployed. In response, traditional media companies such as Fortune, Forbes, The Economist, and Condé Nast will shift their thought-provoking style and journalistic content creation engines to push native advertising formats and help less resource-rich business marketers benefit from this new content-led model.

Imperative No.3: Organise around the customer, not the product or channel.

The traditional channel-based marketing model is at odds with the customer’s multifaceted view.

In 2014, CMOs will dismantle organisation silos in favour of customer-defined, interconnected teams. To do this, they will: • Instil an agile mindset throughout the marketing culture. To engage at the speed of customers, 2014’s agile B2B marketing teams will use analytic-based insights to make quick, actionable decisions, experiment

with new ideas, and succeed or fail in record time.

• Hire for technical aptitude over domain expertise. The next wave of hiring will need to eschew specific tactical skills in favour of a mindset that permits new skills to be absorbed. In 2014, new job descriptions should emphasise: 1. critical thinking skills; 2. an affinity for building knowledge through analytics; and 3. technology skills that drive customer engagement.

What it means: CMOs who grew up in marketing don’t understand technology and data the way they need to. Vendors, recognising that they are too far ahead of customers to sell what they have built, will dedicate 20% of their sales and pre-sales support resources to client education.

With technology and analytic skills under their belt by 2015, a CMO’s stature and influence in the organisation will grow, chief executive officers will lean more on them for customer insights, and their role in the success of the company will be clearer.

Sheryl Pattek is VP and principal analyst serving CMO professionals at Forrester.

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In 2014, the business-to-consumer (B2C) CMO will feel the pressure to innovate even faster, as empowered consumers shift their thinking from mobile as a channel to mobile as the channel, while maintaining their presence on digital or in traditional environments. Each of the trends that marketers face requires stronger leadership of the business, prolific partnering with agencies and technology companies, and a tight bond with the chief information officer.

Here are our top five predictions for the B2C CMO to take note of: 1. Media decisions will focus on the intersection of audience and lifestyle targeting. Audiences are fragmenting across a broad array of media options and device types, finding the unique mix that yields them the most value and entertainment.

What it means: CMOs must partner with agencies and new media networks to identify the right lifestyle media hubs for their brands and then develop and pilot brand engagement models that resonate.

2. Customer experience needs C-level ownership. The verdict is in: Companies with better customer experiences have better financial performance than those that score poorly in this area. C-level execs need to blend marketing and customer experience leadership to ensure the brand’s promise is expressed at all touchpoints.

What it means: In 2014, customer experience will dominate the agenda of online pure plays and multichannel incumbents, ranging from AmazonFresh to Safeway or leading-edge Tesla Motors to lagging Mercedes-Benz. Expect to see this type of activity across industries, as the discipline of customer experience becomes the practice of business success.

3. Mobile will rise from project to primacy.

Forrester’s Mobile Mind Shift Index shows consumers’ expectations of their mobile experience are on the rise. CMOs will grab control of the mobile strategy, increase mobile budgets, and bring the broader perspective of mobile’s impact to the executive table.

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“IN 2014, CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE WILL DOMINATE THE AGENDA OF ONLINE PURE PLAYS AND MULTICHANNEL INCUMBENTS, RANGING FROM AMAZONFRESH TO SAFEWAY OR LEADING-EDGE TESLA MOTORS TO LAGGING MERCEDES-BENZ.” What it means: By the end of 2014, CMOs will rethink mobile beyond the app, understanding that mobile affects and enables the entire customer experience.

They will look to mobile developers such as LeapFrog Enterprises or BreakfastNY; mobile platforms such as Velti and Amobee; or point solutions such as Vibes’ short message service (SMS) offering that will take mobile from a me-too discussion to a more embedded strategy.

4. New ways to fund projects will kick-start digital disruption. Consumers who spend more of their time with new non-ad-supported concepts such as Snapchat, WhatsApp and Netflix demand innovation. About 62% of marketers that Forrester surveyed said their biggest marketing innovation challenge was securing budgets to test new concepts, and only 15% said they would increase innovation spending in 2014.

What it means: Forward-thinking CMOs will enhance their innovation efforts through prolific partnering with innovation agencies, start-up accelerators, technology companies, general start-ups and universities. We will see more examples such as Alaska Airlines’ partnerships with Possible, Microsoft, and Google and its investment in the innovation lab The Garage to redefine the airline travel experience.

5. A major shake-up in the social space will occur. For five years, CMOs have invested in the staff, content and technology required

to market through social networks. These investments have led to large fan bases for many brands. But CMOs tell us that Facebook engagement, in particular, has not proven to deliver brand engagement at the level necessary to increase investment. Combined with poorly performing ad products, CMOs will look elsewhere in 2014.

What it means: The social media space will change dramatically in 2014, as consumers’ lifestyles and participation rates allow brands to enter into a conversation in new and more meaningful ways. CMOs will disperse their social media budgets, moving to niche communities where they can create brand experiences that they can tie much closer to customers’ affinity.

Bert DuMars is VP and principal analyst serving CMO professionals at Forrester.

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IN A CONVERSATION WITH MARKETING MAGAZINE, RICHARD BLEASDALE, BLEASDALE REGIONAL MANAGING PARTNER AT ROTH OBSERVATORY INTERNATIONAL, SHARES HIS VIEWS ON WHAT NEEDS TO BE IMPROVED IN CLIENT-AGENCY TIES. 26 MA R KET ING J ANUA R Y - FE B RU ARY 2 014

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What are the biggest flaws in client-agency relations?

There are four major flaws: 1. They are not a marriage of equals – that is supplier-based rather than partnership-based; 2. The operating terms and responsibilities are not clearly defined; 3. They are not measured regularly, and measured both ways; 4. They are not remunerated based on performance.

What are the biggest complaints that clients and agencies have about each other?

When we carried out a piece of research called “Off the Record” with a group of leading regional agency CEOs, it’s fair to say they had a wide range of gripes. However, the top three quotes we heard were: 1. “We never get access to your senior decisionmakers and high quality thinkers”;

Richard Bleasdale

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2. “If we perform really well, reward us with fairer, more motivating incentives and don’t treat this as a means to get a stealth discount”; 3. “You need to take more risks, trust your gut and move much faster”.

We are constantly talking to marketers about the challenges they face with their agencies. Again, they have many complaints – but, they can be summarised as follows: 1. “We never see your senior people, the people we do see are too junior and keep changing”; 2. “Get immersed in my business, spend time with me – let’s work together on this stuff”; 3. “You’re too reactive. Where is the proactivity, the energy and ideas?”

Do marketers rely too much on agencies?

There is no simple answer to this question – some do, some don’t. Reliance on agencies can be for positive and negative reasons. In some cases, the reliance can be negative, caused by marketers being unclear on their marketing/ business problems, or their brief, and so do many rounds with the agency before getting to the right solution.

That said, collaboration between marketers and their agencies is a hugely positive concept, but should be done with both parties clear on their roles and responsibilities.

Continuing the positive theme, with increasingly complex digital consumer environments, marketers have come to rely on their digital agency partners much more.

This is generally positive, since the agencies can utilise their specialist expertise to greatest effect.

and co-ordination across different specialist agencies. To try and alleviate this issue, some large brands are looking to appoint at an agency holding company level and then work with the holding company to develop an integrated team across their different specialist agencies.

For some marketers, with less complex requirements, it can make more sense to get an integrated offer from one single agency – although, in this case, the quality and depth of that agency’s integrated offer is paramount.

The short answer is, there is no one-sizefits-all model.

Agencies of record versus multiple shops – which will work better?

This one also plays both ways. However, the agency of record model, in Roth Observatory’s view, should work better because it should deliver greater benefits to both the marketer and the agency.

The benefits for the marketer include a more committed agency team, more consistent talent working on its account, a team that should understand its business and its challenges in

few years of tough economic conditions. In this situation, unless they achieve the cost reductions they are targeting, they can become roadblocks to the process of starting or continuing a positive marketer/agency relationship.

It is not uncommon for procurement professionals to only appear once a year, for a short period, for remuneration negotiations with the agency. So on a day-to-day basis, procurement does not see the challenges that occur in a marketer/agency relationship, where costs have been cut too deep and working practices do not match original agreements.

However, greater involvement from procurement can reap benefits. Procurement professionals tend to be very strong in the areas of process and measurement – often not areas of strength for marketers. We have seen real winwin results when procurement works extensively with marketing to develop and manage detailed scope of work (SOW) documents. A detailed SOW is probably the most important element for agencies in producing a relevant remuneration proposal. In the same way, procurement’s strength in the process can bring real benefits to the day-to-day operation of a marketer/agency relationship.

Finally, procurement’s strength in measurement can also add huge value to the ongoing management of an agency remuneration agreement, which has KPIs and/or PBR components built into it.

“FOR MARKETERS, THE ONLY LIKELY BENEFIT IN A REDUCED SELECTION OF AGENCY OPTIONS IS THE POTENTIALLY GREATER MEDIA BUYING CLOUT THAT A CONSOLIDATED GROUP CAN GIVE THEM.”

Do clients really need multiple agencies or are they better served by one or at best, two agencies?

It tends to be driven by the marketer’s scale and need for specialisation, as well as the agency’s depth of integrated capability. The speed of change in the digital environment and consumers’ adoption means it is becoming impossible for any one agency to be a specialist across all digital channels.

Because many are experimental and thus riskier in nature, many marketers – particularly those with large and complex marketing activities – are choosing to appoint specialists to take advantage of their knowledge and experience. This makes sense, but provides different challenges in terms of collaboration

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more depth and less time spent co-ordinating multiple agencies.

For the agency, the benefits include more consistent income, more settled teams and lower costs of business development.

Should marketers be paying for pitches?

In our view, yes. The likelihood is that pitches will be run more professionally, with greater transparency, and smaller, more focused groups of agencies. In addition, we believe agencies will also take the process more seriously, with the end result being higher quality submissions for marketers to choose from.

Does procurement have too much influence over agency selection?

To date, arguably, yes. Many procurement professionals are measured on cost reduction; this has been particularly common over the past

Agency consolidation – who wins?

I would say that generally agencies win – but potentially neither clients nor agencies.

For marketers, the only likely benefit in a reduced selection of agency options is the potentially greater media buying clout that a consolidated group can give them. For agencies, there are certainly potential cost savings to be had from the integration of “back-office” functions, as has been trumpeted in the recently proposed Publicis-Omnicom merger. There are also potential benefits from being able to pool differing sources of consumer and media data.

However, agencies risk losing their distinctive identity, spirit and passion – consolidation tends to drive sameness rather than differentiation.

And it is a strong and differentiated personality and offering that makes agencies appealing for both marketers and agency staff in the first place.

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The Christmas decorations have been put away for another year, the sales negotiated and the leftovers either eaten or thrown out and the New Year’s Day hangover is a fading memory.

Time to get back to work because there is no better time to get some work done than the quiet before the storm when the year gets going.

But there are some disciplines you can apply this time of year that will set you up for a more successful year ahead. While it is tempting to rush straight back into that “to-do list” you left on your desk just before the holidays, an ultimately more productive strategy is to use this time to prepare and plan for the year ahead.

Here are seven New Year disciplines for any marketer who is managing a roster of agencies.

1. Reconcile the schedule of work to date It doesn’t matter if you are starting a new year of work, or midway through a financial year, or even a quarter or three quarters, it is worthwhile taking the time to review where you are to date against your marketing plan and the schedule of work to date.

This includes looking at what has been produced, the resources required and the associated costs. Ideally you would look at this both internally and externally because increasingly marketers are managing more resources and capabilities within the organisation.

Look for where projects or tasks were incredibly time consuming or protracted, or where budgets have blown out or outputs were under delivered. This is where you will be able to identify the opportunities for improvement going forward and the greatest opportunity for increased effectiveness and improved efficiency.

2. Review the scope or schedule of work for the remainder of the year Only once you have reviewed where you currently stand in regards to your marketing plan and schedule of work can you start to look at the future requirements to complete the planning period. This is particularly important if you have a planning process approaching for the coming year.

In the media space, look for where your media investment stands against any contracted or agreed spend levels with the media owners. It is better to make plans to either adjust spend to meet these undertakings or inform and negotiate early if it looks like you will fall short.

For your digital investment, look to the level of investment and review this against performance to date. Is this underperforming or over performing and look to adjust the coming investment accordingly.

Also, look for the spend levels by channels to see where shifts have occurred year-onyear because this informs you of any overall trends or shifts in investment. Overall you are

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looking to ensure your budget is appropriately apportioned to your marketing plan, objectives and expectations.

3. Review results and metrics against investment to date Obviously an important part of determining your current situation is reviewing the delivery of results to date. Are you on track against your annual goals? And how are you performing against year-on-year results? Which channels or projects are delivering and where are there shortfalls?

Rather than hoping that “things will come good”, review and identify the areas where you are currently underperforming and explore reasons why and devise and consider changes in strategy and tactics that can be implemented to address these issues.

Of course, it could be that they are not required, but it is difficult to assess without having an alternative to compare and contrast. Taking the time and applying the discipline of evaluation and review means you are better positioned to make the appropriate changes if and when required.

the relationship it covers. It is an ideal time to find those contracts and review them to ensure they are current, valid and relevant. Do they need renewing? Or do they need updating or revising to meet changing requirements? It’s a good idea to not only review the contracts, but also make sure the agency and your team are aware of the fundamental requirements of both parties under the terms of the agreement.

And, if you cannot find a current, valid contract for one or more of your agencies or suppliers? Then it’s time to engage with either procurement or your legal advisors to commence the process of putting an agreement in place to protect both the marketer, company and agency.

6. Review agency roster against requirements and spend Once you have the marketing plan requirements

and the associated requirements are important and should be undertaken regularly. Depending on the volume and dynamics of the market this could be weekly, monthly or quarterly. Likewise the management and evaluation of your agency and supplier performance should be undertaken regularly.

At the very minimum it is an annual review, but increasingly, like the strategic performance review, it should be undertaken more frequently, especially for those strategically important agency relationships. This is usually quarterly or six monthly. The key is to schedule these reviews for the year ahead and lock the process into all of the stakeholders’ schedules up front.

The review, at a minimum, should include performance evaluation and discussion and scope of work and remuneration. Where there are multiple agencies working together on the brand or business, it is also worthwhile involving all parties in the review process to increase alignment and promote collaboration.

“SO WHILE YOU MAY HAVE MADE THE RESOLUTION TO MAKE 2014 HAPPIER, HEALTHIER AND WEALTHIER, IF YOU ARE MANAGING MULTIPLE AGENCIES THEN IT IS TIME TO GET WISER.”

4. Review proposed investment against projected results Having identified issues and underperformance, the next opportunity is to review the marketing plan and adjust the level and mix of investment against the channels and activities. Of course, this is an ongoing process, but at this time of the year there is an opportunity to take a more holistic review.

It is an opportunity to minimise the investment in those activities that are not performing and to increase investment against those activities and channels with proven performance.

There is also an opportunity to create an innovation fund within the budget for those activities that test the market. The 70/20/10 approach allows for 70% of the overall budget for the marketing plan implementation; 10% for innovation through test and learning projects; and 20% for amplifying those successful innovations.

5. Review the current agency contracts It is interesting how we find that marketers will often have agencies and suppliers providing services without the security of a valid and current contract. Or, if there is a contract in place, it is often forgotten or out of date and requires significant review to make it relevant to

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finalised, it is worthwhile reviewing the resources you need to deliver them. There are increasing options available to marketers, either through technology or innovation to allow greater management of the marketing plan implementation.

It is also important to not only consider what is required, but how much (what is the level of spend and is this significant?) and how often (how frequently is it required – seasonal or always on?). You should also look for the opportunities to package the requirements with as few suppliers as possible with bundling.

Rather than simply leaving the requirements to the usual roster of agencies, it is worthwhile reviewing the roster against the requirements, looking for the opportunities for either consolidation, re-appropriation or realignment.

Taking ongoing services in-house or finding more efficient ways to utilise your external resources can make your process faster and more cost-effective.

7. Schedule agency reviews for the coming 12 months Regular reviews of your strategy performance

New Year’s resolution?

So while you may have made the resolution to make 2014 happier, healthier and wealthier, if you are managing multiple agencies then it is time to get wiser.

Use this time before the rush commences to lay down the disciplines to manage the efficiency and effectiveness of these resources and relationships. And have a productive and successful 2014.

The writer is Darren Woolley, founder of marketing management consultancy TrinityP3.

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As we enter into the Year of the Horse, here are my predictions on all the different horses that digital marketers might encounter.

Just what are they exactly?

Horses for courses For most countries right across the Asian region, there simply aren’t enough people with the right skill sets to go round. Hence, education and training is critical and all companies will have to invest not just in hiring, but also in upskilling their existing teams.

Investments in educating staff should take a two-pronged approach – first, to educate staff in disciplines other than marketing for the business’ immediate needs, and second, to invest in graduates and young staff who will pave the way for the future.

The fast moving nature of digital marketing means it is critical for both current and future “digital experts” to keep up to date with the shifts in the industry. It is a budget line increase that businesses need to allow for, not just for the Year of the Horse, but well beyond.

Racehorse The ability to execute at speed will become absolutely critical. Customer expectations have been changing, and in the Year of the Horse, that expectation will reach a point where doing real-time marketing – responding based on an action taken in real-time – will no longer be a delight. Rather, it is a base-line response; something they expect of brands. Failing to do so will only frustrate them.

Marketing teams need to be able to orchestrate this last millisecond response, based on possible outcomes and responses that will compound to hundreds of permutations.

This means marketing teams need to plan ahead of time, dive into data which will reflect how the plans are working out, and tweak that performance accordingly to drive optimisation.

It is only once the marketing team is executing with the speed of a racehorse, that it can then focus on innovative marketing ideas to delight the customer.

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Workhorse Data and analytics will move from being show ponies that look impressive, but deliver insights only every now and then, to become something that is considered absolutely business standard.

In fact, data and insights will be the workhorse behind every campaign. They will become the most critical element a marketing team relies on to determine what needs to be improved or altered, based on what the data reveals.

The ability to access data quickly will also mean that campaigns can be optimised even after they are in market, making data and analytics the reliable workhorse that will enable marketing teams to deliver on optimal performance.

Rocking horse This year, we’re going to see the establishment of what we started noticing in the Year of the Snake – cross-team collaboration, distinguished by commitment to execution across teams, powered by better knowledge-sharing and collaboration. The way we work together will lead to a regular metronome-type rhythm to how we work.

Cross-team collaboration depends on processes that ensure everyone’s KPIs are aligned, synchronised, transparent, and that the common sets of data and creatives are shared.

The word most used in the Year of the Horse will be “cadence” If you find yourself using the word this year, think of that rocking horse!

using data to their benefit. Regulations will come down on this, but keeping your data and sharing it only in ways you control will be critical.

3. Over specialisation While skill sets get more and more developed, it is very tempting to test the waters and forget about the big picture. Not building teams with “T”-shaped skills (broad knowledge across all marketing and business, deep knowledge around one topic) will see your teams enter some stormy waters.

4. Ad spend Results from the 2013 Adobe APAC Digital Marketing Dashboard showed that 71% of marketers spend less than quarter of their marketing budget on digital. The gap between Asian consumers’ exposure to digital media and ad spend on digital is massive. This means your competitor who invests now is getting in front of your customer for a fraction of the cost that you are paying on traditional media.

Stay away from these four horsemen of the digital apocalypse, and avoid having a “nightmare”. Gong Xi Fa Cai and may this be an auspicious year for all Asian marketers!

Horsemen of the apocalypse There are horses that can also potentially derail marketers this year. Let’s call them the four horsemen of the apocalypse!

1. Systems There are still a lot of legacy systems such as CMS systems or campaign management platforms from previous generations that are slowing down digital marketing executions.

2. Data leakage and data loss It was said some time ago that data is the new oil – but now there are companies that will be

Siva Ganeshanandan is director, Adobe Marketing Cloud, APAC, Adobe Systems.

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only need to assess the potential exposure of ads in traditional, non-digital and digital media channels and content, but also identify which media channels and entertainment platforms are considered most informative, inspiring, and trusted when deciding to buy a brand. In addition to digital media, television, shopping malls and newspapers are the top three media platforms to reach affluent Asians.

Asia’s affluent are young and growing. Ambitious and aspirational, these consumers are set to become the No.1 priority for most companies throughout the world. The affluent are defined as the top 25% among income distribution in a given country.

At Agility Research & Strategy, we studied consumption patterns of more than 3000 affluent consumers across China, India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Japan to arrive at the Affluent Consumer Manifesto 2014 to help businesses focus their marketing efforts on Asia’s emerging middle class.

1. We want to spend now, but help us save for the rainy day. With the mantra of work hard and celebrate personal success, the affluent believe in spending more and saving less in the short-term. Their top five short-term priorities include spending, saving, investment, family planning and insurance. Interestingly, there are radical shifts in these priorities when it comes to long-term with saving coming at the top followed by insurance, investment, family planning and spending. Clear opportunities exist for credit card/insurance companies to extend their offerings by integrating future savings and insurance with the present-day spending.

2. We desire to see the world, right here – right now. The affluent Asian traveller group is dominated by young executives and professionals aged in their mid-20s to early 30s. Travel has become a key component of life; they predominantly travel for pleasure rather than business. For affluent Asian travellers, travel represents reward, relaxation and experience while sending external messages of wealth, status and ambition. There has been a shift in purchasing behaviour from luxury possessions and items to experience and travel. Holidays rather than material possessions bring happiness. This desire for experiences is taking the affluent Asian traveller further and further afield. The travellers have the disposable income and appetite for long-haul flights to some of the most expensive cities in the world.

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3. The Asian female consumer is increasingly discerning. About 50% of affluent consumers are women. They definitely use money to buy elements of everyday happiness (read: luxury goods). Affluent Asian females primarily associate luxury with price, affordability and branded goods. The purchase of luxury items

6. Ageing gracefully. Consumers across India, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Singapore are concerned about growing old gracefully. Their health and family’s health and maintaining a healthy lifestyle rank high in priorities. They also feel maintaining a healthy lifestyle is getting more difficult these days. Most of them prefer choosing healthier options while eating out.

The mandate is loud and clear in the affluent manifesto. Capturing the affluent consumer’s

“THERE HAS BEEN A SHIFT IN PURCHASING BEHAVIOUR FROM LUXURY POSSESSIONS AND ITEMS TO EXPERIENCE AND TRAVEL.“ is also driven by a need for self-definition and social identification. The superior craftsmanship and uniqueness of design provide a real personal statement of success and taste. They allow affluent women to buy into an exclusive world, one in which they can express themselves through a sense of style and quality. Luxury items provide exclusivity and are a statement which sets them above and apart from the rest of society. These purchases send an outward expression of wealth, happiness and of living a comfortable and stress-free life.

share of wallet demands more than a disconnected set of brands. It is about a holistic value chain that “wows” these consumers across every touchpoint.

4. We expect quality in almost every sphere of life. Affluent Asians are willing to pay a premium only if the service quality is as per their expectations. They are increasingly considering product quality in relation to price as the most important parameter when making any purchase. Regardless of the price they are paying for a product and they expect great quality from luxury brands. Product quality is particularly relevant in the purchase of service items – technology, travel and vehicles. Through the purchase of these luxury items and brands, affluent women expect the highest quality of service and assured confidence in the products they have purchased.

5. Digital media is important, but so are our TV channels and newspapers. Brands not

Amrita Banta is managing director, Agility Research & Strategy.

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In recent years I have taken an interest in flyfishing and particularly enjoy fishing in the South Island of New Zealand. Here, the trout may be some of the most difficult to catch. When successful, an enormous pay-off awaits – that (very fat) “trophy” trout. Fly fishing for a trout is much like marketing to consumers today.

The trout in New Zealand rivers are spoilt for choice when it comes to insects to feed on. This is because the ratio of trout to insects versus the ratio of trout to metres of river is lower than most rivers in the world.

fragmented, and consumers are choosier than ever about which media they interact with.

So while it is important to be thorough in all steps of the marketing planning process, here we will focus on what I call “presenting the fly”.

Let’s assume we have read the rivers, reviewed the environment, observed which insects are seasonal, and selected the fly to fish for the particular trout we have spotted in the river pool in front of us (that is, we have planned, understood our consumer insights, competitive sets and decided on the appropriate marketing

“CONSUMERS TODAY ARE WELL-EDUCATED, WELL-INFORMED AND SCEPTICAL OF MAINSTREAM MARKETING APPROACHES.” To tempt a trout, it is not enough to simply drop a fly in the water. Much like trout, today’s consumers are inundated with messages and advertisements, and spoilt for choice with a myriad products and services.

As we know, most marketers are well-versed in the importance of understanding consumer insights, decision pathways, shopper behaviour and most of all, the importance of brand equity.

Then, why is marketing so difficult? Why is it so hard to hook a fat trout?

There are two challenges facing marketers today. First, the unpredictable nature of human behaviour. Second, a world that keeps changing. Needless to say, these two problems also present massive opportunities for marketers who can understand the consumer, and adapt quickly and effectively to respond to their needs.

Over the years, technology platforms for marketing have grown in sophistication. With geo-targeting, m-commerce, f-commerce, and the good old-fashioned e-commerce, it seems that with more ways to reach our consumers, our jobs should be easier.

But what we experience is that communication channels are far more

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mix). After selecting the right fly, now we will present the fly to the trout.

Trout are choosy. Although they are actively feeding, if the fly does not land on the right flow line where the food runs downstream, the trout may look at it and choose to ignore. There are plenty of other flies that don’t look as suspicious as this one that acts a little oddly.

Much like trout, our consumers are increasingly choosy. No matter how attractive our product or message may be, if it’s not presented to the consumer in the right way that is credible, and at the right time when they will engage, our marketing dollars go wasted.

Consumers today are well-educated, well-informed and sceptical of mainstream marketing approaches. Consumers no longer respond to blatant branded advertising, no longer source information from branded websites, but now prefer to rely on their trusted sources of information – be it friends (known or unknown in the real or digital world), independent sources such as bloggers, review forums and the popular vote trending online.

The everyday consumer has emerged as the opinion leader and primary influencer for

purchase decisions. Therefore, marketing to a consumer through the consumer has somewhat added complexity for the marketer.

It is not enough to ask consumers what they think, how they source information, how they make decisions and why they buy certain products. We must also seek to understand what they themselves cannot articulate. Yes, now we must also read their minds! Well, this isn’t quite possible yet, but we do know that when we observe consumer behaviours, this can be quite different from what they tell us.

Currently, we have tools at our disposal such as neuromarketing, which is a more academic approach to applying scientific techniques and medical imaging technologies to monitor consumer brain activities such as cognitive and affective responses to stimuli. By monitoring parameters such as heart rates, respiratory rates and skin conductance responses such as heat and sweating, we can begin to understand how they might respond to advertising messages, visual cues and products.

In so doing, we can understand the intuitive and unconscious decisions behind purchase decisions. Like anything new, these approaches may be highly debated, but I think marketers who are prepared to take risks with new approaches to understand consumers, trial new initiatives, and most importantly learn from these trials will have the advantage in the market place.

There is no longer a formula for marketing success. For the marketer who can read the rivers and adapt to its ever-changing conditions therein lies an opportunity. Fishing in the right pool is a good start, but the challenge of landing a fat trout is increasingly difficult. This is why consumer behaviour is so interesting and why marketing in the highly fragmented, fastflowing and dynamic market of this era is more challenging than it has ever been.

Ayumi Uyeda is general manager for Consumer Care, Bayer HealthCare.

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27/1/2014 4:00:07 PM

MARKETING SPECIAL FEATURE: THE FUTURIST

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Your consumer Josephine has a problem. She needs to make an informed decision about buying a bouquet of flowers, and after deciding to make that purchase, she needs that transaction to be quick, easy and safe during her busy day.

A solution in the present would be for Josephine to log onto any connected device – be it laptop, smartphone or tablet – and get instant reviews, user experiences, the best prices, reliability of the company, along with delivery and payment options.

However, a solution for the future would be for Josephine to also be able to have a wellrounded sensory experience before purchasing those flowers – experiencing the bouquet’s reallife colour, texture and scent. The consumer’s decision should be made in 30 to 90 seconds, because the future is about rapid decisionmaking and transacting.

Disruptive technology, social media, usergenerated content, online videos and new influencers are levelling the media hierarchy.

Why is what we do so important and what does the future of marketing hold?

ears and take a walk in our customers’ shoes and ask ourselves: “Would I want to read/watch/ listen to this?”

The future consumer will no longer be viewed as mere page clicks, page views and email addresses. They will be viewed as real people, parents, those who are curious, those who are impatient, those who are ambitious and those who want to empower their busy and demanding lives.

The future sees quality taking over quantity and thanks to deeper insights and real-time data, reevaluating the key metrics for success will be the norm. The quality of a brand’s fans and followers will matter so much more than their mere quantity.

Delivering customer satisfaction Brands will be creating the right environment to serve consumers through a seamless, curated digital experience which ultimately delivers customer satisfaction. The achievement of happy customers is the new media mantra. Consumers will love that brand because its communication

“DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGY, SOCIAL MEDIA, USER-GENERATED CONTENT ARE LEVELLING THE MEDIA HIERARCHY.” Putting people first Consumers are increasingly discerning, being able to sift through the advertising clutter, inadvertently putting the public back in public relations as well as the social back in social media.

The future of marketing sees brands having a clear and genuine desire to create solutions to make people’s lives better. Strong emotional connections will be built, nurturing of relationships will be created, offering consumers support with the right content, at the right time.

Gaining the consumer’s trust will be paramount to ensure brand loyalty and advocacy.

As marketers, we should open our eyes and

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interface looked after their needs and interests in a manner which made them feel very special and privileged.

At Brand New Media, we know brands are already investing in empowering consumers through video content: delivering ideas, information and inspiration. It goes without saying videos convey a message that is far more engaging and powerful than text content.

This new marketing avenue not only delivers more value, brand awareness, customer conversations and longevity, it’s also a way for brands to future-proof their investment by becoming a publisher and broadcaster – by being interesting through content rather than

interrupting what’s interesting through inane advertising.

Tomorrow’s technology Consumers today are familiar with the predictive features of a smartphone user interface.

Our future consumers will utilise predictive technology with a suite of input devices, sensors and displays that can work together. Televisions could be programmed to interact with your emotions, mobile devices may predict your daily routine and provide content and ideas to enhance your day through experiences, offers and services customised to you. Content won’t just be king, it will be the key to your universe.

The emergence of new banking products will empower brands and consumers more than ever. The use of one-click payment from mobile devices, in-app conversions, m-commerce and coupon codes will increase. Payment terms will be redefined as credit card companies and financial institutions can now personalise individual terms for every single purchase, for every single customer, in real-time.

As consumers continue to adapt to the proliferation of marketing messages within their world, brands in the future will need to develop much deeper relationships with their customers – by being interesting through content rather than interrupting what’s interesting through inane advertising.

Dawn Jeremiah is marketing manager, Asia Pacific, Brand New Media.

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27/1/2014 4:18:24 PM

MARKETING SPECIAL FEATURE: THE FUTURIST

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It is a great time to be a marketer in the era of the “Internet of Everything” (IoE). IoE is the intelligent connection of people, things, data and processes on the network, all linked and talking to each other like never before. Here is a real-life example.

As a runner for 20 years, I used to write down my running times and track my distances.

Now, I use a heart rate monitor and a fitness wristband to help track my heart rate, running distance, duration and intensity.

When these “things” and the apps that come with them are connected to each other on my smartphone, they talk to each other and the collected fitness data across the devices and apps can be linked and analysed, providing me with very useful comparative information for myself and to share with my friends. The apps can also aggregate this data to provide benchmarks or contribute to research.

With IoE, we are able to enhance the experience of exercise like never before – no longer do I need to use pen and paper to record my running history. As we reliably and securely connect the unconnected, amazing things can happen for all industries and certainly for marketing as well.

For example, with IoE, “connected marketing and advertising” is possible, bringing us tremendous opportunities and benefits.

Today, marketers are finding it difficult to implement cohesive marketing strategies across numerous and disparate channels such as TV, radio, internet and point of sale.

With IoE, when everything is connected, companies can have a better view of their customers, including their demographics, behaviours and personal preferences at a moment in time. This enables companies to deliver targeted messages for each individual, and offers to customers on any device, when and where they will have the most beneficial impact.

With this new paradigm, we can act more quickly by assessing and reacting to – or leading – our markets in real-time; increase profits by tying pricing to the current selling situation and the customer’s ability to pay; and grow revenue by bundling our offerings with other products

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“SUCCESSFUL CMOS WILL TRANSFORM MARKETING FROM A COST CENTRE TO A DRIVER OF REVENUE, AND LINES BETWEEN SALES AND MARKETING WILL BLUR.” and services based on a holistic assessment of the customer’s wants and needs.

The new connected marketing and advertising model also reminds us how marketing is growing closer to IT. Marketing is becoming progressively more technology based with digital marketing becoming increasingly important and effective in driving business growth. As the reliance on IT continues to grow, we can expect to see CMOs having a bigger slice of the IT budget.

Multiple third-party research papers have also predicted this budget shift. So, we will see more synergy from the collaboration between CMOs and CIOs. On one hand, CMOs can learn how to leverage technologies for marketing from CIOs. On the other hand, CIOs can broaden their insights into IT purchasing behaviour from a marketing perspective. This new kind of collaboration between marketing and IT will dramatically increase productivity, profitability and growth.

In addition to being linked closer to IT, marketing is also strengthening its alignment with revenue generation. Indeed, “revenue marketing” is nothing new to B2C marketers.

And with the consumerisation of IT, revenue marketing has also become top-of-mind for many CMOs in the B2B market, and will become more central to success for CMOs in the future.

Successful CMOs will transform marketing from a cost centre to a driver of revenue, and lines between sales and marketing will blur.

CMOs will need to tie marketing programme success across the customer life cycle from awareness to sales to support and refresh/ renewal, measure their effectiveness on ROMI (return on marketing investment) and benchmark their success against industry best-in-class marketers.

Marketing has never been more diversified, and having marketing skills alone will not be adequate for marketers to excel in the future.

The most successful marketers will have to wear many hats – as a futurist, an IT advocate and a revenue generator for the company, to name a few. To me, this sounds like the CMO may truly be the Renaissance man for business in the future. Are you ready for that?

Sabrina Lin is vice-president of commercial business and marketing, Cisco Asia Pacific.

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27/1/2014 4:18:44 PM

MARKETING SPECIAL FEATURE: THE FUTURIST

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In 2013, content creation and content marketing clearly took centre stage in advertising. This year, marketers are reassessing their content strategy to think about how they can distribute their content to ensure it can be scaled, while customers in Asia are increasingly shifting online and on mobile. They now expect brands to engage them across multiple platforms with direct access via social networks. What does all of this mean for 2014?

hopefully in some ways even inspiring them. And mobile is now the channel through which this is all happening.

Brands that understand this platform and commit to building engaging mobile experiences across all devices are brands that will stand to win the customer in the long run.

The equation of mobile and digital has the ability to reach consumers at various touchpoints and we will see how more brands

“WITH THE WIDESPREAD ADOPTION OF SOCIAL PLATFORMS, THE TERM ‘SOCIAL MEDIA’ WILL SLOWLY BECOME OBSOLETE AS THE ROLE OF DIGITAL PLATFORMS EVOLVES INTO A MORE EFFECTIVE WAY OF ENGAGING WITH PEOPLE AT SCALE AND DELIVERING CORE MARKETING OUTCOMES SUCH AS IN-STORE OR ONLINE SALES.” First, prime time will be all the time, every hour, every day, as time spent on digital networks – especially mobile – continues to surge. Reaching consumers at scale is no longer restricted to traditional “prime time” definitions as it becomes easier to push your content to the relevant audience.

As an extension of this, the mobile canvas on platforms such as Facebook will be truly embraced by marketers for brand-building campaigns as mobile is an all-day every day media. Many brands will be discovered first on mobile rather than any other platform in 2014.

Mobile has long evolved from direct response objectives, and branding has also long evolved from a logo on a web page.

Branding is now about people – connecting with them, engaging them, influencing them and

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engage with their consumers through locationbased and technology enabled functions. Brands will deepen engagement with consumers at different stages of the consumer journey, and build rapport through identification with the brand as well as direct loyalty tactics and programmes.

Online platforms also mean no barriers for today’s globally connected consumers – which in turn means the challenge for getting your brand out in global or regional markets lies in cultural rather than geographical barriers.

With the increase of regional and global consumer-driven brand reviews, which are trusted more than marketing messages by the company, influencer and advocate marketing become more important today in creating the special bond between your brand and your target consumers.

Gradually, the term “social media” will also be used less and less as marketers leverage digital platforms such as Facebook as mass awareness and engagement vehicles.

With the widespread adoption of social platforms, the term “social media” will slowly become obsolete as the role of digital platforms evolves into a more effective way of engaging with people at scale and delivering core marketing outcomes such as in-store or online sales.

Today digital marketing tools are available to businesses of all sizes, which will help level the playing field. Powerful targeting and measurement tools once reserved for big brands with deep pockets will now be available to smaller companies.

All businesses need to reach new and prospective customers, and the formula for success is a combination of targeted reach, strong messaging, frequency and measurement.

All of these components are available on digital and mobile and can reach the right people with more accuracy and efficiency than ever before.

Therefore, data partnerships will also no longer be the territory of big brands.

Dan Neary is vice-president, APAC, Facebook.

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27/1/2014 4:19:12 PM

MARKETING SPECIAL FEATURE: THE FUTURIST

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Sometimes change is not as dramatic as it is longdrawn. Technological advances and innovations alter the way people work, live and interact – the effects of which reverberate across the landscape of individuals, communities and enterprises.

Eventually, the ripples find their way to influence customers, commerce and, yes, marketing.

From calling the bank about a loan enquiry to tweeting about a sale at your favourite fashion brand, cognitive systems will hit mainstream use in a few years time – its “brain-like” capability to understand and analyse both structured and unstructured data – seeping into tasks we regard as routine or ordinary.

Already, some banks are tapping Watson – the cognitive computing system from IBM that can learn, adapt and understand company data quickly and easily – to empower relationship managers and financial advisors to better serve

Consider just two key trends among the forces of changes: • Integration of more channels: Digital marketing will certainly continue to increase, but not necessarily at the expense of traditional mediums such as newspapers and television, which still have their own devotees. Indeed, the intersection between the digital and physical will be the leading benchmark of innovation. As the 2013 IBM C-Suite study found, CMOs realise it is increasingly critical to meld the two dimensions to integrate the cross-channel touchpoints. For example, in five years time, we predict shopping at physical stores will become hip again, trumping the now ubiquitous online retailer.

By merging digital such as mobile apps with the instant gratification of physical shopping, the brick-and-mortar store can offer patrons a more immersive and personalised shopping

“THE KEY TAKEAWAY FOR MARKETERS IS THAT THE GROWING USE OF COGNITIVE SYSTEMS WILL UNDERPIN OTHER KEY FORCES OF CHANGE THAT ARE CAUSING CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR AND EXPECTATIONS TO EVOLVE RAPIDLY.” customers with more targeted, personalised recommendations. Catering to a “demographic segment of one”, without comprising any personal data, enhances the real-time human-to-human interaction and boosts overall client experience.

The key takeaway for marketers is that the growing use of cognitive systems will underpin other key forces of change that are causing consumer behaviour and expectations to evolve rapidly. To stay customer-centric, outdo competitors, and consistently engage and retain fickle audiences will demand marketing professionals to wield both creativity and logic – a dexterous use of left and right brain, so to speak.

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Entity analytics, powered by cognitive systems mining massive volumes of data in the back end, will enable marketers to identify their targeted audience by specific needs and wants, and be proactive rather than reactive. Continuing from the example of digitally empowered physical stores, cognitive systems will learn and be able to process data quickly to build up comprehensive customer profiles in real-time, so retail floor staff are knowledgeable about individual customers’ shopping preferences and can service them accordingly with the relevant products and offers.

All these observations are not science fiction.

The world we live in is becoming increasingly interconnected, intelligent and instrumented.

Imagine a scenario whereby the cognitive computing capabilities of your bank anticipates you are planning an overseas ski trip, and while you’re using the bank’s mobile app, it sends you a text message about travel insurance tailored to the needs of your ski trip and budget range.

The bank can even factor in personalised financial recommendations for your investments that consider potential world events which might occur during your trip, such as a sudden decision on fed tapering. Now that’s true marketing – anticipation of need, targeted, relevant assistance, and effective engagement.

We are at the threshold of a new era where computers will get smarter and more customised through interactions with data, devices and people.

It is imperative for CMOs to transform the customer experience, amid the challenge of understanding and engaging the customer as an individual rather than as a category or market segment. Because, as customers become smarter and enabled by data and devices, so must the marketing profession and function.

experience, something online-only retail cannot replicate.

• Space-time contextual marketing: This is about marketing making the transition from generic broadcasting to laser-focused targeting.

Even today, the refrain, “the right thing at the right time at the right place for the right person” is frequently trumpeted, but rarely achieved.

The recent establishment of the Do-Not-Call (DNC) registry for Singapore consumers to block telemarketing messages is proof of that. In the near future, however, space-time contextual marketing will improve by leaps and bounds.

Foong Sew Bun is chief technology officer, IBM ASEAN.

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27/1/2014 3:59:19 PM

MARKETING SPECIAL FEATURE: THE FUTURIST

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My favourite teacher at school was Mr Dowse. A stocky, earnest man in his mid-50s, Mr Dowse taught French; needless to say, expectations were fairly low when our 13-year-old selves first entered his classroom. Once at our desks, however, Mr Dowse exploded to life.

His lessons were full of evocative tales of washing down plates of confit de canard with bottles of Bordeaux, skiing in the crisp Pyrenees in the morning before sunbathing on a golden Mediterranean beach the same afternoon and (particularly appealing to our curious teenage minds), the illusive mysteries of French girls.

ensure credibility in the rigour applied to the methodological design and execution, market research often appears academic, dry and detached from reality.

While the industry has (moderately successfully) rebranded as “insight” (rather than research) in the past decade, this semantic shift still doesn’t fully convey the fact that even the greatest insight will struggle to cut through, if it’s not communicated engagingly and memorably.

The proliferation of digital media means that stories of some type are now everywhere – from Facebook status updates to audiobooks; from

“WE ASPIRE FOR OUR STORIES TO LIVE ON PAST THE FORMAL PRESENTATION, TO BE RETOLD WITHIN OUR CLIENTS’ ORGANISATIONS, GENERATING A VIRAL ENTHUSIASM, MUCH AS IN PREVIOUS GENERATIONS WITH THE ORAL TRADITION.” What an impact this had on our desire and ability to immerse ourselves in all-things French.

Alongside many of my fellow pupils in his class, I went on to secure a university degree in French, spending years dedicated to learning about this fascinating and contrary country.

Such inspiration came through Mr Dowse’s undoubted ability to tell stories, to evoke images of an exotic-seeming land – and this inspiration didn’t just make us think, it persuaded us to act; staking our own precious futures on his passion for France. Mr Dowse sadly died a few years ago, but he left behind a true Francophile legacy through his inspirational stories.

If effective storytelling is proven to persuade people to act, why then does storytelling struggle to permeate the world of consultancy? Why are research reports often so lacking in persuasion, so unable to hold attention?

Too often constrained by the need to

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Tweets to blog posts – and while these are of vastly varying quality, our hunger for stories has never been better catered for.

It is within the context of this digital era that Kadence has observed the positive impact of approaching our reports and presentations from a truly creative, storytelling perspective. While the narrative arcs, pacing, conflicts and incidental details of memorable stories are inherent to all research reports, Kadence explicitly amplifies these constructs to make three-dimensional heroes and villains out of the business issues, micro and macro influences and brands that inhabit our research stories.

This may sound like hifalutin hyperbole for a mere research report, but at Kadence we take great care to bring our reports to life, not just aesthetically, but structurally. We appropriate the conventional storytelling theory for our purposes.

Our lead protagonist can be a product,

a service issue, an ad campaign, a brand; our business issues become our secondary characters; we attempt to build and dissipate tension throughout, before restoring order with clear, well-considered conclusions and recommendations.

Beyond this, we introduce visual props to support elements of our stories – ranging from audio-visual vox pop interviews with customers, to tangible products brought in from consumers’ homes – to better immerse our audience in the story, and generate a greater sense of occasion.

And all of this is underpinned by our awardwinning infographic-style output.

I’m sure we’ve all experienced the drama inherent within the business world, so it’s perfectly natural to expect some theatre within market research. Kadence understands our obligation to entertain as well as educate if we’re going to succeed in an increasingly competitive world.

We aspire for our stories to live on past the formal presentation, to be retold within our clients’ organisations, generating a viral enthusiasm, much as in previous generations with the oral tradition. When our presentations are spoken about within our clients’ organisations we’ve achieved our first goal, but having our clients take action based on the story that they’ve heard is our true measure of success.

Our raison d’être therefore is to ensure that at the dénouement of our presentations, our clients are impressed by the tour de force that they’ve received.

Mr Dowse would, I hope, be proud his legacy lives on … Vive Le raconteur!

Greg Clayton is managing director, Kadence International.

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27/1/2014 4:14:41 PM

MARKETING SPECIAL FEATURE: THE FUTURIST

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Analytics and marketing have been tied together for decades – from effective segmentation through to the creation of customer insights, retention and acquisition modelling – all built to increase the bottom-line and influence the customers’ purchase behaviours.

So what’s different today? Marketing is all about making decisions: what’s the right offer, what’s the right price, what’s the right channel? It’s also about maximising impact and minimising cost. Analytics is all about making better decisions, and for the marketer it’s all about better marketing decisions.

So what do I think will be the emerging trends for the year and beyond?

Prediction 1: Big data comes of age As transformational technology trends such as mobile device usage, social media and sensorderived data further fuel the explosive growth of data, companies are boosting their efforts to gain economic and strategic value through big data initiatives.

have improved both the quality and speed of decision-making.

Big data didn’t just happen. It’s been growing for decades.

What is key for the future is for marketers to have the ability to gain meaningful and useful insights from big data. Low-cost data storage and in-memory computing are converging to help organisations make proactive decisions about the future.

Prediction 2: Big data for surviving and thriving Even if you don’t have big data in-house, every organisation has tremendous potential to benefit from big data. Why? Because so many of today’s big data sources are public. Think open government data (census, agriculture reports).

Think weather and meteorological data. Think traffic data. Think climate data. Think Twitter.

This open data is out there, it’s free and it’s waiting for you to analyse it.

the consumer is driving the buying process not the seller, and in this world analytics needs to be everywhere.

Marketing organisations must take advantage of analytics and analyse everything, everywhere.

Analytics will no longer be the domain only of the statistician or data scientist (albeit important roles) but will be the mainstay of all marketers.

The emergent marketer will have access to easy to use analytical technologies so they can truly understand customer behaviours and drive real-time decisions. Marketing analytics technologies will provide: • Superb visualisations.

• Advanced analytical capabilities that are easy to create and easy to consume.

• Big data capability.

• Integrated analytics and marketing processes to achieve real-time omni-channel outcomes.

• Predicative and prescriptive capabilities to drive the best outcomes.

Recommendations Embrace technology change – disruptive technologies and the internet of things have put the customer squarely at the centre of everything you do. The modern marketer must embrace analytics and big data to compete, thrive or even survive.

The modern marketer must drive realtime customer outcomes and adapt to the emergence of omni-channel marketing and digital X (digital everything). This can only happen with the adoption of a high performance analytics approach.

“WHAT IS KEY FOR THE FUTURE IS FOR MARKETERS TO HAVE THE ABILITY TO GAIN MEANINGFUL AND USEFUL INSIGHTS FROM BIG DATA.“ A 2014 IDG Big Data Survey report from 750 senior decision-makers revealed that: • Organisations are seeing exponential growth in the amount of data managed with an expected increase of 76% within the next 12-18 months.

• Nearly half (48%) of respondents expect that big data will be widespread across the company in three years, while another 26% expect mainstream use at one or more business units, departments or divisions.

• More than 20% say their big data projects

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The future belongs to businesses that can find new ways of segmenting markets by blending open data with proprietary and unstructured data and discovering new ways to increase business results. Analytics and big data underpin this future.

Prediction 3: Analytics everywhere We live in a mobile device-driven world. The consumer has access to information about you, your offers and your competitors before you have even started. It’s a new era of marketing where

Greg Wood is director of marketing and analyst relations for SAS Asia Pacific.

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27/1/2014 4:24:54 PM

MARKETING SPECIAL FEATURE: THE FUTURIST

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We hear a great deal about digital, and in particular, the mobile consumer these days.

The “device” is everything – they eat, sleep and breathe it. And therein lies the challenge for modern marketers: what do we know about the digital consumer? How are we communicating with them? How different are they, if at all, from

their tablets to find out more about the TV show, or doing something else completely unrelated, such as looking up recipes. How can a brand understand and engage such a busy, distracted person, and make itself relevant?

The underlying unifier of the digital/mobile world is data. And the capture and analysis of

and behaviours, helping to attract them back, creating exciting Singapore offers and packages, anticipating future demand and assisting with product pricing.

Marketers have always had questions about the effectiveness of their investments in the marketing mix. Digital and mobile data is beginning

“THE UNDERLYING UNIFIER OF THE DIGITAL/MOBILE WORLD IS DATA. AND THE CAPTURE AND ANALYSIS OF THIS DATA CAN PROVIDE THE ANSWER. BORROWING A PHRASE FROM FRANCIS BACON, KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, AND DATA DONE RIGHT, IS KNOWLEDGE.” the traditional consumer who reads a printed newspaper, watches free-to-air TV or listens to drive-time radio?

The answer is the consumer is not very different, but our ability to reach them effectively, with information they are interested in, when they are interested in it, has changed a great deal. In the past, advertising was pretty easy – print ads, TV ads, maybe some outdoor ads. That was probably enough; not very effective perhaps, but good enough.

To reach the digital consumer is, however, much more challenging. From the moment they awake, to arriving at work, to heading out, or home for the evening, they are connected to a digital device – phone, tablet, computer. They’re looking up what to do, where to go and how to get there. As marketers, it is your job to get your message, product and choice in front of them.

In Singapore, the average person spends more than seven hours a day online – that’s almost half the waking day. And they are often using different devices at the same time. They could be watching television while chatting with someone on their mobile phones, while using

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this data can provide the answer. Borrowing a phrase from Francis Bacon, knowledge is power, and data done right, is knowledge.

SingTel Advertising, the integrated advertising solutions provider within SingTel (with more than 450 million subscribers across multiple countries), uses digital and mobile device data to extract insights from consumer behaviours, interests and habits. By creating profiles from the data, advertisers can begin to understand who will be most interested in what information. This targeted approach to consumer engagement provides a higher level of success for brands.

During last year’s Singapore Grand Prix, a top tourism draw to Singapore, a company was interested in better understanding F1 tourists – where they were from, and where they went in Singapore. By looking at the data, we were able to analyse information on details such as where they stayed, what attractions they visited – Night Safari and Sentosa Beach were favourites – and even differing habits between Chinese and European tourists.

The insights derived from the data analysis provide an understanding of tourist interests

to provide unique insights into customer groups, and thereby, allow for more effective and more engaging customer-focused advertising.

The digital consumer is here. Are you ready for them?

Yvonne Tey is director of trade marketing, SingTel Advertising.

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27/1/2014 4:24:25 PM

MARKETING SPECIAL FEATURE: THE FUTURIST

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Mark Twain once said: “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” I wonder sometimes about the marketing profession today – is its relevance in today’s world greatly exaggerated?

As a professed marketing man, the advent of social media has caused me many sleepless nights. No, not because my next pay cheque may be in peril (though the mere thought sends shivers up my spine!), but more because I feel the marketing field – as we, or at least, as I know it – is undergoing cataclysmic changes that could render us inutile.

In essence, what is a marketing man? The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a marketer as a “specialist in promoting or selling a product or service”. That’s the long and short of it, I guess. The operative word for me is “promoting”.

ability to strictly identify audiences. We now have more of a moving target than a predefined one because our intended audience itself defines or redefines who they think may be interested in our product or service.

They know more precisely who among their sphere of “followers” or “friends” are in the market for a product or service, who are intenders or who are merely passive receivers. If we do our homework right, the resultant audience may match. But I submit that because the market is spinning at an ever more rapid pace, “target” users are lost and gained in seconds.

The social community tracks this more precisely than we are able to. It is real-time targeting that we can – or should – follow more than lead.

when we say them and where we say them is now such a dynamic exercise that we have to constantly track, fine-tune or reform our message so we can quickly align or realign it with rapidly emerging social views.

We need to listen faster than we talk, giving credence to the adage that we were given two ears and one mouth for a reason.

Finally, the call-to-action. Eliciting a desired response – buy my product! – is no longer as much of a linear equation as it used to be. Now, it’s much less about what we want to happen as what the wider social community is willing to endorse. Negative customer voices used to be kept in the realm of the customer service office.

Social media now allows an unprecedented level of transparency in the customer experience.

Therefore, market response can be geometrically expanded – upwards or down – causing significant disruption to our desired response and our supply chain.

How can we avoid being relegated to being an “observer” in this evolving new marketing landscape? Or can we? I am not convinced one way or the other … yet.

But of one thing I am sure, my “marketing staff” has multiplied manifold with the advent of social media.

I am certain, though, that from the chaos will come order. Being able to shepherd that process is the key for marketers to remain relevant.

So that obit might be premature just yet.

“WE NEED TO LISTEN FASTER THAN WE TALK, GIVING CREDENCE TO THE ADAGE THAT WE WERE GIVEN TWO EARS AND ONE MOUTH FOR A REASON.” To achieve this, I believe the most important weapon of the marketing professional is the ability to communicate – to identify the target audience, create the message, disseminate the message, stimulate a response through the call-to-action, track audience reaction, measure sales leads, conversion and finally loyalty – in pursuit of business goals.

To me, the most critical dimensions of the marketer’s job is identifying the audience, creating the message and stimulating a response. This may seem too narrow or self-limiting to some. It is, however, what I have come to define as the core functions of marketing. And, in this context, I think the job is getting away from us and more into the hands of the consumers themselves.

Why do I say so? Well, first, social media is a truly global phenomenon that has up-ended our

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Second, creating the message is also now more a matter of seeding a proposition than a full-on assault on the left and/or the right brain.

Where before we could revel in the one-way nature of marketing communication from the manufacturer or provider to the customer, we are now bedeviled with an infinitely more complex messaging process.

Previously, we were much more able to “manage the message”. These days, it’s more about managing a conversation. The message evolves and shifts and turns until eventually the “receiver” becomes the “sender”. Again, if we do our homework right, our message is amplified and cloaked with real-world endorsements.

If, on the other hand, we get it wrong, our message can completely backfire before it even gets off the ground. How we say things,

Vince Socco is executive vice-president at Toyota Motor Asia Pacific.

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27/1/2014 4:23:49 PM

MARKETING SPECIAL FEATURE: THE FUTURIST

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The death of the press release?

The public relations profession is in a whirl.

The press release – that standard of every corporation and organisation to announce a new product, service, earnings or change of CEO – has been reported to be dead and buried. Gone with the relics of the past such as typewriters, fax machines, print newspapers and traditional journalism, the press release has been relegated to the dustbin of corporate public relations history.

Not so fast. Perhaps the press release hasn’t been rendered dead on arrival. Perhaps the release is now changing form, like all other media. It’s transmogrifying into more than just words. The modern press release now has pictures, video, infographics and sound to bring the news to life. It’s taking a new shape and has more narrative.

Brand journalism is the buzz phrase in corporate PR. What it means for marketers is that you now need to tell the story of the company, product or service so the media and readers get an idea of why it’s different and merits mention in a news story.

Releases are no longer written, approved and sent to a wire. They are now offered to the media with a story; offers of interviews with highlevel executives; b-roll video that can be spliced into an online report; or a series of pictures that can be weaved into a slide show.

The media is hungry for content. In the halcyon days before the internet (yes, there was a time) newspapers went to print, reporters went home, and the news cycle started again the next day at 8am. Today, it’s a never-ending churn and the responsibility for content has fallen on corporations since most traditional media

make with releases: dull and wordy. Today, the make or break is your ability to offer up “content” with the release. Editors need more than just words. They need visuals to tell the story and to create their own content. For corporate marketers, this is the perfect opportunity to write a release, shoot some video, take a few pictures, create an infographic, and get your business noticed by the media.

Many corporates are bypassing traditional media, producing online magazines and blogs with small teams of former reporters that look at news instead of announcements. Corporations are creating the news.

The press release isn’t dead. It has just changed with the times. The press release now must have more to offer than: “We’re delighted to announce …” It must be content-ready and made for the digital age.

“ONE THING IS FOR SURE, WHAT WAS ONCE THE STANDARD FORM FOR WRITTEN RELEASES IS DEAD. AND FOR THAT, I SAY GOOD RIDDANCE.” One thing is for sure, what was once the standard form for written releases is dead.

And for that, I say good riddance. How many times have I received a release with quotes that start with: “We’re delighted to announce …” or “This is a true game changer that will alter how business is done.” No one talks like that.

Then there is the closing quote by some CEO who rattles on about the fact his manufacturing company is still manufacturing things. And the boilerplates that go on for a page with every legal detail and caveat about how publications are to spell a company name that starts with a lower case letter. No one cares.

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outlets don’t have the money to hire writers, photographers and video editors to fill all the space on their websites and e-zines.

A press release just isn’t enough. You must have visuals. And they must be able to be shared on social network sites.

The press release was once very simple.

Although agonised over by corporate executives and PR pros, the idea was to get the media writing about your business. As a journalist, press releases used to come into my email by the dozens each day. It was always the first few sentences that would be the make or break.

The greatest mistake most corporations

Kris LeBoutillier is director of digital content, Visa Worldwide.

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MARKETING MAGAZINE TURNED ITS ANNUAL SPECIAL EDITION –THE FUTURIST – INTO A LIVE EVENT IN DECEMBER LAST YEAR, WHICH SAW SOME OF THE REGION’S MOST PROMINENT MARKETERS SHARE THEIR PREDICTIONS FOR WHERE THEY FEEL THE INDUSTRY IS HEADED IN 2014.

THE EVENT OPENED WITH A FIERY DEBATE ON CLIENTAGENCY RELATIONS AND IF THE STATUS QUO HAS FLAWS. HERE’S A WRAP-UP OF WHAT THE SPEAKERS SHARED. W W W .MA R KET ING - INT ERAC TIVE . COM

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over the past 10 years have dropped to about 20%. Agency income per work unit has seen a 40% decrease.

This is on top of major issues such as holding onto the right talent. So all key drivers are changing and we have to bring a fundamental change.

Vasu: It’s very easy to take stats such as those that you have mentioned and cast the light on our industry as being sick. I would challenge you to take those stats and correlate them to any professional services industry. The results will be similar. I think there are structural issues, but as an industry we look at problems differently. We are working towards these issues. The problem is that as we achieve a goal, the goal-post moves due to some innovation or other and we have to revitalise ourselves again.

Jain: So, on one hand we see there are enough stats to support big change. On the other hand Vernon, you are agreeing in part, but also saying, let’s not hide behind the numbers as every professional services is bound to go through this cycle. So let’s talk about structure. As we look forward, do you think we are facing a future with fewer structural agencies on long retainers, or many specialist small boutique agencies?

Marketing magazine’s The Futurist Live! was kick-started by a high-power debate on the topic: Is the client-agency model dysfunctional?

Speaking for the motion was Richard Bleasdale, regional managing partner for APAC at Roth Observatory International, and against the motion was Vernon Vasu, former director of corporate marketing and communications at the Health Promotion Board.

Moderated by Taru Jain, founder at Maxential, the debate touched on key areas of client-agency ties such as structure and remuneration.

Here are excerpts from the debate: Jain: Welcome to the debate Richard and Vernon. Would you say the house is on fire, that our industry is completely dysfunctional?

Bleasdale: A resounding yes. How many of you are “completely satisfied” with the quality of work you and your agency is producing? (asks the audience). We can see that a vast majority of you are dissatisfied with the quality of work you and your agency are producing. The critical issue here is the working relationship between client and agency.

Vasu: You can’t do a snap poll and consider those results final. What creative person or marketer is “completely satisfied”? I think it is the hardest motion to oppose because some of it is

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true, I agree. But the problem is not endemic. It occasionally happens because relationships occasionally break down. Now, I’ll tell you what Cosmopolitan (magazine) says about reasons of relationship breakdowns (laughter).

1.

2.

3.

4.

Failure to communicate.

You are bored.

You pick fights.

You avoid future plans.

Jain: Thanks Vernon. Now let’s agree therefore, there are some changes needed. If you are given a chance to re-architect the model, would you make wholesale changes or small tweaks?

Bleasdale: The changes have to be fundamental.

In this age of real-time marketing, most of you have too much data and there is massive pressure to deliver ROI and that pressure is driving caution. It’s not driving experimentation.

A CMO’s tenure is about only two years globally, and research into marketing projects isn’t positive either. Around 50% of marketing projects are costing double than what was projected and 85% of marketing projects are over-budget and delivered late. And nearly 30% of marketing projects are cancelled before completion.

On the agency side, standard agency contracts over 20 years have dropped to an average of about two years. Agency hourly rates

Bleasdale: Obviously as marketing channels explode, there arises a need for marketers to specialise, and because they need to take risks in a lot of these channels, one of the things they are looking for is knowledge and experience.

And they are only really going to get that from the specialists, there are too many marketing channels now so it’s impossible for anyone to be a specialist in everything, it’s just not feasible.

But that in itself is driving a huge issue of time management and having to manage all these different specialists and create a collaborative atmosphere. If we’re talking about professional services, one of the biggest issues for our industry is we are not treating our services as professionals.

Vasu: Having been on the agency side, I always tried to sell the specialisation. But on the client side I’ve become very circumspect, whether that specialisation truly exists or not, so I think it’s a sort of buyer beware thing.

Yes there is the lure of the boutique, you get a whole bunch of new people coming in, they have exciting ideas, you’re not vested with the work, you’re trying to win something, and sure it doesn’t hurt too much to carve out a piece and give it to them and see what it happens.

I think the true dysfunction lies between marketing and procurement, not between marketing and agency.

I don’t think they are evil people in

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procurement, but they are not in a position to make judgments because generally, even if they are used to purchasing professional services, for those such as legal firm or auditors, they are not buying an outcome-based solution, they’re buying an output-based solution.

Lawyers aren’t allowed to charge on results, they can’t charge more if they win, they can’t charge less if they lose. Because they just charge you man hours.

So, procurement is used to looking at hourly rates and discounts on hourly rates. That’s why they are not used to creative or digital agencies, coming and selling an upside.

Jain: If we are willing to back ourselves on really good work, then should the remuneration models between agency and clients change?

What’s your view?

Bleasdale: I think it should fundamentally change. We as an industry have gotten ourselves into the position where we’re paying on the fee-based model, are rewarding quantity and volume, and not rewarding quality and value and if we are in the business of professional services, which I hope we all agree we are, we need to fundamentally rethink the way that remuneration in the industry is working. The fee-based model

promotes inefficiency, so the more hours an agency works, the more it gets paid. That just doesn’t make sense.

We fundamentally think that the construct needs to change. The business that we are in is consultancy, is ideas, and IP, and the business should be driving remuneration based on the value it is creating for marketers.

marketers and agencies have to be a marriage of collaborative equals.

The terms for the relationship have to be fair and there have to be clear responsibilities for both parties. You need to measure these relationships regularly, and both ways and you have to incentivise and reward performance, if you want marketing to work.

Vasu: It’s not that easy. Let me raise another bogeyman: the audit department. And how many of you marketers have sat across auditors to justify the spends? Not the media spends, because that’s easily quantifiable but the fees.

You know, it has to be a blended approach, you can’t qualify everything, there has to be some quantification. And it changes, depending on the clients, depending on the credentials within client organisations. And that’s a cultural shift that extends to beyond just merely this dynamic of client and agency.

Vasu: I think Richard is as good as sketching out dystopia as he is sketching out utopia, neither of which actually exists. This perfect dichotomy, it doesn’t work. It’s a continuum, a process.

My position is that the momentum is in the right direction. Because why, it’s in our business interest to get it right. And so let’s go back to Cosmopolitan [laughter] which elicits five points.

So what makes a good relationship work?

Respect, honesty, genuine attraction, similar views about money and corresponding longterm goals.

Jain: Richard and Vernon, in closing, what’s the piece of advice you’d really like marketers and agencies to take away from this?

Jain: Excellent, so thank you both for shedding light on two very different perspectives. I think we have touched philosophy, history, Cosmopolitan, industry and finance, all in half an hour [laughter].

I think both of you are passionate in your different opinions, but ultimately in agreement, change is necessary.

Bleasdale: There are probably four key things that need to be focused on. If you want to maximise future success, relationships between

What are the forces redefining market research?

Research Asia Interactive returns in 2014 and will take an in-depth look at the developments, challenges and the future of market research.

Find out all about them on

27 June 2014

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PARTICIPATION AND PARTNERSHIP ARE THE NEW P’S OF MARKETING, SAYS SANJEEB CHAUDHURI, GLOBAL CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER AND REGIONAL HEAD OF SOUTH ASIA FOR STANDARD CHARTERED BANK. Product, place, price and promotion are the traditional four Ps of the marketing mix, which the industry is all too familiar with. The evolution of marketing, however, has thrown up a fifth P: participation, said Sanjeeb Chaudhuri, global chief marketing officer and regional head of South Asia for Standard Chartered Bank, at Marketing magazine’s The Futurist Live!

“I would almost use the fifth P to be a P squared,” he added, explaining it is not just participation, but also partnership.

Consumers today, he explained, want to work with their service provider or even the manufacturer of products and services they consume. In the new age of marketing, consumers are often willing to share their experiences online and in real-time allowing them to often become co-creators of content for the brand.

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This in turn empowers them to be both participants of the brand and partners of the product.

The fact is in this connected world, there are no island nations. Whether economic, demographic, political or an environmental trend, all of it is connected and has an impact on consumers.

Chaudhuri shared an infographic on how the Twitter traffic moved, post the Japanese tsunami that happened some time back, almost instantaneously and this is really the nature of the world we live in.

So what is this doing to the consumer? “And that is the important thing all of us have to come to terms with because it is a new world. What is it that we need to do as marketers to make sure that we are successful commercially and socially in this world?”

THE NEW CONTENT MODEL While marketers generally tend to think about content only in the online or the mobile world, Chaudhuri reminded us that historically, content has always been key in marketing.

He cited the example of Procter & Gamble. In 1930, Procter & Gamble promoted its detergent products through television episodes which led to the words “soap opera” being coined. But today, content is no longer distributed in a broadcast model or a funnel.

“Content today is still a work of art created by somebody, but the fact is you also have lots of stuff happening at the same time – be it peer reviews, buyers, contributors, user-generated content and more,” Chaudhuri said. “This is a convoluted model of how content is being absorbed, and co-created by consumers.”

This then becomes participative and a partnership between buyers, sellers and influencers.

One brand which has successfully grasped the concept of the fifth P is Burberry.

Burberry engaged with its consumer by enabling the consumer to help co-create an actual trench coat and customise it. Customers can choose different styles and designs of the details online and each customer can virtually experience the garment on the website before the final product is produced. The product can then be picked up at the store. This not only empowers consumers, but also helps them form a bond with the brand, he added.

“It is especially important for marketers today to have a business model which connects with consumers,” Chaudhuri said.

“But we believe that the consumer is getting smarter in trying to filter out the noise and get exactly the deal he or she is looking for.”

Another example he shared was that of Johnson and Johnson’s portal, babycentre.com.

It is, he said, one of the oldest manifestations of how consumers are co-creating content and being very sensitively provided information around the baby cycle.

“So, while it looked like a very women-centric portal, the fact of the matter is this has been one of the biggest drivers of the J&J business in terms of the perception of that brand, across different gender segments. The way they have managed this, is fantastic,” he said.

In summary, it is no longer a world of one-way communication. “Consumers want to engage with brands, and in the future, we will come to a stage where a non-engaged consumer will not be a consumer for you at all.

“And finally, success comes from getting the entire network to work for the marketer and the brand. So you have to get the entire network of your consumers, of your prospects, to really synergistically work for you, your company and its brands,” he said.

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WHAT EXACTLY IS REAL-TIME MARKETING? PARMINDER SINGH, SINGH, TWITTER’S MANAGING DIRECTOR FOR SOUTHEAST ASIA AND MENA, EXPLAINS. Events are now interpreted in real-time. For example, with iconic historical events such as the first man on the moon, or the Tiananmen Square riots, these were first witnessed by journalists, interpreted by them and reported to the world.

But contrasting them to more recent events such as the Arab Spring and the inauguration of Pope Frances, these events were witnessed by the general population, interpreted by them and shared to the world before news organisations could pick them up.

This is a reflection of how events are becoming truly real-time, said Twitter’s managing director of sales, SEA, Middle East and North Africa, Parminder Singh at The Futurist Live!

This is why marketing needs to be real-time as well, reflecting media consumption.

One example was Oreo at the Superbowl this year. During the Superbowl, while there was a power outage for a few minutes, Twitter was ablaze with people tweeting about the outage.

Oreo took advantage of this to tweet a post: “Power out? No problem, you can still dunk in the dark.”

Some argue this got Oreo more publicity than the millions of dollars it spent on the advertising campaign during the Superbowl, Singh pointed out.

Every marketer should have room for such marketing tactics.

Singh suggests that brands should have a collaborative muscle memory between their agencies and marketing set up for these moments. “It should be so spontaneous that when something happens anywhere in the world, you think ‘is this the right moment for my brand to be a part of?’” Singh said.

And how can marketers change their mindset? They need to think of marketing planning in a dual stream manner. One is to work with your agencies to develop long-term and medium-term plans, and the other is to create

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and leave some scope in your marketing plans to understand this MMQ or Muscle Memory Quotient.

“At the end of every month, can you and your agency sit across the table and just spend 30 minutes thinking about what was your MMQ in the last month. Did you identify moments?,” he said.

And, while not every month has to give brands those moments, if you’re not getting any moments over the next two to three months, then there’s probably something wrong with that.

“So build some time and factor in that time to create an MMQ session with your agencies and I think it will happen.”

PLANNING FOR THE UNPLANNED While it’s not every day that a major event takes place, there are patterns on social media that marketers should be aware of and can get their brand into. For example, food is a key topic each day on social media, with clear spikes and patterns to it. “Now if you’re a food brand or a restaurant or you’re a pizza chain, that spike, that moment, is a very clear indication for you to be part of the conversation,” Singh said.

Running is another predictable topic that appears. “There’s a very clear pattern to run and if you’re a sports brand you can know this pattern, know when you want to be a part of this conversation.”

As for live moments, such as a major sporting event, one question marketers may have is – how do you plan marketing or advertising when results are unknown?

Singh gives the example of how adidas sponsored the major football tournament, the Champions League. Its ad featured footballer Bastian Schweinsteiger, but the brand didn’t know if his team would win or lose. It prepared two ads, one of him in jubilation, in case the team won, and the other in rejection, in case it lost.

“What’s important here is the brand understood that they are part of the conversation no matter what, whether they win or lose,” he said. So what are the new rules, given that marketers are doing nothing similar to what they did in the past?

“We’ve talked about everyday moments, live moments, connected moments and we need to plan for the moments. And if we believe that life is a series of real-time moments, the job of the marketing department is to win that moment,” he said.

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SIMON KAHN, KAHN, CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER OF ASIA PACIFIC AT GOOGLE, EXPLAINS WHY GOING BACK TO MARKETING BASICS IS IMPORTANT.

The use of technology has culminated in dramatic changes in every sector and marketing is no different. While it is easy to get lost in new technology, it is important to get back to the basics of marketing, said Simon Kahn, chief marketing officer of Asia Pacific at Google, at Futurist Live!

“What I would argue is that we are in a backto-the-future mode where there is a lot of talk about the great scientific things that are already happening with the transformative effects of the digital and on the internet,” Kahn said.

But fundamentally, he added, we go back to the core of being effective marketers.

Marketers are now realising there are techniques to making digital marketing effective and cutting through the clutter. Also, content development in the digital space today has fast become a vital ingredient in the marketing recipe.

“But none of this is actually possible if brands aren’t able to engage the audience and bring emotion into their work,” Kahn said.

He talked about three trends we are currently witnessing.

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• Digital becoming the core element of marketing.

• Companies realising they really need to play in a much deeper way in terms of content development on the internet today.

• And finally, companies bringing emotion into their work and the online and digital space.

Talking about how messaging on digital platforms needs to resonate with the target audience, he cited the example of the Penguin Navi campaign done by the Sunshine Aquarium in Japan. Because Japan’s Sunshine Aquarium was a significant hike away from the train station, the marketing team at the aquarium wanted to make sure people could find it. They, therefore, created an augmented reality app where penguins could guide tourists along the right path.

Hence, the “Penguin Navi” app was born.

When aquarium goers loaded the app on their phone’s screen, actual penguins were seen guiding them in the direction of the aquarium doors.

This alone resulted in more than 150% more visits to the aquarium in only a month.

“The aquarium created emotion and people are having fun with it and it generated results,” Kahn said.

“This is a perfect example of how you can take something that is quite boring on the web (such as a map) and make it something more interesting and break through with it.”

This also shows that advertisers and brands today understand it is important to create content that works for digital. “This presents an opportunity for agencies to break through the standard thinking that many have been trained to do and do some more interesting work,” he said.

While the task of creating completely new content might be daunting to many marketing teams and company CEOs – because it may result in a need for more hires – there is a very simple and cost-effective way around it, said Kahn.

While those (hiring or outsourcing to an agency) are ways of doing content marketing, there are also other ways, explained Kahn. For example, going out there and finding digital natives.

Citing the example of Michelle Phan, Kahn said what Lancôme did was to go out and work with a digital native who had already built an audience, rather than create all kinds of special stuff with actors and their own authentic spokespeople.

“For years we’ve always sponsored people – either athletes or famous people or a slew of artists that support what we do. What is interesting here, is that we are not going to mainstream media such as cinema or TV, but digital. We are finding digital natives and having people promote them,” he said.

He then cited the example of Sainsbury’s.

The British supermarket chain asked folks to send videos from their last holiday season, and received numerous videos from consumers as part of the project. It then decided to create the 50 minute-long film with these clips and snippets.

“Think of how you can create content or absorb content or pull content from your customers or other places and make something that much more compelling,” Kahn said.

The other trend Kahn discussed was gamification. “It’s a huge industry and people are hugely involved and engaged when they play games, and that increasingly has been used by brands in order to capture people’s attention,” he said.

“What I would say though is fundamentally it all comes back to the core components of what we do as marketers and that is to create that emotional connection with the audience. To create a great story that will get people to feel something.”

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how to keep them loyal

John - Australia v 55 years old v a premium customer of AUS Financial, which manages 70% of his investment

?

find full answers in Epsilon’s 2013 Consumer Loyalty Study

Shireen - India v 23 years old v shops 2-3 times a month v often listens to friends’ recommendations

Epsilon’s 2013 Consumer Loyalty Study An analysis of customer engagement that enriches loyalty

Wei - China

Misako - Japan

v 34 years old v a member of MaxMiles for 7 years v enjoys being treated like a valued customer

v 41 years old v a housewife with 2 children v always opens emails from her preferred grocery store for relevant offers

s-Country Epsilon Cros lty Study Loya Consumer CHINA

Epsilon Cro Consum ss-Country er Loya lty Stud CHINA y October 2012

13 Epsilon’s Epsilon 2013 ’s 2013 13silon’sS20 Ep y dy n’s 20 yns y tuConsumer CLoyalty Loyalty Stud onsumStudy er Loya Epsilo mer Co Lo altumer lty Stud u China Australia s n o y C India Japan

y 2013

Januar

January 2013

January 2013

January

Read more about other consumer attitudes and views about loyalty in a series of reports from Epsilon.

Alliance Data FHC, Inc., trading as Epsilon International

EpsilonIntl_A4_Loyalty_Print_29-01-2013.indd 1

October

2013

DOWNLOAD THE REPORTS AT www.epsilon.com/loyalty2013

Contact us +852 3589 6300 epsilon.com apac-info@epsilon.com

Connect with us Follow us @EpsilonAPAC Join our group Epsilon Asia Pacific 关注Epsilon艾司隆

1/29/13 11:56 PM

CHRIS WEI, WEI, GROUP CEO OF GREAT EASTERN AND A FORMER CMO, CONVEYS SOME TIPS AND TRICKS. When the CEO says, “prove to me that my $25 million investment is going to get me $50 million of profit”, that’s when most marketing people scratch their heads.

“I face it even today with my board when I’m pushing for a marketing budget,” said Chris Wei, group CEO of Great Eastern and former CMO, at The Futurist Live!

Marketing has a huge role in aligning communications both internally and externally for a company, but it is more than communications.

Unfortunately, many CEOs see the brand as mainly being made up of advertising activities.

“This is when marketers need to educate CEOs that it is actually the brand that drives the business,” Wei said.

But what makes the life of a marketer and a CEO easy is both focusing on brand purpose. “We can talk about marketing or communications or budgets, but fundamentally if you don’t have a brand purpose to leverage and emanate throughout the organisation, to me it’s a very difficult debate,” he said.

Explaining what this meant for Great Eastern, Wei said most traditional insurance companies just want to be there when things go wrong. Great Eastern asked its customers how it could differentiate from the competition and the feedback was negative – there was no differentiation in the minds of consumers.

Great Eastern now had to transform this negative conversation into a positive engagement. It then declared itself the “life” company aiming to go the extra mile to help customers live healthier, longer and better.

But the challenge there was alignment – both internally and externally.

“Our marketing people had to figure out how to get the communications strategy right, not only for our customers, but also all of our staff and our advisors.”

So the company set out to build tools, apps,

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a refreshed website and other such initiatives around the new positioning. And it was framed within a reasonable amount of investment to demonstrate to the market as well as the company itself that it was going to do things differently.

Great Eastern’s approach was to move away from the typical fear strategy insurance brands deploy. “We wanted to be positive. Even when we say that there’s nobody like you who

can love your family, it is meant to be a positive statement. Not a freak-out session.”

When it came to advising customers, Great Eastern made another multi-million dollar investment realising it needed content. Since the whole initiative was wrapped up in its overall strategic and brand purpose, it signed up several partners for content.

“Our advisors now had a massive library of information that they could customise their

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advice to their customers,” he said. This meant not saying, “ah! you are at a high risk, given that you have high blood pressure” rather offering some information the client might find useful in recovering from that condition.

“More importantly if you get healthier, we’ll give you a discount or lower your premium because you are doing the right thing.

“It was not just about a pure marketing budget. We built an entire infrastructure around our Live Great programme.”

But all of this would not have been possible if marketing only thought of communications.

Understanding the business goal and fitting all of the communication and engagement strategies around that goal was imperative.

“Sometimes you can’t link it directly with revenue streams or profit, but you can certainly link it to leading indicators and you can link it to studies that show certain metrics have a direct correlation with growth or with profit,” he said, adding that Great Eastern uses Net Promoter Score (NPS), which measures a brand’s supporters against their detractors to gauge brand loyalty.

A brand impacts businesses and since a lot of CEOs, unfortunately, don’t get that, it’s a marketer’s job to educate the CEO the brand represents who they are.

“WE CAN TALK ABOUT MARKETING OR COMMUNICATIONS OR BUDGETS, BUT FUNDAMENTALLY IF YOU DON’T HAVE A BRAND PURPOSE TO LEVERAGE AND EMANATE THROUGHOUT THE ORGANISATION, TO ME IT’S A VERY DIFFICULT DEBATE.” Wei is of the opinion that every single individual in the company needs to understand what that brand purpose is.

“So our brand strategy links directly with our recruitment strategy, if we don’t have a brand that is attractive, we will not get and we will not retain the best talent. So how do we actually engage our people? We internalised it,” he said.

Great Eastern created a Life programme for its staff as well, classifying them in different zones based on their health.

“So yes, I have to give blood every year. I just did it, and more importantly this again is a reward system; if you move from a red or yellow into green we give you a reward, we give you

more benefits, for your family and for yourself. If you are in red or yellow, more importantly, we develop a customised programme to get you in green.”

According to Wei, the staff engagement scores have peaked over the past couple of years and the company is reversing a threeyear decline. And this was achieved with close co-ordination between HR, marketing and communications.

“So marketing has a big role, not just externally, but internally. We align all of our design and communications to be consistent so it looks and feels the same. And it should. Because again it’s part of one cohesive system.”

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WHAT IS THE INDUSTRY THINKING WHEN IT COMES TO TALENT CHALLENGES? READ ON TO SEE WHAT SENIOR MARKETERS HAVE TO SAY.

Talent is perhaps the single biggest concern among senior marketers and agency heads.

Rayana Pandey, editor of Marketing magazine, in the year-end conference The Futurist Live!, spoke to a panel of senior marketers for their views on the issue.

The panellists included Ajay Mohan, director of partner marketing and digital marketing, consumer marketing and sales, Intel Asia Pacific; Gregg Lewis, branding and communications manager at Sakae Sushi; and Sandeep Kohli, vice-president of marketing operations for Southeast Asia and Australasia at Unilever.

RP: The topic of talent has been coming up all morning. When hiring, how have the requirements changed over the years?

Mohan: The kind of people we are looking to hire is changing. We are not looking to hire people like me! I came from a typical marketing

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background, I did my agency stint, I did my MBA and I come with a very black and white view of the world. What we are beginning to see is that people are beginning to have a different approach to talent. The first kind of people we are beginning to look at are connected story tellers. The second skill is how they are able to manifest those into content that can be relevant and used again both digitally and offline. That’s who we are looking for – MBAs not required.

RP: Sandeep, do you agree? Is a marketing degree enough?

Kohli: If I look at how Unilever hired 20 years ago, which was when I was hired, to how it hires today, I don’t think there’s anything fundamentally different. We look to greater diversity and greater marketing teams beyond looking just at one person – we look at how we

can create a career for that person not just in marketing, but elsewhere as well. We don’t just hire marketers from marketing schools, now you can come from any function. The third thing is how do we become more purposeful with our brands and our organisation? If we can connect and get people who are enthused by, and not just career-building, but creating a purpose … making the lives of people better.

RP: Gregg, how is it different in terms of the people you are looking for now versus a few years ago?

Lewis: With the way marketing has changed with the onset of digital marketing and social media marketing, one of the more important skills would be the ability to emulate the personality of the brand, with the ability to take a marketing message and turn it into interesting and relevant content for engagement.

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RP: Retention is a huge problem for both marketer and agency. Ajay, what are some tips and tricks you are applying to your organisation?

Mohan: Recognition and reward is one of the ways we are handling it. It is a cliché again and again, but how you recognise your marketing rock stars is a manifestation of how the organisation treats the marketing department.

In your traditional organisation, sales are considered the rock stars, but in a company like Intel the scientists are the rock stars. How do you demonstrate that your marketers are the rock stars and that they have a path up to the CEOs? RP: Can you really stop your top talent from being poached?

Kohli: From my experience, people either leave the job that they are doing or leave the leaders they are being led by. And I speak in the context of the organisation I am working in where the hygiene factors of salary are good. I don’t think there’s a trick to keeping someone in the company – valuing people and recognising them upfront and explicitly, that always helps. However when people realise they are in a meaningful job for the organisation for a purpose, where they know how they are making a difference for a wider world, that will make a difference.

RP: Gregg, do you associate with what

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Sandeep said about the purpose and is that what you want your employees to think like?

as part of our commitment to that, we make an effort to ensure we recruit people from the best universities across countries

Lewis: We are always talking about consumer loyalty, but we should be looking at employee loyalty instead. With employee loyalty you want to look at very specific KPIs, are they realistic and achievable? That’s one. Two would be communications. You always have to have open communications where your staff can talk to you, where they can get help instead of sink or swim. Three, everyone wants to work for a champion brand.

Mohan: I don’t think we look at the nationality of an individual, we look first at his talent. That said I go into management schools every year.

I will do my rounds from Jan to April this year, looking for interns, hiring and bringing them in.

When we go into these universities we look at the best talent and who fits best, this may or may not be Singaporeans.

Question from the audience: Since you are all from global companies and hiring senior management, are you hiring from the local talent pool or are you still flying talent in from headquarters?

Lewis: We are a global company, with our head office in Singapore. In our overseas office, for example, we hire and train localised teams. This is very beneficial when entering new markets where local culture can be quite diverse to grasp in a short period of time and this shortens the learning curve significantly in our line of business.

Kohli: It goes back to my point on diversity.

If you don’t have a diverse background with people of different genders, religion, culture, etc, you can never have an organisation that is truly connected to the people you serve. So

RP: What are the key skills marketers of the future must possess?

Kohli: If you look at marketing it’s about doing your basics right. Now the buzzword is digital and you need to apply those skills in the digital space. But the basics are important – you need to have your four Ps of marketing, etc. The number one skill a marketer of today needs to have is the ability to keep operating in an environment that’s constantly changing.

Lewis: Proactive approach is an important quality to have, and being able to also do more with less.

Mohan: You have to be fearless in thought and flawless in execution. We need to have 70% of money on innovation. We must focus on a few things and whatever we do must be amazing.

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P&G and MediaCom emerged the top winners of the second annual edition of Mob-Ex Awards 2014, with stellar results across multiple categories, earning the coveted titles of The Mob-Ex Best of Show – Brand and The Mob-Ex Best of Show – Agency, respectively. Here’s a look at all the winners of the night.

JUDGING PANEL Basker Rangachari – group head, marketing services, cross sell and customer analytics, consumer banking – Standard Chartered Chris Hatfield – director, digital consumer marketing and media, APAC, Clinique – Estée Lauder Companies Daniel Lee – director of digital projects APMEA – McDonald’s Ian Grundy – head of marketing and communications – Adecco Asia Isaac Poh – associate director, digital marketing, Asia Pacific – Starwood Hotels & Resorts Asia Pacific Jerry Blanton – global marketing director, Asia and EMEA – Citibank Singapore Jinny Claire Sim – deputy director, digital and direct marketing – Health Promotion Board Jonathan Ellis – chief executive officer – The TMSway Hong Kong Kabilen Sornum – head of digital marcoms and e-commerce – F J Benjamin Kareen Kaur – digital marketing and demand generation – Asia and MLE – Motorola Solutions Lisa Halim – vice-president, demand centre and digital marketing, SAP Asia Pacific Japan Maggie Ng – director of digital media – Prudential Corporation Asia Morgan Dilks – manager of digital marketing and PR – Toyota Motor Asia Pacific Nitin Gajria – regional marketing director, Asia – Mead Johnson Nutrition Rod Strother – director of digital and social centre of excellence – Lenovo Singapore Rohit Dadwal – managing director – Mobile Marketing Association Asia Pacific Sueanne Mocktar – senior deputy director, 3P Network Division – National Environment Agency Tay Eng Wah – digital marketing lead (Pan Asia) and head of marketing (Singapore) – Nokia Yeo Wee Ping – head of global digital – Club 21 Platinum Sponsor

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THE MOB-EX BEST OF SHOW – BRAND P&G

WHAT THE WINNER HAD TO SAY: First of all, I want to congratulate the platinum sponsor Millennial Media and Marketing magazine for putting together such a great event. It has been a pleasure being here tonight. This award is really going to MediaCom, our agency partner. Mobile is really the future of marketing, especially for men, and especially for the Gillette brand we represent. So this means a lot and thank you very much.

– PAULO KOELLE, managing director, shave care, RBU, AAIJK, P&G

THE MOB-EX BEST OF SHOW – AGENCY MEDIACOM

WHAT THE WINNER HAD TO SAY: “This is quite an amazing and exhilarating experience. I would like to thank the organisers and sponsors first and a special congratulations to P&G for giving us this opportunity to really prove that we can take the world by mobile. Thank you so much. And last, but not least, I’d like to thank all the MediaCom team because this award is for you guys.

Thank you.”

– VIVIAN YEUNG, general manager, MediaCom

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BEST IN-APP ADVERTISING GOLD Client: Audi Singapore Brand: Audi S3 Campaign: Audi A3 SB Launch – Let us entertain you Agency: MediaCom

SILVER Client: P&G Brand: Gillette Campaign: Real Racing 3 with Gillette Agency: MediaCom

BRONZE

BEST APP/CONTENT BY A CONSUMER BRAND GOLD Client: Daimler South East Asia Brand: Mercedes-Benz Campaign: Mercedes-Benz A-Class – Every family has its Rebel Agency: MEC Singapore

SILVER Client: Singapore Management University Brand: Nil Campaign: SMU – A Different U (Undergraduate Admissions Campaign 2013) Agency: Wild Advertising & Marketing

BRONZE

Client: Economic Development Board Brand: Nil Campaign: Showcasing Singapore Innovation Agency: MEC Singapore

Client: Philips Lighting Growth Markets Brand: Philips Lighting Campaign: Philips Home Lighting Application Agency: Philips Innovation Centre

BEST APP/CONTENT BY GOVERNMENT/COMMUNITY

BEST APP/CONTENT BY A MEDIA OWNER

GOLD Client: National Environment Agency (NEA) Brand: Nil Campaign: myENV Mobile Application Agency: Nil

SILVER Client: Singapore Management University Brand: Nil Campaign: SMU – A Different U (Undergraduate Admissions Campaign 2013) Agency: Wild Advertising & Marketing

BRONZE

GOLD Client: PropertyGuru Brand: Nil Campaign: PropertyGuru AgentNet apps Agency: Nil

SILVER Client: SPE Networks – Asia Brand: AXN Asia Campaign: AXN Hannibal – Second Screen App Agency: Nil

BRONZE

Client: Republic of Singapore Navy Brand: Nil Campaign: Sea Of Fire Agencies: Codigo, Y&R

Client: SPH UnionWorks Brand: Nil Campaign: HOT FM91.3 – HOTFM Control Agency: Nil

BEST USE OF SOCIAL PLATFORM

MOST CREATIVE APP

GOLD

GOLD

Client: StarHub Brand: Nil Campaign: MySmartEye Agency: Nil

Client: StarHub Brand: Nil Campaign: MySmartEye Agency: Nil

SILVER

SILVER

Client: Fonterra Brands Brand: Anlene Campaign: Fonterra – Step UP! Agency: MediaCom

BRONZE Client: Singapore Press Holdings Brand: STOMP Campaign: One-Touch Citizen Journalism Agency: Nil

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Client: P&G Brand: Gillette Campaign: Real Racing 3 with Gillette Agency: MediaCom

BRONZE Client: TripAdvisor Brand: Nil Campaign: TripAdvisor Mobile App Agency: Nil

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BEST MOBILE CAMPAIGN LAUNCH GOLD

GOLD

Client: Singapore Management University Brand: Nil Campaign: SMU – A Different U (Undergraduate Admissions Campaign 2013) Agency: Wild Advertising & Marketing

SILVER

BRONZE

Client: Diageo Brand: Nil Campaign: Johnnie Walker – Inside Track Agencies: Codigo, iris Worldwide

BRONZE Client: Shell Brand: Nil Campaign: Shell Match & Win Promotion 2013 Agencies: MediaCom, Millennial Media

BEST BRAND AWARENESS CAMPAIGN GOLD

Client: Tigerair Brand: Nil Campaign: Travel Less Ordinary Agency: Digital Arts Network

BEST DIRECT RESPONSE CAMPAIGN GOLD Client: Pizza Hut Singapore Brand: Pizza Hut Campaign: Pizza Hut’s Targeted Mobile Experiences Agency: Capillary Technologies

Client: Republic of Singapore Navy Brand: Nil Campaign: Sea Of Fire Agencies: Codigo, Y&R

SILVER Client: P&G Brand: Gillette Campaign: Real Racing 3 with Gillette Agency: MediaCom

Client: Republic of Singapore Navy Brand: Nil Campaign: Sea Of Fire Agencies: Codigo, Y&R

SILVER

Client: Daimler South East Asia Brand: Mercedes-Benz Campaign: Mercedes-Benz A-Class – Every family has its Rebel Agency: MEC Singapore

Client: Asia Pacific Breweries Brand: Guinness Campaign: Guinness Arthur’s Day 2013 Agency: ZenithOptimedia

BEST USE OF GAMES/CONTESTS/QUIZZES

SILVER Client: Daimler South East Asia Brand: Mercedes-Benz Campaign: Mercedes-Benz A-Class – Every family has its Rebel Agency: MEC Singapore

BRONZE

Client: United Overseas Bank Brand: Nil Campaign: UOB Mobile Lifestyle Campaign Agencies: Leo Burnett Singapore, ZenithOptimedia Singapore

BRONZE

Client: United Overseas Bank Brand: Nil Campaign: UOB Mobile Lifestyle Campaign Agencies: Leo Burnett Singapore, ZenithOptimedia Singapore

Client: PropertyGuru Brand: Nil Campaign: PropertyGuru Consumer Apps Agency: Nil

BEST VIRAL MARKETING

BEST USE OF INCENTIVES AND REWARDS

GOLD Client: Heineken Asia Pacific Brand: Heineken Campaign: The Negotiation Agency: TEQUILA\Singapore (TBWA)

SILVER Client: Singapore Management University Brand: Nil Campaign: SMU – A Different U (Undergraduate Admissions Campaign 2013) Agency: Wild Advertising & Marketing

BRONZE Client: Liberty Insurance Singapore Brand: Nil Campaign: Liberty Hunt 2013: Capturing the Lion City Agencies: AcornBytes, Tate Anzur, This is Albert

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GOLD Client: Pizza Hut Singapore Brand: Pizza Hut Campaign: Pizza Hut’s Targeted Mobile Experiences Agency: Capillary Technologies

SILVER Client: Great Eastern Life Assurance Brand: Nil Campaign: Live Great Programme Agency: Nil

BRONZE Client: Mondelēz Singapore Brand: Cadbury Dairy Milk Campaign: Everyday Joy Agency: Protocol

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BEST LOCATION-BASED MARKETING GOLD Client: 313@somerset (Lend Lease Retail Investments 1) Brand: Nil Campaign: Tring 313 Agency: Nil

SILVER Client: OCBC Bank Brand: Nil Campaign: With custom directions, find your OCBC 360 account anywhere Agencies: Carat, iprospect, Isobar

BRONZE

BEST USE OF QR CODES GOLD Client: LEGO Singapore Brand: LEGO CITY Campaign: LEGO CITY Fireman Banner Agency: MONSTER INTERACTIVE

SILVER Client: Republic of Singapore Navy Brand: Nil Campaign: Sea Of Fire Agencies: Codigo, Y&R

BRONZE

Client: Pizza Hut Singapore Brand: Pizza Hut Campaign: Pizza Hut’s Targeted Mobile Experiences Agency: Capillary Technologies

Client: VivoCity Brand: Nil Campaign: Catch the VivoCity Codeys Agency: Dog Digital

BEST MOBILE SITE

BEST MCOMMERCE SOLUTION

GOLD Client: DBS Bank Brand: Nil Campaign: MOCO – Shop on Mobile: dbs.moco.sg Agency: Nil

SILVER Client: OCBC Bank Brand: Nil Campaign: With custom directions, find your OCBC 360 Account anywhere Agencies: Carat, iprospect, Isobar

BRONZE

GOLD Client: Maybank Singapore Brand: Nil Campaign: Maybank Mobile Money (MMM) Agency: Nil

SILVER Client: DBS Bank Brand: Nil Campaign: MOCO – Shop on Mobile: dbs.moco.sg Agency: Nil

BRONZE

Client: NTUC FairPrice Brand: Nil Campaign: www.foodforlifetv.tv Agency: Brand New Media

Client: 313@somerset (Lend Lease Retail Investments 1) Brand: Nil Campaign: Tring 313 Agency: Nil

BEST ORIGINAL CONTENT

BEST MOBILE ADVERTISING SOLUTION

GOLD Client: Singapore Press Holdings Brand: STOMP Campaign: One-touch Citizen Journalism Agency: Nil

SILVER Client: DBS Bank Brand: Nil Campaign: DBS Home Connect Agency: Nil

BRONZE Client: Great Eastern Life Assurance Brand: Nil Campaign: Live Great – Health & Wellness App Agency: Nil

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GOLD Client: P&G Brand: Gillette Campaign: Real Racing 3 with Gillette Agency: MediaCom

SILVER Client: Daimler South East Asia Brand: Mercedes-Benz Campaign: Mercedes-Benz A-Class – Every family has its Rebel Agency: MEC Singapore

BRONZE Client: Audi Singapore Brand: Audi S3 Campaign: Audi A3 SB Launch – Let us entertain you Agency: MediaCom

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BEST CAMPAIGN/APP FOR TABLETS/OTHER DEVICES GOLD

BEST INTEGRATION OF MOBILE GOLD Client: United Overseas Bank Brand: Nil Campaign: UOB Mobile Lifestyle Campaign Agencies: Leo Burnett Singapore, ZenithOptimedia Singapore

Client: Diageo Brand: Nil Campaign: Johnnie Walker – Inside Track Agencies: Codigo, iris Worldwide

SILVER

SILVER

Client: Poket Brand: Nil Campaign: Poket – A new way to send and receive digital loyalty cards and vouchers Agency: Nil

BRONZE

Client: SPE Networks – Asia Brand: AXN Asia Campaign: AXN Hannibal – Second Screen App Agency: Nil

BRONZE

Client: Economic Development Board Brand: Nil Campaign: Showcasing Singapore Innovation Agency: MEC Singapore

Client: P&G Brand: Gillette Campaign: Real Racing 3 with Gillette Agency: MediaCom

BEST USE OF MULTIPLE MOBILE CHANNELS

BEST USER EXPERIENCE

GOLD

GOLD Client: United Overseas Bank Brand: Nil Campaign: UOB Mobile Lifestyle Campaign Agencies: Leo Burnett Singapore, ZenithOptimedia Singapore

Client: NTUC FairPrice Brand: Nil Campaign: www.foodforlifetv.tv Agency: Brand New Media

SILVER

SILVER Client: P&G Brand: Gillette Campaign: Real Racing 3 with Gillette Agency: MediaCom

Client: Fonterra Brands Brand: Anlene Campaign: Fonterra – Step UP! Agency: MediaCom

BRONZE

BRONZE

Client: United Overseas Bank Brand: Nil Campaign: UOB Mobile Lifestyle Campaign Agencies: Leo Burnett Singapore, ZenithOptimedia Singapore

Client: Liberty Insurance Singapore Brand: Nil Campaign: Liberty Hunt 2013: Capturing the Lion City Agencies: AcornBytes, Tate Anzur, This is Albert

MOST INNOVATIVE USE OF MOBILE

MOST INFORMATIVE USE OF MOBILE

GOLD

GOLD Client: Intel Semiconductor Brand: Nil Campaign: Pocket Intel Agency: Razorfish (Hong Kong)

Client: P&G Brand: Gillette Campaign: Real Racing 3 with Gillette Agency: MediaCom

SILVER Client: Singapore Red Cross Brand: Red Cross Campaign: Red Cross Connection Agencies: McCann Healthcare, MRM Worldwide, Semicolon

SILVER Client: Shell Brand: Nil Campaign: Shell Mobile Sales Force Enablement (MSFE) Customer Value Proposition App Agency: Nil

BRONZE Client: Liberty Insurance Singapore Brand: Nil Campaign: Liberty Hunt 2013: Capturing the Lion City Agencies: AcornBytes, Tate Anzur, This is Albert

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Client: iFAST Corporation Brand: Fundsupermart.com Campaign: FSM Mobile Consumer Apps Agency: Nil

BRONZE Client: National Environment Agency (NEA) Brand: Nil Campaign: myENV Mobile Application Agency: Nil

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LAST WORD

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DOES STEPHANIE PROVE CONTROVERSY IS A GOOD THING? YouTube musician Stephanie Koh recently offended many locals with her online rant on Singapore.

But controversy may not always be a bad thing, writes Rezwana Manjur.

As the local public heated up in the debate over YouTube musician Stephanie Koh’s provocative declaration: “I am not proud to be Singaporean”, did she just drum up tonnes of publicity for Channel M and sponsor Scoot?

Koh’s lack of national pride sparked heated conversations on Twitter and YouTube with local personalities such as MediaCorp’s radio jockey Dee Kosh chastising her on her brutal opinions. On the other end of the spectrum, a significant number of netizens lauded the 21-year-old singer for her honesty and ability to speak her mind.

Koh was a contestant on the third season of the regional TV reality series, Scoot: K-Pop Star Hunt 3, and was thrust into the limelight when she made it to the final few rounds of the singing competition.

She beat hundreds of aspiring hopefuls with singing and dancing capabilities from Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand. While ultimately booted off in the final rounds, the feisty singer made an impression in her fleeting appearance on the reality show.

When asked the company’s opinion on the matter, a spokesperson from Scoot said: “The competition was carried out successfully. Stephanie is entitled to her own opinions and we wish her all the best in her music career.”

Personally, while I’m not a fan of her opinions (or singing), I do believe Koh did the show a favour: put it on everyone’s lips.

According to Sebastian Kim, general manager of Channel M, the

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channel has garnered a fair bit of traction since then, likely to the help of publicity drummed up by Koh. He added there had been no backlash from advertisers and partners for the show so far.

“Due to her comments, a lot of people are tuning in to see her talent so we are gaining more interest,” Kim told Marketing.

Also, searches on YouTube for the show itself and other stars have gone up, he added without revealing numbers.

As an avid fan of reality TV, I find it no surprise controversy or in this case, sour grapes, makes for the best entertainment. Take all the (gazillion) modelling reality shows being aired at the moment, there is always that one catty individual that everybody loves to hate, but who never seems to leave the show. That is until, of course, the actual winner takes over the glory position.

Speaking of controversy, who could forget Miley Cyrus’ performance at the MTV’s Video Music Awards (VMAs) last year? Cyrus’ risque performance was the talk of the town with VMAs viewership seeing a 60% spike from 2012. The performance caught an average of 10.1 million eyeballs and drew in 306,000 Miley/Robin-related tweets per minute.

Cyrus not only broke out of her goody Disney “Hannah Montana” image, but also grabbed the attention of fashion mogul Marc Jacobs to be the face of his 2014 spring collection.

So my point is, while the majority of us are enjoying hating the young opinionated “star” at the moment, Koh could just be our local version of Miley Cyrus.

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SENIOR APPOINTMENTS

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ABOUT AMBITION

Ambition is a leading global boutique recruitment business with coverage across Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and United Kingdom. Founded and listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in 1999, the company has grown to become a prominent specialist player within marketing recruitment. For more information, please visit www.ambition.com.sg.

SENIOR MANAGER, STRATEGY & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Fantastic opportunity for a high calibre Strategy and Business Development professional F Regional APAC role F 20-,% 31',#11 . 02,#0',% $-!31 5'2& &'%& %0-52&A *'12#" *- * F . 2- ulokAkkk Our client: ,# -$ 2&# 5-0*"Â?1 *# "',% 20 4#* 31',#11 5'2& , '+.0#11'4# 20 !) 0#!-0" ," '1 5#** .-1'2'-,#" $-0 '++#"' 2# ," 1'%,'i! ,2 *-,% 2#0+ %0-52&@ '2& $3** !-++'2+#,2 2- 2&#1# %0-52& 120 2#%'#1A , #6!'2',% -..-023,'27 #6'121 $-0 #,'-0 , %#0 $-0 20 2#%7 ," 31',#11 #4#*-.+#,2@ 1#" ', ',% .-0# ," 0#.-02',% 2- 2&# '0#!2-0 $-0 20 2#%7A 2&'1 0-*# 5'** # 0#1.-,1' *# $-0 "0'4',% ," #6#!32',% 120 2#%'! ," 2 !2'! * ','2' 2'4#1 2- !&'#4# .-1'2'4# 31',#11 '+. !2 !0-11 2&# 31',#11 3,'2@ &# 13!!#11$3* ! ,"'" 2# 5'** # *# "',% 2&# 0-**Q-32 -$ %*- * ','2' 2'4#1 ', 2&# 0#%'-, ," "0'4',% Q1.#!'i! .0-(#!21@ &#1# ','2' 2'4#1 + 7 ',!*3"# 31',#11 +-"#* #4-*32'-,1A '+.0-4#+#,2 -$ "#+ ,"Q13..*7 *'%,+#,2A 1 *#1 -0% ,'1 2'-, ," .0-!#11 -.2'+'1 2'-,@ - /3 *'$7A ',"'4'"3 *1 +312 .-11#11B F 2 *# 12 q~ 7# 01` 0#* 2#" ',"31207 ,"G-0 + , %#+#,2 !-,13*2',% #6.#0'#,!# F *#1 -.#0 2'-, ," .0-!#11 + , %#+#,2 !)%0-3," F 20-,% ..#2'2# $-0 31',#11 '+. !2G#6#!32'-,A "0'4# ," ',j3#,!# F '*'27 2- 5-0) #$$#!2'4#*7 ', *# ,A #,20#.0#,#30' * 9 %*- * #,4'0-,+#,2 F 6!#**#,2 ',2#0.#01-, * ," !-++3,'! 2'-, 1)'**1 Contact Richel Hidalgo on (65) 6854 5606 or email richel.hidalgo@ambition.com.sg quoting reference number RTH22146.

SENIOR STRATEGIC MARKETING MANAGER

,2 12'! -..-023,'27 $-0 20 2#%'! 0)#2',% , %#0 ', *# "',% --" 9 #4#0 %# 31',#11 F 20 2#%'! # "#01&'. 0-*# F ,2 12'! !-++#0!' * #6.-130# F ulokAkkk Q ulqkAkkk ,,3 * 1# 1 * 07 Our client: *# "',% %*- * $--" ," #4#0 %# 31',#11A '1 !300#,2*7 *--)',% $-0 #,'-0 20 2#%'! 0)#2',% , %#0@ &'1 '1 ,#5*7 !0# 2#" 0-*# 1 . 02 -$ 2&# #6. ,1'-, .* ,1 2&# 31',#11 & 1 $-0 2&# 0#%'-,@ #.-02',% 2- 2&# 0)#2',% '0#!2-0A 7-3 5'** *# " 2&# 120 2#%7 ," .* ,,',% .0-!#11 13..-02',% 2&# 31',#11#1 %0-52& - (#!2'4#1 0#* 2',% 2- %*- * !312-+#01A #," 31# + 0)#21A !& ,,#*1A 0#%'-,G13 Q0#%'-, ," 2#!&,-*-%7@ -3 5'** . 02,#0 5'2& 2&# 0#*#4 ,2 31',#11 3,'21 ," 1 *#1 2# +1 1 5#** 1 2&# !312-+#0 "'0#!2*7 -, )#7 120 2#%'! ','2' 2'4#1@ -3 5'** *1- .0-4'"# 120 2#%'! "'0#!2'-, 2- 11'12 5'2& #0%#01 9 !/3'1'2'-,1 !2'4'2'#1@ - /3 *'$7A ',"'4'"3 *1 +312 .-11#11B F 62#,1'4# $--" ',%0#"'#,2 !)%0-3," F m + 0)#2',% #6.#0'#,!# F 6!#**#,2 .* ,,',% ," 120 2#%7 #6.#0'#,!# F 20-,% ',2#0.#01-, * ," 12 )#&-*"#0 + , %#+#,2 1)'**1@ Contact Matthew Gardner on (65) 6854 5633 or email matthew.gardner@ambition.com.sg quoting reference number MXG25607.

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6 6 MARKETING J A NUARY- FE B RU ARY 2 014

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SENIOR APPOINTMENTS

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Regional Sales Manager – Marine Newly created position

Excellent ongoing opportunities

Our client is an international engineering company providing solutions to the Marine industry. They are seeking several Regional Sales Managers for their expansion plans in South East Asia. The successful candidate can look forward to a rewarding career with an exciting and fast growing organization.

4GRQTVKPI FKTGEVN[ VQ 5CNGU &KTGEVQT #2#% [QW YKNN DG TGURQPUKDNG HQT VJG KFGPVKĆ‚ECVKQP CPF FGXGNQROGPV QH PGY DWUKPGUU opportunities in the South East Asia region. You will develop the annual business plan, build prospective client sources and provide support for company events such as trade shows. You will also be responsible for cultivating successful relationships with key partners and coordinate company resources as required. +FGCNN[ [QW UJQWNF JCXG C OKPKOWO FGITGG KP CP[ Ć‚GNF YKVJ CV NGCUV [GCTU QH RTQXGP UWEEGUU KP $ $ UCNGU %CPFKFCVGU YKVJ prior experience in selling solutions within the Marine industry will have an added advantage. You should have an excellent work ethic, be highly motivated and possess strong leadership skills. You should be equipped with effective communication and interpersonal skills and be superior in public speaking. You must be proactive, ambitious and passionate about sales. Candidate must be comfortable in making cold calls.

To submit your application, please email your resume in word format to jimmy_ong@kellyservices.com.sg or contact Jimmy Ong at (65) 6227 2251 HQT C EQPĆ‚FGPVKCN FKUEWUUKQP EA Registration No. R1324991

Regional Sales Director – Precision Engineering Business steering role

Regional exposure and rewarding career advancement

Our client, an international engineering service provider, is currently seeking a Regional Sales Director to accelerate their ITQYVJ CPF GZRCPUKQP RNCPU KP #UKC 2CEKĆ‚E 6JG UWEEGUUHWN ECPFKFCVG ECP NQQM HQTYCTF VQ C TGYCTFKPI ECTGGT YKVJ CP GZEKVKPI and fast growing organization.

In this role you will be part of the strategic development team and be accountable for new business development and key CEEQWPV OCPCIGOGPV HQT VJG QTICPK\CVKQPoU UGCNCPV UQNWVKQPU HQT #UKC 2CEKĆ‚E ;QW YKNN DWKNF NGCF CPF VTCKP C UCNGU VGCO VQ support growth, conduct market research and be involved with the entire sales process. You will also be responsible for all RFQs, quotations, samples and follow through order execution via product delivery with the objective to achieve business growth.

Ideally you should have a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering with over 8 years of sales and managerial experience. You should have a proven track record of success in B2B or project sales, consistently achieving or exceeding assigned sales quotas. You must have sharp business acumen and be strong in project management. You must be a team motivator and able to work in a fast paced environment. Candidates with previous experience in change management or business turn-around platform will be highly desired.

To submit your application, please email your resume in word format to jimmy_ong@kellyservices.com.sg or contact Jimmy Ong at (65) 6227 2251 HQT C EQPĆ‚FGPVKCN FKUEWUUKQP EA Registration No. R1324991

kellyservices.com.sg Kelly Services (Singapore) Pte Ltd | EA License No. 01C4394 | RCB No. 200007268E

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27/1/2014 4:58:21 PM

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ARE YOU READY FOR THE CONTENT REVOLUTION? 2-3 April 2014 INTERCONTINENTAL HOTEL SINGAPORE

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