Marketing Magazine SG - July 2014

MARKETING MAGAZINE SINGAPORE EDITION

THE ART & SCIENCE OF CONNECTING WITH CONSUMERS

SINGAPORE

JULY 2014

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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 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 Johnathan Tiang, Senior Account Manager johnathant@marketing-interactive.com Trina Choy, Account Manager trinac@marketing-interactive.com Advertising Sales – International Josi Yan, Sales Director (Hong Kong) josiy@marketing-interactive.com Events Yeo Wei Qi, Regional Head of 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, Publisher sorenb@marketing-interactive.com Tony Kelly, Editorial Director tk@marketing-interactive.com Justin Randles, Group Managing Director jr@marketing-interactive.com

It is the World Cup season and team spirit is in the air – on and off the field. I see my friends burning the midnight oil glued to the TV sets, while I sip my drink like I would on any other weekend, spending time with non-football lovers at Clark Quay or Club Street or Boat Quay. You get what I mean, right?

But there’s one thing that has fundamentally changed over the years. Unlike the past, where if you wanted to switch off something you were not interested in, you could, but you can’t now.

And why? Your Facebook/Instagram/Twitter feeds don’t let you.

So despite being a non-fan I knew who was out of the World Cup, the current tally, who bit who and so on and so forth – a result of the hyper social world we live in. Media consumption by its very nature has become social. And this doesn’t only happen on Facebook and the likes, but also through emails, SMSes, instant messaging and so on.

As Raja Rajamannar, global marketing lead of MasterCard, says: “With technology getting cheaper and miniaturised and devices becoming ubiquitous, social has found a new dimension.”

And this has had a significant impact in the way marketing is done. I had the chance of meeting Rajamannar recently and we spoke about how the developments in the digital/ social space have affected marketing. The overarching theme of our conversation was internal collaboration – a prerequisite of running any digital marketing initiative these days.

With marketing becoming more and more digitised, the lines between marketing’s job scope and IT’s are blurring. The organisational silos which have been around for ages and were a result of the need to be systematic, wellsegmented and defined are beginning to hurt companies.

A study by Oracle towards the end of 2013, found only 36% of marketing respondents and 26% of IT/technology respondents collaborated with each other “frequently” on projects. Slightly more than half of marketing and IT/technology respondents classify their collaboration as “adequate.” About 16% of IT/technology respondents reported that collaboration with marketing was “non-existent.” Moreover, 41% of marketing and 38% of IT/technology leaders indicated improved collaboration from 2012.

“Collaboration delivers business value,” the report said adding that more than two-thirds of both marketing and technology leaders said they were “more effective” professionally because of increased collaboration. Reported benefits included stronger and more compelling marketing messages, faster speed-to-market, greater product adoption, project cost reductions, and fewer defects in product and services.

Marketing’s relationship with other teams is also changing. It’s no longer the case of each department working on their own. They need to come together or lose out in this hyperconnected world.

Call it unnecessary pressure or unfair advantage, but I personally feel marketing is best placed to drive this collaboration within the organisation. Perhaps taking a leaf out of this World Cup, marketers could reflect whether they truly are team players or not.

Enjoy the edition.

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.

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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 To subscribe to Marketing magazine, go to: www.marketing-interactive.com

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

ARE YOU A TEAM PLAYER?

Rayana Pandey Editor

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CONTENTS FEA TU R ES 14 FIVE MISTAKES CLIENTS MAKE ON SOCIAL MEDIA Wonder why your social investment is not paying off? Here are the five common mistakes marketers make.

Jennifer Chan reports.

17 NEWS ANALYSIS: SENTOSA’S NEW IMAGE Sentosa Island undergoes a multi-million dollar marketing campaign. Can it refresh its brand image?

Rezwana Manjur reports.

18 NEWS ANALYSIS: SINGTEL’S BIG TECH BUYS While Amobee has yet to bring in a profit, SingTel continues to spend big to grow its digital ad business.

Can it make its digital business profitable? Rezwana Manjur reports..

26 PROFILE: MASTERCARD’S RAJA RAJAMANNAR It’s not easy keeping a legacy brand proposition fresh. Here’s what MasterCard is doing with its “Priceless”. Read the interview on page26.

How do you keep a legacy brand position such as MasterCard’s “Priceless” fresh? Global marketing chief Raja Rajamannar reveals the cogs and wheels of the programme to Rayana Pandey.

34 NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR Marketers rank the top newspapers in Singapore and the region.

OPINIONS

DE PA RT M E N T S

15 Is your brand guilty of content pollution?

4 NEWS

In a digital age, is your content merely pleasing algorithms instead of people? How the top brands do it.

MDA fines MediaCorp for a derogatory word on air; SingTel launches m-commerce service; Scoot appoints Publicis; Media Shop expands, plus more.

25 DIRECT MAIL CASE STUDY 24 AD WATCH/WEB WATCH TBWA\Singapore’s Mohan Prabhakar highlights Turkish Airlines’ Hayal edince campaign, but thinks Tiger Beer’s “Uncage” is stale. Meanwhile, Havas Worldwide’s Carl Griffith thinks marcellacustom.com is well-polished, but Open Trolley is too complicated.

Tiger Beer wanted to get buzz around its bold new image. Here’s how it created an exclusive touch for its media launch.

SCAN TO SUBSCRIBE!

25 14 KEY TAKEAWAYS: >> MasterCard’s global branding strategy. >> How to market effectively on social media. >> SingTel’s evolving digital business model.

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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.

Global watch The Singapore Tourism Board appointed Roth Observatory International as its global agency review consultancy for a three-year period. The contract has an option to extend for another two years and is worth nearly SG$2 million, according to the government’s tender site. Roth Observatory will be responsible for managing the relationships that STB has with its three principal global agencies – JWT, MEC and XM.

MediaCorp fined The Media Development Authority (MDA) fined MediaCorp SG$6,300 for breaching the free-to-air (FTA) radio programme code. A deejay on MediaCorp’s Class 95 Morning Express programme used a derogatory term to describe a visually impaired woman.

The MDA said that as a FTA radio broadcaster, MediaCorp was expected to observe the requirements laid out in the code, which seeks to protect community interests.

Looking for great skin Skincare brand Cetaphil launched a “Skin Confidence Report” to better understand the attitudes of Singaporean women towards good skin and what drives their confidence. The findings show Singapore women are confident.

Almost 70% consider themselves beautiful, but 97% of them want to improve their current skin condition. The majority of women in Singapore believe good skin gives them greater self-confidence.

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Dashing ahead SingTel partnered with Standard Chartered Bank to launch Dash, its m-commerce and banking service.

The service allows customers to access, save or borrow money, make payments and purchase insurance. SingTel Group Digital Life CEO Allen Lew said the app was centred around the lifestyle needs and habits of a mobile internet generation who was used to downloading information and content on the go.

A protection plan As a part of increasing corporate governance measures for the financial sector, the Monetary Authority of Singapore is considering tighter ad rules for structured products. The government body told The Straits Times it was planning to roll out a public consultation on the proposals and guidelines. A key concern is that ads may be promising fast get-rich schemes or a guaranteed stipulated rate of return.

Adding some Bite New generation data protection firm Acronis appointed Bite its communications agency as the company moves its international headquarters to Singapore. With many organisations recognising their data as an important and untapped profit centre, there is a growing sense of urgency around protecting that data. Recognising this need, Acronis established its international headquarters in Singapore to capitalise on rising demand.

A fresh start Sam Cassels, the former CEO of Publicis Singapore, founded a new marketing automation agency called Superdrive. The agency’s services include marketing, sales and service business alignment; funnel and lead management development; marketing automation enablement; training and education; BI and analytics and reporting. “Superdrive was born from my belief we can derive incremental value from insight-based automation over pure marketing automation,” he said on the site.

Joining forces Hakuhodo Consulting and Singapore-based WATATAWA Consulting paired up to establish a strategic alliance to offer marketing strategies and services to clients in Japan and key Asian markets. The alliance is initially focused on collaborative services to Japanese and international companies. WATATAWA works with clients in financial services, telecommunications, agricultural commodities, and the resources and technology sectors in several Asian markets.

A swift affair Car maker Toyota launched its first Southeast Asian road safety campaign, banking on pop singer Taylor Swift to drive home the message of the importance of wearing a seat belt. It is the official car sponsor of Taylor Swift’s “The RED tour presented by Cornetto”.

According to Toyota, it’s banking on her influence with youths to drive home the message with its young target audience.

Sushidai slips into Singapore Sushi restaurant Sushidai launched a print campaign to announce the opening of its flagship restaurant in Singapore. The campaign will run until November and targets sushi lovers. Creative and media buying were handled by Arcade. “We simply had to tell these stories and put them together with the same love they put into their food,” said Gary Tranter, ECD of Arcade.

Right side of the law SingTel is spending more than SG$2 million to keeps its marketing in line with the new personal data protection law. The telco anticipates an additional expenditure of up to an annual SG$500,000 to train its staff and for the cost of compliance. It is also launching a new portal which allows customers to pick the channels through which they wish to receive marketing messages.

A new focus With the domestic business under tremendous pressure from rapidly declining traditional mail volumes, Singapore Post (SingPost) has turned its focus to e-commerce.

SingPost and Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group entered into an investment agreement under which Alibaba Investment will invest SG$312.5 million and have a 10.35% stake in SingPost upon completion of the deal. Currently e-commerce accounts for 26% of total revenue for the postal service.

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Old is gold The birthplace of white coffee Ipoh, Old Town, was surrounded with seven art murals painted by renowned Lithuanian artist, Ernest Zacharevic. This was part of a partnership between Old Town White Coffee Malaysia and Zacharevic in celebration of the heritage and history that is shared between Ipoh, Old Town and Old Town White Coffee. This was part of its “Art of Old Town” campaign.

Grammar matters The National Heritage Board launched its yearly Speak Good English Movement, this time with a series of six witty and humorous videos to debunk the myth that grammar rules are boring and didactic. The movement turns the spotlight on grammar rules, focusing on tenses, subject-verb agreement, prepositions and countable and uncountable nouns.

The lighthearted videos feature popular Singaporean comedian Kumar as the “Queen of Grammar”.

Out of the Clozette Content marketing agency Brand New Media partnered with shopping portal Clozette to launch a new fashion IPTV channel, Clozette TV. Targeted at fashionforward women, from September, Clozette TV will be accessible via any internet-connected device such as computers, smartphones, tablets or smart TVs. The channel’s content strategy is focused on connecting viewers with the latest global and local content shared by key influencer peer groups.

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A luxurious affair Luxury menswear brand Uomo Group Singapore appointed boutique PR agency R.S.V.P its PR representative overseeing its stable of brands in Singapore, including Uomo Collezioni, JM Icon, Billionaire, Stefano Ricci, Brioni, Zilli and Moreschi. It was appointed in June to handle the group’s PR activities for the local market for a year. The agency is expected to drive the brand forward via public relations, events and digital initiatives.

Game on for Starcom Singapore Sports Council appointed Starcom MediaVest Group’s social media arm, SMG Social, to handle the social media campaign for the 28th Southeast Asian Games. The agency will manage strategy planning, research and insight reports of tthe h 11 Southeast Asia countries.

It will also handle content and community management, tracking c and monitoring of owned channels a and social listening of external a conversations, among other c measures. m

JCAD appoints Tribal Jewel Changi Airport Devt (JCAD), the property manager of Project Jewel, appointed Tribal Worldwide Singapore as its creative agency to develop its branding and communication strategy. The appointment comes following a pitch. A spokesperson from JCAD confirmed the appointment, adding this was the first of several agency partnerships it intended to formalise in the lead-up to the completion of Project Jewel.

Preparing for a crisis Business consultancy Omnifluence has launched its social crisis communications programme called The Contingency Plan. With the needs of organisations in mind, the consultancy delivers customisable programmes, which includes indepth workshops on social crisis communications and realistic simulated scenarios. Specifically, the programme’s methodology, called The Open Grill, allows organisations to be better prepared in handling a variety of potential incidents and issues.

Making a mark The Robinson Group of stores appointed Mangham Gaxiola to handle the Marks & Spencer brand. The agency is charged with developing the brand and sales advertising for Singapore.

There was a pitch for the account and currently the appointment is ongoing with no time frame slated.

The campaign first hit Singapore in June with a print execution and there are also digital executions.

Building a coffee empire Italian beverage group, Massimo Zanetti Beverage (MZB) fully acquired local coffee brand Boncafé for a total value of US$85 million. As a result, the MZB Group will reinforce its presence in the Southeast Asia markets, with a particular focus on Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and the UAE. With this acquisition, the group plans for further expansion in the Asian market.

Fun in the sun Sentosa Development Corporation (SDC) launched its newest marketing campaign called “The State of Fun” for Sentosa, looking to heavily target locals in the first year of the campaign.

The main thrust of the campaign is deepening SDC’s emotional connection with guests, and portraying a fun and engaging brand, so as to keep Sentosa top-of-mind among its target audiences.

Inspiring healthy eating Nestlé tapped into the online engagement opportunities via Google+ “Hangouts on Air” with a Nestlé Wellness CookAlong Google+ Hangout on 26 June. The campaign aimed to encourage and inspire Singaporeans to eat well, be active and stay healthy. Rajiv Deraniyagala, managing director of Nestlé Singapore, explained that through the campaign Nestlé Singapore was taking a step forward with this digital initiative.

Exciting times Madura Fashion & Lifestyle appointed Fitch Singapore to create a world-class retail experience for Van Heusen. Vinay Bhopatkar, brand head of Van Heusen for India, said: “Continuing our significant period of growth and increased retail presence in India, we are working with Fitch to create exciting consumer experiences, and offer the Indian consumers new and innovative ways of engaging with us and with our products.”

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Musical twist In H&M’s first mobile initiative across Asia, the fashion label teamed up with Ogilvy & Mather Shanghai to create a fashion catalogue with a twist. Instead of a traditional still product catalogue, the team invented a musical product – the Fashion Mixer – that mixes music with fashion.

Each of the 43 new apparel, including shirts, dresses, shoes and accessories, corresponds to a unique sound effect.

A warning on gambling The National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG) in Singapore launched a campaign to curb gambling habits during the World Cup season. NCPG launched its problem gambling awareness campaign during this period to highlight the negative effects problem gambling poses – not only on gamblers, but their loved ones. The campaign runs for about six weeks in cinemas, print, TVC, radio and OOH mediums.

Scoot appoints Publicis Scoot, the long-haul low-cost arm of the Singapore Airlines Group, appointed Publicis as its social media agency. The incumbent for the account was iNEO which was recently dissolved as Publicis Singapore hired the entire team of iNEO to work as full-time employees. The two-year contract will cover duties for all of Scoot’s markets in the region. Australia will be handled separately.

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Planning ahead Manulife Singapore launched a campaign to highlight the benefits of a planned retirement. Urging Singaporeans to make a smart choice earlier on in life, the “Happy Retirement” campaign aims to connect with Singaporeans who aspire to live a carefree lifestyle during retirement. It features a couple enjoying their holidays and contrasts this with an image of an unplanned retirement to instil a sense of urgency to plan ahead.

Uncaging the Tiger Tiger Beer launched its global campaign starting with the Singapore market. This is the first major work rolling out after its global appointment of Sydneybased creative agency Droga5.

Previously, it had appointed Droga5 for its regional creatives, with the local business going to BBDO Singapore. The campaign, called Tiger Uncage, is part of the brand’s new image and will roll out across 25 markets globally.

Another big investment SingTel made another two major investments in the digital space through its mobile ad firm Amobee, acquiring Adconion Direct North America and Adconion Australia, along with Kontera Technologies.

Adconion was acquired for US$235 million while Kontera was acquired for about US$150 million.

Adconion offers ad solutions across mobile, web and social networks, while Kontera is a digital content intelligence company.

Media Shop expands Local media agency The Media Shop is expanding into Oceania with a new office in Sydney after its reappointment as the agency of record for CA Technologies.

The expansion follows a period of growth for the agency which opened its first overseas office in Taiwan last July. The Sydney office is led by new hire Tim Stanford (pictured). He reports to regional business director, Jessica Toh.

Another call HPB launched a tender looking to appoint an agency to handle media services for integrated marketing and communication campaigns.

While the entire contract period is from 15 July 2014 to 31 March 2016, this comes in two parts. The first will be for a period of eight and half months from the date of appointment. There will then be an option of extension for another year.

A new relationship BMW Asia appointed an agency for its integrated pitch for Singapore. Ogilvy & Mather Singapore won the business after a multi-stage pitch process that started in February 2014.

The decision was driven by an increasing need for BMW Asia and PML to look at their communication in an integrated manner, as well as create new ways of engaging with existing and future customers, said BMW Asia.

Something for everyone M1’s new brand campaign created with the help of Y&R Singapore will extend into the online space this week, with three new inter-connected webisodes.

M1 launched its newest brand campaign, with the theme ‘M1. For Every One.’ with a 45-second TVC featuring different personalities from all walks of life. The three new inter-connected webisodes further expand on the background of the characters in the TVC.

Learning from experience The Tripartite Committee on Employability of Older Workers launched a campaign to promote the employability of older workers and raise awareness amongst employers on their potential. The campaign runs on TV, cinema, online and OOH medium channels.

The TV spot highlights the wealth of experience employers can tap into if they do not let age get in the way of their hiring criteria.

Getting in touch with the inner male Discovery Networks Asia Pacific launched DMAX, a new factual entertainment channel targeting young males. Showcasing a wide range of content from cars and combat to extreme antics and enterprise, DMAX is targeted at young men aged between 18 and 45. Its content line up includes motoring, the outdoors and more.

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NEWS

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Staying ahead of the curve Omnicom Group’s media services division signed a deal worth US$230 million with Twitter.

Aside from integrating Omnicom’s automated ad buying unit Accuen with Twitter’s mobile ad exchange, MoPub, the two-year deal will also lock in ad rates and inventory access for Omnicom agencies and will give Omnicom a “first look” at new ad units and opportunities being developed by the microblogging site.

An ingenious move IPG Mediabrands launched an end-to-end online commerce solutions unit, targeting clients in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea. The unit, Ingenuity, offers online marketing strategies, online targeting and acquisition, CRM and sales systems integration, big data and analytical expertise, as well as interface design, content and social capabilities to regional marketers. Ingenuity seeks to work with clients as partners with a substantial portion of the remuneration coming from commercial performance.

Heart-stopping drama adidas’ latest advertising stunt turned a few heads – all for the wrong reasons. The ad shows footballers holding real cow hearts to show their devotion to the game and their home ground. The ad ran with the slogan: “During the World Cup, I will give my heart to the cause.” Animal rights groups have slammed the stunt.

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Talking up a new deal Kakao Corporation, the South Korean company behind Kakao Talk, merged with web portal Daum Communications. The merged company is called Daum Kakao and is valued at about three trillion won. Called as a reverse takeover, the deal will also let unlisted Kakao bypass the lengthy process of going public via Daum and enter the KOSDAQ stock market as soon as October this year.

A new way After more than 40 years, Burger King dropped its iconic, “Have It Your Way” slogan for “Be Your Way.” According to a statement

by Burger King, the new motto is intended to reflect the fact that “self-expression is most important and it’s our differences that make us individuals instead of robots”.

Burger King is first launching the new tag line in the US, then rolling it out worldwide.

An ironic move?

McDonald’s Philippines launched a new game app which, ironically, encourages people to leave their beloved mobile devices, reminding them there’s no substitute for offline socialisation. Deceptively simple, the BFF Timeout app is a co-operative game for Android and iOS users that records how long a group of friends can resist checking their gadgets. It was conceptualised by Leo Burnett Manila and developed by Mobext.

Major football fans Four major global brands signed on with CNN International to sponsor and commercially support its multi-platform coverage of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil. The deal spans Asia Pacific, EMEA and Latin America. The brands are Hyundai Motor, Hublot, Nikon and Embratur.

As official partner of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil, Hyundai Motor is sponsoring the weekly CNN Fan Zone segments in World Sport.

A new venture The Walt Disney Company (Southeast Asia) launched Disney XD, a new kids channel, in the Philippines via TV operator Cignal TV and cable distributor Accion.

Targeted at children 6-14, Disney XD will be a boy-focused, girlinclusive channel. Disney XD is the third Disney 24-hour channel on Cignal TV and will join Disney Channel and Disney Junior.

A strategic plan The World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) appointed five new strategic partners to deliver better advice and greater insight to its members. The five partners are Ebiquity, Decideware, BrainJuicer, TrendSpotters and Effective Brands. The strategic partnerships are not exclusive, but the five companies have become the first port of call as the WFA seeks to support its members in relation to new trends in marketing.

INSEAD appoints VML Qais Graduate business school INSEAD handed VML Qais the global remit for its digital platforms. VML Qais is tasked to handle the entire site restructure, enhancing the user experience, creative concepts and design, development and integration of technology and SEO. “INSEAD’s objective is not just to update the site, but to provide an online experience that is truly representative of us,” said Axel Tagliavini, director of digital communications at INSEAD.

HOW MUCH DOES THAT COST?

LARGER THAN LIFE

The Marina Bay Sands (MBS) Art Science Museum launched a campaign with the help of media agency Dentsu for its latest exhibition, “Dinosaurs: Dawn to Extinction”. The campaign ran for three months until 14 July this year.

MBS showcased the exhibition on wholly wrapped concept buses with

life-like dinosaur 2D images popping out of the buses. Commuters were able to pick up a bus hanger and scan the QR code to interact with the message throughout their journey.

The buses were seen running on long-haul routes, in the central business district and Orchard. The cost of the execution was SG$38,500.

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AUDIT WATCH

FROM THE WEBSITE INTO THE STRAATOSPHERE

Living on the edge TeamHuawei, a WPP group appointed to provide global communications services to Huawei Consumer BG, unveiled a campaign for the launch of the new Huawei Ascend P7 smartphone. The campaign concept, “Excellence with Edge” celebrates people who do things differently, such as innovators, trendsetters and those who challenge the status quo. It also builds on last year’s flagship P6 campaign, “Elegance with Edge”.

Getting an edge Social media analytics firm Socialbakers acquired EdgeRank Checker, a provider of social analytics for Facebook’s News Feed. Socialbakers will absorb EdgeRank Checker’s entire client portfolio, made up of more than 700 Fortune 500 companies and major entertainment brands, bolstering Socialbakers’ domestic presence and growing its client base by nearly a third, said the company in a release. The cost of the acquisition was not revealed.

Happy times McDonald’s introduced “Happy”, a new animated Happy Meal character that is said to bring fun and excitement to kids meals, while also serving as an ambassador for balanced and wholesome eating. Happy encourages children to enjoy fruit, vegetables, low-fat dairy and wholesome beverages such as water or juice. Happy was first introduced in 2009 to children and families in France.

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Urban lifestyle website Straatosphere has launched its fi rst print edition.

The magazine will be published twice a year, and targets those aged 18-34.

Co-founder and editor Kim Hana told Marketing it would reach a majority of male readers, for now.

For advertisers, it targets sportswear brands, entertainment and lifestyle brands.

Brands who have already come on board include Reebok, Bathing Ape, Converse, Carhartt, Asahi, Pan Pacific Orchard, Happy Socks and Limited Edt. The magazine, like its site, will cover style, fashion and pop culture.

It will be distributed at cafés, boutiques and sold through the website.

The site has been running since April 2013.

Content with growth Australian content marketing agency King Content opened the doors to a new office in London, hot on the heels of launching in Singapore and Melbourne. In addition to the original Sydney office, London is King Content’s fourth office. According to press statement, King Content is currently in the process of hiring a content marketing expert to head up the London office.

Getting to the peak The Peak Tram launched the micro film “Rendezvous at The Peak” to boost ticket sales to the iconic mode of transport ferrying tourists and Hongkongers to and from The Peak. The film’s main characters are a family of three, a gentleman and his girlfriend, an old couple and a group of college students who just graduated. The video is a silent film only accompanied with music.

Hana also said the publication was aiming to have its circulation audited in a year’s time. At present, it has a print run of about 5,000 copies.

A launch event also took place on 5 July for the new publication, at the Butter Factory.

“We’re doing this so people know the numbers we have; and auditing will legitimise the magazine. It will give peace of mind to our advertisers,” said Hana, on having the magazine’s circulation audited.

Why the black face?

A domestic helper insurance ad from Malaysia’s Hong Leong Bank came under fire for running a commercial in Hong Kong depicting a local actor as a Filipina maid with a black face. The ad, aimed at employers of maids, copped flak on social media with groups representing the city’s legions of domestic helpers calling for an apology. The bank has since removed the ad from its website.

Advocating big things Word of mouth agency Advocacy launched its India operation with Srikanth Sarathy as COO. The agency also set its sights on Singapore next. Sarathy brings with him over 18 years of experience. He has worked in agencies such as Leo Burnett in both India and London and across brands such as Ariel and Tide.

Not just home entertainment Warner Bros Home Entertainment appointed Vizeum as its media agency. Vizeum is tasked to handle all media strategy, planning and buying duties for the brand in the Australian market. Nick Behr (pictured), managing director at Vizeum Sydney added that the “win is a testament to the Vizeum approach and Warner Bros’ braveness towards innovation.”

Vizeum Sydney also recently bagged accounts with Domain and Ella Baché.

Another successful hack Hyundai’s campaign suffered a setback when its hashtag was hijacked by activist group Anonymous. Several influential accounts tweeted about children being sold to sexual predators in Brazil and Brazilian police activity, using #becausefutbol to point out the association with the World Cup. This caused an influx of activity around the #becausefutbol -more than Hyundai was able to generate on its own in the days prior to the takeover.

A marvelous partnership Samsung Electronics partnered Marvel Entertainment globally – integrating both their brands.

The partnership also involves a multi-medium creative campaign across film, digital and product and merges the worlds of both brands, offering consumers exclusive content. The partnership will also activate across a wide range of touch-points with exclusive content, custom Marvelbranded Samsung products, event activations and feature film integrations.

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1 Campaign A happy retirement is a choice Brief Manulife Singapore launched an integrated campaign to highlight the benefits of a planned retirement.

Urging Singaporeans to make a smart choice earlier on in life, the “Happy Retirement� campaign aims to connect with Singaporeans who aspire to live a carefree lifestyle during retirement. It features a couple enjoying their holidays and contrasts this with an image of an unplanned retirement to instil a sense of urgency to plan ahead.

Client

Manulife Singapore

Creative

L&D

Media

MEC

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2 Campaign The story behind Sushidai Brief Sushi restaurant Sushidai launched a print campaign to announce the opening of its flagship restaurant in Singapore. Sushidai is located at the Marina Mandarin Hotel. The campaign will run until November and targets those who appreciate sushi.

Client

Sushidai Singapore

Creative

Arcade Singapore

Media

Arcade Singapore

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3 Campaign Window Safety Day Brief Targeted at senior heartlanders, the campaign was conceptualised to capture their attention. The message was a simple and easy one to understand – to check, clean and change their windows if necessary. To further drive home the message, the key visual is an image of a homeowner giving the OK sign with her three fingers, signifying the process is as easy as 1, 2, 3. The campaign was executed across all major newspapers in four languages, online platforms and heartland touch-points.

Client

Building and Construction Authority (BCA)

Creative

Addiction Advertising

Media

Bioperfect Marketing

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4 Campaign Tiger Uncage Brief The campaign is part of the brand’s new image and will roll out across 25 markets globally. It features Anthony Chen, the Singaporean director of Ilo Ilo; Hong Kong professional calligraphy artist Joey Pang; Thai movie stuntman Charlie Ruedpokanon; and Vietnamese hip hop dancer Viet Max. Ogilvy PR handles PR duties for Tiger Beer.

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Tiger Beer

Creative

Droga5

Media

ZenithOptimedia

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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14/7/2014 4:23:08 PM

INFOGRAPHIC

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WHAT ADVERTISERS THINK OF MEDIA AUDITING COMPANIES How crucial is media auditing to advertisers?

Is auditing merely a hygiene factor or a crucial way of determining the level of media value delivered? What role will auditors play in the future of media buying and planning? WFA in its latest survey posed these questions to marketers.Some key observations are as follows: • Europe leads in using auditors, followed by the US, Asia, Middle East and Africa. Latin America lags far behind, but that is changing.

• A majority of the respondents said auditors would become more important within the next few years.

• But the share of digital budgets that auditors are able to measure remains low and appears to be declining in some key regions.

More on the results here:

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INFOGRAPHIC

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The MEDIA INVESTIGATORS Research across the WFA membership set out to investigate what advertisers think of the media auditing compamnies responsible for policing media value and interrogating media agencies, and to establish what the future has in store for the detectivex of the media industry.

These results are based on responses from 29 companies, across 15 different industry sectors.

Total global media spend of all respondents represents approximately $35bn.

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NEWS ANALYSIS

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5 MISTAKES CLIENTS MAKE ON SOCIAL MEDIA Ever wonder why your social investment is not paying off? Here are the five most common mistakes that marketers are making but probably may not notice. Jennifer Chan writes.

Don’t slip up: Social media is not a press release platform.

Social media is a helpful marketing tool when it is used correctly. Ever wonder why your social investment is not paying off? Jeffrey Hau, sales director of digital marketing agency Prizm, reveals five of the most common mistakes marketers are making, but probably may not notice.

1. Underestimating the complications of social media ads Social networks such as Facebook allow clients to target their ads according to specific demographics, interests and preferences.

Contrary to common assumption, such targeting strategies often require meticulous planning, depending on the client’s objectives, the nature of the promotional campaign, the content of the campaign, and so on. A client is wasting money every time the Facebook ad is shown to a user who isn’t interested in the product or service.

“Reach” doesn’t mean everything. Quality engagement is what you want.

2. Focusing too much on the number of fans versus the quality To many of our clients or potential clients, numbers matter the most. That’s understandable, but the

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quality of the engagement on the page should not be neglected. A quality fan base with followers who are truly interested in your products is a much more powerful marketing resource. The effectiveness of a social campaign is reflected by users’ digital footprint. On Facebook, even the amount of “reach” shown on your posts cannot tell how many online users have seen the posts, but only how many times the posts appeared on users’ front page.

3. Using social media as another press release platform On social media platforms, what people want is quick information. Press release content is usually a turn off. While adhering to the brand’s guidelines, clients should be aware of the unique culture on each social media platform and modify their promotional messages accordingly. What you truly need is sharable content that ultimately directs users to the store or to purchases.

Engaging bloggers, for example, is one way to convince people.

4. Using the same marketing strategy for every social media platform

Clients should be familiar with the unique culture and the characteristics of every social media platform. It’s wrong to assume a single strategy can be universally applied on various social networks. Sina Weibo, for example, cannot tolerate discourteous wordings. We also found that online users on this platform are looking for more authentic content, regardless of the content being traditional and old-fashioned.

On the contrast, Facebook users are looking for casual and bite-sized content. This is a highly competitive platform for brands to stand out on so eye-catching content and a light-hearted approach is key.

5. The wrong assumption that every campaign or content launched on Facebook will go viral automatically Not every campaign carries the “viral factor” that every client wants. Facebook is not the panacea for every marketing campaign. A lot of factors matter, such as timing, and the attractiveness of the incentives.

Social PR management after launching a campaign is also important, especially to handle negative responses that go viral quickly.

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NEWS ANALYSIS

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IS YOUR BRAND GUILTY OF CONTENT POLLUTION? In a digital age, is your content merely pleasing algorithms instead of people? Here’s how the top brands do it.

Content pollution: Is your content relevant?

In my former life as a journalist, I was always looking for a good story, and that usually began by identifying the challenges faced by a particular industry. In the business world, it was digital technology and the rise of the bring-yourown-device phenomenon; for Hollywood it was piracy and peer-to-peer sharing, while the music industry was being disrupted by Spotify and, sadly, shows such as American Idol.

For us as marketers, I believe that our greatest challenge today is content pollution.

Content isn’t anything new – it has always been the bedrock of a good communications in some form. And despite the current industry hype, content marketing isn’t new either. The problem we have today actually is the digital media explosion has contaminated brands’ view of content.

The good news is this means, as marcomms professionals, that we’re doing our jobs well.

Brands have finally woken up to the need to engage with their consumers via relevant, targeted content marketing.

Unfortunately content is being produced to please algorithms, not people.

It’s all too often neither relevant nor targeted, but aimlessly pushed out, polluting consumers’

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lives. It’s like playing the numbers game with a machine gun in the hope of registering a hit, rather than the careful, considered, highly targeted approach of a sniper.

Content pollution is becoming a very real problem for both brands and consumers.

There’s just so much stuff out there it is becoming increasingly difficult to find content that is relevant, interesting and entertaining. And this is worrying.

Take native advertising, which is when brands provide online content in the context of the user experience (think advertorials for the digital world). Our industry is going wild for native advertising today, and when done well it can be enormously powerful. It takes all the best bits of editorial content – trust, authenticity, insight, relevance – and carefully weaves the brand message into it.

However, do it badly and it can be the worst kind of content pollution. It can obscure and dilute the user experience, and ultimately damage consumer sentiment towards a brand.

This is the reason why at the moment traditional editorial sees engagement rates of about 70%, while native ads only see about 24%.

So how do brands engage increasingly fickle

consumers, for whom the next story is just a swipe away?

One model that is being touted as a future solution is The Guardian’s recent seven-figure deal with Unilever. The leading UK media title recently launched a branded content division, Guardian Labs, which works with brands to tell their stories in a compelling, authentic manner to create “long-term, engaging commercial partnerships”. The twist? Unilever gets no editorial sign-off on any content.

You only have to look at the B2C space to see how brands are finding innovative ways to engage with time-poor consumers with unusual content. Dove’s Real Beauty campaign is one example of an initiative that turned every single ad model on its head to produce one of the most compelling ads in recent years. Elsewhere, IBM has invested heavily into its strategy, with IBMblr just one example of how it produces original content to engage its traditionally cynical IT audience.

The list goes on: BA’s lauded, multi-channel #LookUp campaign; Chipotle’s transmedia Scarecrow spot; and Google’s Think Quarterly online magazine.

Big brands are starting to find new and interesting ways to tell their stories and engage with consumers. But those marketing departments are often operating on multimillion pound budgets and virtually unlimited resources. So what is the answer for the rest of us, particularly those in the B2B space?

In my mind the answer is environmentally friendly content marketing. Content that is objective, relevant, insightful and original.

Content that is backed up by an insight and then an idea, and supported by a carefully curated community. Content that is well-researched and targeted, but simultaneously agile enough to be relevant to emerging trends.

There’s no one right type of content, it can take many forms. But if done well and done right, it will be a breath of fresh air in the market for both consumers and brands alike.

The writer is Nick Thorpe, content editor from Bite

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16/7/2014 2:36:59 PM

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NEWS ANALYSIS

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SENTOSA’S ‘FUN’ NEW IMAGE Sentosa Island undergoes a multi-million dollar marketing campaign to rebrand itself.

Rezwana Manjur reports.

State of Fun: Can Sentosa renew its appeal to tourists?

Sentosa Development Corporation (SDC) launched its newest marketing campaign – looking to heavily target locals in the first year of the push.

“The main thrust of the campaign is aimed at deepening our emotional connection with our guests, and portraying a fun and engaging brand, so as to keep Sentosa as top-of-mind among our target audiences,” said Susan Ang, the divisional director of island investment and branding, for the Sentosa Development Corporation.

Ang said the campaign intended to draw locals and foreign guests who had not visited the island in a while.

“Sentosa holds fond memories for many Singaporeans and we would like to see that it continues to be a favourite leisure spot for their enjoyment. The many experiences on Sentosa are increasingly more inclusive and appeal to different local segments.”

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The campaign will be extended to key overseas markets in the subsequent phases, with the SDC working with its partners to push the concept on the latter’s sales platforms. The entire campaign consists of three phases, with a budget of SG$3 million set aside for each phase.

It has launched a new brand concept for the island called “The State of Fun”. The idea behind the concept is Sentosa is a place where all visitors become “citizens” with the “freedom and the right” to have fun. This concept will span internal and external communication activities.

The previous concepts for Sentosa’s campaigns were “Asia’s Favourite Playground” and “Play”.

At present, 50% of Sentosa’s visitors are local, with the rest from other markets.

“We’re trying to communicate Sentosa has a lot to offer – from attractions, the beach, hotels, restaurants and spas – to its guests, no matter who they are and what kind of fun they are

looking for. It’s all about both the physical and mental states of fun that we want guests to have on the island. Note this is different from simply ‘playing’,” said a spokesperson for Sentosa’s creative agency, Grey.

A significant portion will be allocated to online engagement, particularly social.

To kick off the new campaign activities, a teaser campaign was launched on 12 May, where participants were encouraged to guess where “The State of Fun” was. More than a thousand guests hedged their guesses over two weeks, with the answer that “Sentosa is The State of Fun” being revealed on 26 May. A launch party also took place on 7 June, as part of the campaign. A flag-raising activity was conducted in the lead-up to the event. Staff and guests of Sentosa wrote down on coloured flags their pledge to have fun at the Sentosa Beach Station from 2 to 7 June. These flags were strung along Siloso Beach as part of the celebration.

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NEWS ANALYSIS

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SINGTEL SPENDS BIG ON TECH ACQUISITIONS While Amobee has yet to bring a profit, SingTel continues to spend big to grow its digital ad business. Rezwana Manjur reports.

SingTel has made another two major investments in the digital space through its mobile ad firm Amobee – acquiring Adconion Direct North America and Adconion Australia, along with Kontera Technologies. Adconion was acquired for US$235 million, while Kontera was bought for about US$150 million.

Adconion offers ad solutions across mobile, web and social networks, while Kontera is a digital content intelligence company with offices in the US, UK and Israel, allowing users to analyse content across mobile, web and social networks.In 2012, SingTel bought mobile ad company Amobee for a reported US$321 million; last year it bought Gradient X, another mobile ad tech start-up. With these acquisitions, as well as the US$30 million Amobee spent last year, already a quarter of the SG$2 billion set aside two years ago for SingTel’s three-year plan to ramp up digital advertising has been used up, revealed Allen Lew, CEO of Group Digital L!fe and chairman of Amobee.

This investment comes despite Amobee still running at a loss, he added. However, SingTel has planned a three to five year timeline to get the company contributing to its bottom-line revenue.

He said he viewed Amobee’s contribution to SingTel as being more than mere cash and profitability because valuation in the digital space is “different from traditional telcos. So when you look at its contribution to SingTel, there are two parts – profit and valuation”, he said.

“The digital advertising business is about scale and capitalising on the market opportunities with technology as a core differentiator.”

He said these acquisitions would mean big opportunities for SingTel in emerging markets, such as India, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.

“As more people in emerging markets get smartphones and the cost of smartphones

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Can SingTel make its digital business profitable?

decrease, even Amobee will start to get more share-of-voice from advertisers. Companies want to get into the face of consumers in a personalised way, in a way perhaps the fixed internet and traditional media has not quite been able to,” he said.

Currently, Amobee holds a 10% share of the ad spend in the display advertising market.

Mark Strecker, CEO of Amobee, also added that

as more and more global clients look to Asia, the move was needed to strengthen Amobee’s position in the market.

“People have this perception telcos shoot and pray it sticks – we want people to know that at SingTel we look at businesses in a systematic way. Rather than shooting at a large number of targets we shoot at a few major businesses,” Lew said.

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NEWS ANALYSIS

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WIKIPEDIA – AND THE CASE FOR HONESTY Should PR professionals be allowed to edit Wikipedia for clients on the sly? Some think so.

Rezwana Manjur reports. we can self regulate something that is clearly valuable with integrity.”

The dilemma of brand control in the digital space: Should PR edit clients’ pages?

While top PR firms have come out to declare they will abide by Wikipedia’s ruling, and play fair when it comes to editing their clients’ Wikipedia pages, others have raised objections.

Wikipedia is now asking anyone who is paid to edit a page or articles to declare the arrangement.

“We believe that undisclosed paid advocacy editing is a black-hat practice that can threaten the trust of Wikimedia’s volunteers and readers.

We have serious concerns about the way that such editing affects the neutrality and reliability of Wikipedia,” said Wikipedia in a blog post.

However, one senior member of a global PR agency told Marketing, on the basis of anonymity, that he was surprised PR agencies were so readily signing the contract.

Because of the open content model Wikipedia has traditionally operated on, inaccuracies have been known to be published.

There have been cases where inaccuracies were

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seeded by organisations or individuals who have an agenda to harm the reputation of another, he added.

Therefore, there are times when it is necessary for public relations professionals to step in.

“Information on Wikipedia can be a case of reputation management for corporates and individuals. If factual errors have been published, it may be necessary for PR agencies to step in, craft and suggest appropriate changes,” he said.

Another global agency lead, who also chose to remain anonymous, said both consumers and organisations that chose to use Wikipedia had a moral obligation to preserve and maintain its sanctity.

“If we don’t, then we all stand to corrupt an important factual asset – which is a shame.

On the issue of signing a contract, this then becomes like a legal obligation, which in turn, means the industry hasn’t reached a point where

The dilemma of brand control in the digital space However, Scott Pettet, vice-president for APAC at Lewis PR, said Wikipedia’s request that PR agencies do not attempt to influence their client’s representation on the site is somewhat reasonable. After all, the site’s intent is to garner unbiased third-party information.

“I’m sure there is a fine line between cleaning up factual inaccuracies and people trying to put their own spin on things. If PR agencies’ edits were restricted to facts only, then I suspect this may not have become the issue it is today,” he said.

He said what was interesting was the move highlighted one of the biggest issues for brands in the digital space today. That is, the loss of control.

He explained there are still marketers out there “who are clinging on to the old controlbased marketing paradigm” and these are the same clients asking their PR agencies to edit their Wiki pages. Often enough, these are also the same marketers who are reluctant to embrace social media because of the perceived risks and loss of control.

“Brands that have typically enjoyed the greatest success in social and digital are those that have embraced the loss of control and empowered consumers to influence their identity,” he said.

The statement which first came into discussion in February, asks that the PR agencies involved “seek to better understand the fundamental principles guiding Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects and “act in accordance with Wikipedia’s policies and guidelines, particularly those related to ‘conflict of interest’.”

In total, 11 agencies have signed the contract, including Allison+Partners, Ogilvy & Mather, FleishmanHillard, Burson-Marsteller, Ketchum, MSLGROUP, Porter Novelli, Edelman and Weber Shandwick, among several other companies who have promised to stay objective.

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NEWS ANALYSIS

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FACING THE MUSIC Users and authorities were alarmed and outraged after Facebook published a study on how it manipulated Newsfeed content for a week. Elizabeth Low reports.

Facebook’s faux pas: A study that freaked the public out.

It was creepy enough when Facebook announced how it knew when you were about to get in a relationship – or were breaking up.

Then it bought WhatsApp to add to its growing avalanche of data on users.

To quote Aunt May in the movie Spider-Man: “With great power comes great responsibility” – but it looks like researchers may have missed that when they published this study.

In a study conducted across nearly 700,000 users, Facebook, with Cornell and the University of California, tested the extent to which people were affected by the content showing up in their Newsfeeds.

For one week in January 2012, some users saw mainly positive stories, while others were fed depressing posts. The result? Scientists concluded this was “experimental evidence for massive-scale contagion via social networks”, said The Guardian.

Here’s one example of a finding from the study: “We also observed a withdrawal effect: People who were exposed to fewer emotional posts (of either valence) in their Newsfeed were less expressive overall on the following days, addressing the question about how emotional expression affects social engagement online.”

The experiments took place for one week

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on 11-18 January, 2012). Participants were randomly selected based on their user ID, said the study.

It has also sparked alarm among authorities.

According to the same article by The Guardian, a senior British MP called for a parliamentary investigation into how Facebook and other social networks manipulated emotional and psychological responses of users by editing information supplied to them.

The article also quoted several tweets by Clay Johnson, the co-founder of a digital agency that built and managed Barack Obama’s online campaign in 2008.

“Could the CIA incite revolution in Sudan by pressuring Facebook to promote discontent?

Should that be legal? Could Mark Zuckerberg swing an election by promoting Upworthy [a website aggregating viral content] posts two weeks beforehand? Should that be legal?”

Johnson said.

Adam Kramer, the data scientist leading the research, wrote this post to clarify his stand: “The reason we did this research is because we care about the emotional impact of Facebook and the people that use our product. We felt that it was important to investigate the common worry that seeing friends post positive content

leads to people feeling negative or left out. At the same time, we were concerned that exposure to friends’ negativity might lead people to avoid visiting Facebook. We didn’t clearly state our motivations in the paper.”

“This research was conducted for a single week in 2012 and none of the data used was associated with a specific person’s Facebook account. We do research to improve our services and to make the content people see on Facebook as relevant and engaging as possible. A big part of this is understanding how people respond to different types of content, whether it’s positive or negative in tone, news from friends, or information from pages they follow. We carefully consider what research we do and have a strong internal review process.

There is no unnecessary collection of people’s data in connection with these research initiatives and all data is stored securely,” a Facebook spokesperson told Marketing.

Facebook’s chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg also admitted in an interview with NDTV that it had communicated poorly on the controversial psychological experiment, but denied any attempt to control the emotions of users.

“We communicated very badly on the emotions study ... we hope users understand that we care about their privacy ... we want to be transparent and give users control.”

Senior analyst, Forrester, Fatemeh Khatibloo wrote in a blogpost that while Facebook’s study crosses ethical lines, the data use is likely legitimate. “Consumers are understandably outraged by why they perceive as an abuse of their postings. But Facebook’s Data Use Policy explicitly allows the firm to use data for internal research purposes. Still, the potential for users to abandon Facebook is real,” said Khatibloo.

Facebook has novel data to analyze, and in the long term, this could change marketing practices significantly. The kinds of data that Facebook is starting to exploit are highly unique. It could actually combine evergreen affinities with contextually specific emotional states to change how brands buy media and measure performance, added Khatibloo. As for short term implications, however, could see outraged users leaving the site in droves, she concluded.

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NEWS ANALYSIS

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HOW TO SELL ON SOCIAL MEDIA Three tips to making the most of social media as a sales tool.

If Glengarry Glen Ross was set in 2014, instead of staging a break-in to steal sales leads, the underhanded tactics of the big screen’s most memorable real estate salesmen would probably have included hacking into a top dog’s LinkedIn account.

Social media has completely changed the sales process, and your ability to accelerate your career in sales. It’s a living, breathing digital Rolodex – connecting you beyond phone numbers and business small talk over cocktails to helping you build relationships, find leads and gain insights into what your customers are really looking for.

According to the Manpower Group, sales positions are the hardest to fill in the Asia Pacific.

Having been in sales management positions for more than 20 years, it’s no secret why.

Sales, especially B2B sales, are tough – it takes relationships, knowledge and the time and ability to build a referral network.

Socially connected people are now using social media on the job to monitor potential clients and competitors, gather intelligence, network and more – and it’s giving these people a significant edge over the competition.

A recent study found that salespeople using social media on the job outperformed peers not using it by a whopping 73%. They also exceeded their quotas 23% more often than their counterparts who were not using social media.

I know social media can boost sales success because I’ve seen it work within my own company Hootsuite. All of our sales people tap into social networks daily to engage clients.

Here are three tips for making the most of social media as a sales tool: 1. Use social media to break the ice: Social media can be a great resource for gaining unique insights into leads that can help you make a more impactful first contact.

Discovering a decision-maker is a vegetarian, for example, gives me a great personal leadin when making that crucial first contact. Full disclosure: I use our own Hootsuite platform to follow and analyse trends, brands and decision-makers. This kind of investigating has been invaluable in uncovering crucial

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Social media: A living, digital Rolodex.

information on businesses, enabling me and my sales team to optimally time our outreach.

2. Tap into social networks for warmer referrals: Social media can be a major asset in getting people to be more receptive to you. Let’s face it – gone are the days of big entertainment expense accounts.

Today, in the business of the famous ABC (always be closing), it’s even more crucial to “always be connected” – socially. I often seek introductions from common friends or business associates. None of this, of course, is rocket science. A warm referral is known to increase the odds of sales success by 200% to 400%. What’s new and powerful here is leveraging social media to transform a cold referral into a warm one.

3. Catch new opportunities with social media: There is nothing more tragic than a lost opportunity in sales. Our sales reps have found one easy way to avoid them – working with departments (other than just marketing) to gain valuable intelligence. For example, one of our customer support reps recently spotted someone on Twitter complaining about an unsatisfactory sales demo they’d just had with one of our major competitors.

She immediately blasted the message over to a sales manager, using our internal tasking tool. The manager took it from there, looking up the tweeter’s professional information on LinkedIn and then tracking down his contact information. This all ended up becoming a promising new opportunity worth tens of thousands of dollars. Often clients are pleased to hear from us in this way, and to be offered a potential solution to their business problem.

Social media-assisted selling isn’t just happening at my company. More and more salespeople in both large and small businesses are adopting social media. Last year, for example,IBM reported a stunning 400% surge in its sales after implementing its social selling pilot programme.

Tapped into networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook company pages, and Twitter, salespeople can empower themselves with useful information and data that gives them a truly competitive edge. Social media won’t necessarily replace the phone or email, but it’s a new and revolutionary tool that sales departments can add to their arsenal.

The writer is Ken Mandel, managing director for Asia Pacific, Hootsuite.

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NEWS ANALYSIS

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EIGHT TRENDS CHANGING MARKETING What does it take to future-proof the CMO function?

Here we list the trends that will shape the industry in the years ahead. Apple Lam reports.

Mobile money, digital everywhere: Here’s what to expect, marketers.

1. Real-time data will rule To improve the efficiency of advertising, the demand for real-time information and capabilities will go up. We are moving from just recording data to modifying the system in real-time, which means continuous improvement.

2. Marketing will become increasingly contextualised based on user data User data is the key to keeping campaigns targeted and relevant to the lives of specific customers.

We are starting to see the use of data in direct marketing tools and information such as: at what time of day users are accessing something and where and who they are.

3. Apps are introducing the idea of marketing as a service While using apps to market a business isn’t for everyone, it has transformed the way marketers see marketing.

It means using services as a means to market through apps – such as an app to help you on your daily run or an app where you catch

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virtual butterflies – they change how you interact with the consumer.

4. Viral advertising is becoming a new way of grabbing attention Hoping to create viral advertising campaigns online has changed the process of content creation for marketers. You are no longer constrained by a 15 or 30-second brief. The key word is viral, which means making sure that people are either laughing or sharing something because it’s stupid.

5. Instant messaging is a new tool for getting closer to the customer WhatsApp, WeChat and Line have reversed the idea of social networking as being open to your friends, family and even the public, such as Facebook feeds.

Now, with instant messaging, brands are communicating directly with the customer on a one-to-one basis.

6. Mobile money is becoming the norm All retailers will eventually go mobile. Coupons,

circular spending and formats are migrating, with offers that are more targeted, personalised and accountable.

7. Digital will reign not just on virtual online platforms, but in retail and in-store environments too Digital technologies will be increasingly used to advertise and communicate product information in physical retail stores.

For example, what you will see in retail stores in the future is as soon as you lift up a hanger, the LED wall next to the customer will show information and visuals about the product.

8. Brands can be the connective tissue between people and new technology New technologies emerging from labs and startups can be intimidating to the average consumer.

Brands can get these products out of beta and into the hands of consumers. They have the scale, the resources and, in most cases, the trust of their customers. They just require the vision and the investment.

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16/7/2014 2:43:24 PM

OPINION: AD WATCH/WEB WATCH

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Mohan Prabhakar Creative director TBWASingapore

AD WATCH HOT: Turkish Airlines’ Hayal edince

NOT: Tiger Beer’s Uncage campaign

Never mind that Turkish Airlines created this commercial for the Turkish market.

Never mind it was in Turkish.

As a film it drew me right in. It’s a warm, simple story that does everything right. Perfect casting, a stunning location and sensitive direction. I found myself watching this again and again, rewarded each time by those magical expressions from the kids. It’s rather different from the international Kobe/Messi ad it did recently, and in my view, rather better. Beyond speaking of the large number of local destinations covered, it speaks of an airline that has its heart in the right place. And like with the best human stories, it doesn’t need subtitles.

An iconic beer brand with Droga5 as the agency, and yet, the result was this slickly insipid campaign.

Premised on the time-worn cliché of the rising Asian spirit, the executions did nothing remotely fresh or surprising. Through all the tattoos and edgy posturing, it felt like consumer research transcribed directly into advertising. OK, so the research said being an indie film director or tattoo artist is considered aspirational. OK, so they chose to make a commercial about an indie film director and a tattoo artist. Surely they could have made the subjects seem more like people than like archetypes? And not say things such as, “When you’re brave and determined, you can leave the cages behind”. And fellas, this is beer we’re talking about. Does it have to be so heavy?

Carl Griffith Head of digital Havas Worldwide Singapore

WEB WATCH HOT: www.marcellacustom.com

NOT: www.opentrolley.com.sg

Marcella is a local company that’s taken the common tailor shop model and polished the hell out of it. This has happened across all its touchpoints, including physical retail, social media and CRM. Its website is no exception to this gleaming facade. Beautifully simple in its aesthetic and its UX, the website is a wonderful manifestation of its entire consumer eco system. Without taking anything away from it at all, it’s like it picked up the how-to-do a great website 101 guide and just did it. As I look at it today, its latest promotional offer sits front and centre, proud and uncluttered. Below that are three boxes: “delivery times” – a simple, but powerful proactive answer to any visitor’s top-of-mind question; a second box which looks to secure your email address and a third that broadcasts its customer reviews.

Open Trolley is a Singapore-based online bookstore. Landing on the home page, one is immediately bombarded with a large header area that seems to be a mixture of cross-store promotional offers, category promotions and news on upcoming book releases. This makes for a rather complicated splash of colour and information, allowing none of the key messages to really come across. Below this are two additional banners that further muddy the promotional pool. But the biggest problem I have with my experience is the site requiring me to register before I can save anything to my basket or to a list. This is a journey breaker in my book – it’s something I’ve experienced time and time again. Sites like this need to get me invested before the “big ask” of personal details.

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DIRECT MAIL CASE STUDY

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THE TIGER UNCAGED Tiger Beer wanted to get buzz around its bold new image. Here’s how it created an exclusive touch for its media launch.

A magnetic appeal: Tiger used this direct mailer to give guests an exclusive feel.

Tiger Beer launched a bold new global campaign to an exclusive guest list of select media and influencers in May. For the 82-yearold brand, “Tiger Uncage” is the biggest transformation in its history, with a 360-degree campaign where every brand touch-point was refreshed, except the world-acclaimed brew.

This campaign ran counter to traditional beer advertising themes, encouraging young adults across Asia to “ignite the Tiger inside” and take the leap to follow their passions and dreams.

Guests were treated to the international premiere of three short films showcasing real stories of young Asian personalities, including Singapore’s very own Anthony Chen. The films illustrated how they forged their own paths, challenged norms and expectations, and broke free from conformity.

To communicate the special and exclusive event, information on the direct mailers was kept brief with the only hint being, “It’s Time to Uncage”, coupled with key event details. On the reverse side, the invite had a magnetic strip with the instructions, “Swipe Card to Enter”, telling guests that doors would close at a specific time. The mailers were enclosed in envelopes designed to look like cages, again, alluding to the premise of the campaign. All these details piqued guests’ curiosity and intrigue in the leadup to the event, building excitement and buzz preceding the global launch.

One of the many touch-points for guests was the unconventional registration method

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at the event. Instead of having a registration counter at ArtScience Museum’s Rain Oculus, guests accessed the venue by swiping their mailed invitation, which signalled Tiger’s first act of “uncaging” its launch event experience.

Upon entering, guests were identified personally and each received a personalised leather wrist band with a key, allowing them to access their initialled lockers to retrieve curated door gifts. These gifts were unconventional, such as a unique film-going experience, a haircut and men’s grooming experience, complimentary music lessons or paddle yoga classes. Each guest’s gift was specially selected to complement them to ensure their “Uncage” experience extended beyond the event.

Besides the three films featuring the “Uncage Heroes”, there were also three event touch-points: “Who says you can’t play with food?” – presented by Labyrinth’s molecular gastronomy station; “Who says classical music isn’t ground breaking?” – presented by Sa Collective’s modern electronic take on traditional Chinese instrumentals; and “Who says cages are permanent?” – presented by the doodle wall that prompted guests to visualise what their life would look like, uncaged.

From the initial invitation, right to personalised door gifts at the event, Tiger’s “Uncage” campaign challenged conventions of a typical launch experience, marking a brave step forward for the brand as it paves an increasingly resonant direction in Asia and beyond.

THE MAIL Objective: To helm the global launch of Tiger Beer’s brand repositioning – Uncage.

Idea: A direct mailer with a “swipe to access” mechanism, granting guests access to the “by invite only” launch event.

Results: More than 100 invited guests, including media and influencers from the fields of music, fashion, design and entrepreneurship, attended the global launch of Tiger Beer’s brand repositioning on 21 May 2014, with social conversations continuing online via #Uncage.

Rene de Monchy Head of marketing, APB Singapore

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14/7/2014 4:56:57 PM

PROFILE

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WHAT DOES IT TAKE FOR A BRAND TO LIVE AND BREATHE A VALUE? MASTERCARD’S GLOBAL CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER RAJA RAJAMANNAR TELLS RAYANA PANDEY HOW THE BRAND IS KEEPING ITS “PRICELESS” PROPOSITION FRESH. Ten months into the new role, Raja Rajamannar, global chief marketing officer of MasterCard, has already launched one of its most iconic brand campaigns – Priceless Surprises – and shaken up the agency roster by consolidating the company’s media planning and buying business with Carat globally, except in Latin America.

MasterCard’s Priceless brand proposition is a legacy of sorts. First launched in 1997, it has evolved over the years to become more than just a communications platform. Some experts even say it’s one of the strongest pillars of MasterCard as a brand.

What MasterCard has been doing with Priceless is a result of a complete collaboration internally, Rajamannar says as we sit down for a chat. Launched 17 years ago, (think “There are some things money can’t buy. For everything else, there’s MasterCard”) as a marketing campaign, Priceless is now a brand platform. The company aims to keep the proposition fresh and infuse it in everything it does.

In 2011, it launched Priceless Cities, which allowed consumers to experience moments that were unique and peculiar to each city. The bigger idea behind this was to connect people to their passions, be it shopping, dining, music or sport. For example, for the Broadway show

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Rock of Ages, over and above just offering tickets at a cheaper rate, it invited the audience to rehearse with the cast and have a walk-on role.

The focus is now on creating such experiences.

Early this year, MasterCard marked the next step of the evolution of Priceless with Priceless Surprises. The platform has evolved from celebrating Priceless moments to enabling Priceless experiences and inspiring people to share all that is priceless through surprises.

It kicked off the campaign with Justin Timberlake who is known for surprising fans. It launched the Priceless Surprises during the Grammys. Any MasterCard customer was eligible to get a variety of small surprises such as cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery, free Uber rides, free and song downloads by only using their card, or tweeting or posting to Instagram using #PricelessSurprises. Winners of surprises were chosen randomly.

The surprise element was when Timberlake came in. A lucky fan, who thought she was being interviewed for a music documentary, received the surprise of a lifetime – the opportunity to play an original song for Timberlake and have him jam with her.

“It (Priceless Surprises) wasn’t about slapping the new name on

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PROFILE

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every marketing collateral. We had to make it a part of the experience,” Rajamannar says. Talking about what went on behind launching such a campaign, he explains why it is absolutely imperative for the internal buyin for a campaign of this scale.

WHAT HAPPENS IN THE BACK-END? MasterCard started the Priceless Surprises initiative company wide in about eight weeks. The global rollout took four weeks. “We did it all in 12 weeks from concept to global rollout. It’s a recreation of the concept each time. What we did with Justin Timberlake was completely different from our execution at the Brit Awards or Fashion Week for that matter.

“Singapore is doing it differently with golf too. And in Brazil we are doing the same with soccer,” adds Rajamannar, saying that such an initiative in this short span of time cannot happen without complete collaboration internally.

to collaborate to successfully engage audiences, Rajamannar says. In his career, he has held diverse roles – from marketing to innovation to managing P&Ls. As CMO, he takes on global responsibility for MasterCard’s advertising, sponsorships, promotions, research, insights, and digital and consumer marketing initiatives.

Before this, he served as executive vice-president and chief transformation officer at WellPoint where he led the company’s new strategic direction and transformational agenda, and was responsible for managing its US$10 billion Medicare Advantage business. He also managed various functions for the enterprise, including marketing, innovation, corporate development and ventures, consumer data analytics, digital and international operations.

Before WellPoint, he served as chief innovation and marketing officer for Humana. He was also at Citigroup for 15 years holding a number of

"MARKETERS ARE REALISING THAT A MARKETING EVENT ALONE MIGHT NOT NECESSARILY BE EMBRACED BY THE WHOLE COMPANY. BUT IF YOU CO-CREATE WITH A WHOLE BUNCH OF TEAMS, YOU HAVE COLLABORATION FROM DAY ONE." One of the first things he did was to see how aligned marketing at MasterCard was with the business. Secondly, how its brand positioning compared with the competitors and lastly what were the areas that needed strengthening and improving. The underlying objective was to understand consumer behaviour and assess assets that already existed so it could leverage them.

“This requires the participation from agencies, the product team, IT and others. Marketers are realising that a marketing event alone might not necessarily be embraced by the whole company. But if you co-create with a whole bunch of teams, you have collaboration from day one.”

And that’s one change marketing has seen over the years – its evolution to being far more accountable than it ever was and the need

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roles, including global chief marketing officer for cards and payments, where he was responsible for transforming the credit card business model and strategies.

Rajamannar also served as chairman and CEO of Diners Club North America from 2004-2006. He also served as head of credit cards for Citi’s Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. Before Citigroup, he held a number of senior marketing positions at Unilever, India.

And all of this has shaped him as a marketer.

“The days when marketing could do stuff on its own are gone,” he says. It is critical marketing people have a solid business perspective.

“If you are not moving the needle for the business, you will lose the job.”

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14/7/2014 4:41:56 PM

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SHOPPER MARKETING 2014 DATE: 25-26 June 2014 VENUE: Grand Park City Hall Hotel Singapore 1 Bob Neville, global retail creative director and head of retail, New Balance.

2 Diana Ho, brand manager, Shu uemura – Hong Kong.

3 Yan Tsang, director of client services, eBay Enterprise.

4 (From left): Lawrence Yeow, APAC retail director, GfK; Diana Ho, brand manager, Shu uemura – Hong Kong; and Hywel Evans, regional director, decision science, APAC, AIMIA. 5 (From left): Moderator Elizabeth Low, Marketing magazine; Patrick Steinbrenner, director, on-site marketing, ZALORA; Roger E. Egan III, co-founder and CEO, Redmart; and Bob Neville, global retail creative director and head of retail, New Balance, talking about product differentiation online.

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7 Whee Min Wang, general manager (group retail), leisure division, SUTL Investment.

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9 Pankaj Batra, chief marketing officer, home service, Pizza Hut – Asia Franchise.

10 Hywel Evans, regional director, decision science, APAC, AIMIA. 11 Anil Srinivas, director – e-commerce, Dell, APJ. 12 (From left): Moderator Elizabeth Low, Marketing magazine; Han Zantingh, managing director, Asia, BrainJuicer; Kensaku Konishi, president and chief executive officer, Canon Singapore; and Terry Sales, regional marketing manager, Electrolux Major Appliances – East Asia.

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RESEARCH ASIA INTERACTIVE 2014 DATE: 27 June 2014 VENUE: Grand Park City Hall Hotel Singapore 1 Tyrone Almeida, director of insights and planning, Kellogg Company, Asia Pacific and S.S Africa.

2 (From left): Moderator Elizabeth Low, Marketing magazine; Mukesh Kumar, head of marketing, Maggi light meal business, Nestlé India; Philip Steggals, insights director, Kadence International; and Sohyun Song, assistant vice-president, market research, group customer experience, OCBC Bank.

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4 Mukesh Kumar.

5 Philip Steggals.

6 Anna Rokina, social data consultant – global analytics hub, Lenovo.

7 Michael Chadwick, director, brand strategy, APAC Mondelēz.

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11-12 Interactive sessions.

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NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR

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

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NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR

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METHODOLOGY HOW DID WE ACHIEVE THIS? The Newspaper Rankings were derived from questions in Marketing Research’s annual Media Spend Benchmarking Survey.

Marketing Research employed an online questionnaire and surveyed its database of client advertisers and marketing services agency professionals. All answers given by respondents were considered by Marketing when finalising the rankings.

QUALITY RECIPIENTS AND RESPONDENTS More than 700 respondents participated in the Media Spend Benchmarking Survey.

Genuine advertising decision-makers and influencers across key agency-using industries were well represented as were agency professionals from various marketing services.

Nearly 87% of client advertiser-side respondents were manager-level decisionmakers and above, with 10% from the most senior ranks of client advertisers – CEOs, MDs or GMs – and another 18% were VPs or director-level marketers.

The majority of the respondents from the agency side were CEOs, MDs or GMs (32%), 16% were marketing personnel, while 23% were sales personnel. The remaining 29% were operations, creative and media personnel.

Advertisers from major and local international banks, FMCG companies, property and construction, IT and telecommunication firms, as well as those from travel and tourism companies participated in the survey. Agency professionals across the marketing services spectrum were also well represented.

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14/7/2014 5:01:43 PM

NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR

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LOCAL

THE STRAITS TIMES Taking top spot this year is once again The Straits Times. The paper is holding steady as the most read daily newspaper in Singapore, with its online and mobile editions reaching more and more readers every day. The Straits Times aims to reach English-educated Singaporeans and has a daily reach of 1.37 million people. Nearly 60% of its print readers are aged 20-49, while 45% are executives.

At a time when newspapers are scaling down overseas coverage, The Straits Times continues to expand. It now has more than 20 of its own correspondents worldwide, and has also organised itself into a multi-platform publication.

Newsroom processes have been reviewed to ensure reporters and editors deliver breaking news to its 50,000 digital subscribers within the hour, with the emphasis on clarity and accuracy.

Meanwhile, all its sections have been tasked to produce both digital and print content.

In April 2014, straitstimes.com launched a website redesign, with more features and web specials. In addition to hard news, the ST website offers more “softer” news to give the website a more balanced content mix.

On 25 June, ST online launched an ST Star app, which carries “The Life” e-magazine, among others.

The Life is a monthly lifestyle e-magazine produced by ST Life! section. Helmed byy Elisabeth Gwee, it is available only as an e-magazine on tablets.

While the paper hasn’t seen any new hires, one key new appointment is that off T Sumiko Tan as the ST e associate editor, as she e takes the reigns on the ST digital team. he Advertisers for the he newspaper range from the smaller retailers, SMES to nd blue-chip companies and big consumer brands. ers The big advertisers include airlines such as SIA, banks (local and foreign), car ycle companies such as Cycle des, & Carriage and Mercedes, pers, telcos, property developers, hains government, big retail chains arvey such as Courts, Harvey sons, Norman and Robinsons, among a slew of others.

THE BUSINESS TIMES Taking second spot in this year’s Newspaper of the Year is The Business Times. According to the paper, what really sets it apart from its competitors is its range of exclusive stories, commentaries and analyses by adept business correspondents. The paper provides comprehensive coverage of the Singapore corporate sector with a particular emphasis on listed companies and SMEs. Over the past 12 months, the paper embarked on a strategy to become a multi-platform product with enhanced print and digital offerings.

Last year, it boosted its presence on

social media, produced a series of multimedia story packages, and developed its capabilities in infographics and data journalism. This will culminate in a relaunch of its print and digital platforms. The paper also embraced a new approach to telling stories with the extensive use of infographics. Online, it started producing interactive infographics to increase user engagement. To grow its readership and engage its readers, The Business Times launched a new series of CEO interviews, called Topline.

Most of The Business Times’ advertisers are from sectors such as financial institutions,

companies selling timepieces, property, IT systems and cars.

Its readers are primarily business executives. Due to the growing trend of news consumed online, The Business Times also made itss first foray into the e mobile space with h the BT Weekend iPad d app in 2011.

Edge Malaysia and The Edge Review, its sister publications within The Edge Media Group.

The Edge Singapore also renamed the Management@Work section, calling it Enterprise.

This was to better reflect the content of the regular weekly pullout to feature enterprises that were doing interesting work in Singapore and the region.

The other topics within Enterprise include leadership, learning and careers.

While no senior-level hires were made in the past 12 months, the paper is always looking out for good talent to come onboard.

Meanwhile, its advertiser profile hasn’t changed dramatically over the past 12 years.

It’s always been the mid to high-end luxury category, be it cars and watches, airlines and private residences and trading platforms to private banks.

The subscribers of The Edge Singapore are those who aspire to be business leaders and corporate captains. The readers are the newsmakers featured in The Edge. They hold management roles and are key decision-makers.

They are also investors and high net-worth individuals.

The latest ABC audited circulation for the period January to December 2013 is 24,047 – comprising print and a digital replica of The Edge Singapore.

THE EDGE SINGAPORE Taking third spot this year is The Edge Singapore.

In July 2013, the paper officially made its digital replica on tablets, desktops and smartphones.

This allowed its print copy subscribers to have a access to The Edge Singapore every Friday.

Aware of the c corporate PMEB p profile of the readers an and their need for reg regional news, the pap paper also included in the subscription bund bundle access to The

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NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR

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TODAY MediaCorp’s Today held onto its fourth position in this year’s Newspaper of the Year rankings.

Today was launched in late 2000. According to the paper, it is Singapore’s second mostread newspaper and offers quality content

in a convenient and compact format. The free newspaper offers readers an unrivalled package of the top local and international news reports, as well as insightful, thought-provoking commentary and analysis. The newspaper

targets teenagers, women and men and parents aged 18-39.

In 2012, it relaunched its print edition to better serve its readers’ needs with a more intuitive design, including new sections covering a wider range of views. Its print edition comprises the morning and afternoon versions.

Today’s news is available online at TODAYonline.com and on its mobile applications for readers to remain connected with daily breaking news. TODAYonline.com is the digital version of the family paper and provides concise, balanced reports and commentary. Readers get to-the-minute breaking news updates and rich multimedia content in a seamless digital environment.

The free newspaper is distributed at selected homes and is available at MRT stations, bus interchanges, selected F&B outlets and more.

of focus group discussions carried out by an independent research agency. The focus was to be: “More Local, More Vocal, More Social”.

The New Paper also launched its new app on 16 June, choosing a mobile-first strategy for its digital thrust. Unlike traditional news apps, The New Paper’s offering was crafted for a digital generation who is usually only attracted by interactivity, games and rewards.

Hence, when the digital citizen reads a story on the app, he earns points which in turn can be used to redeem rewards.

The app also encourages users to send in their own content. The app allows users to access the e-paper version of The New Paper where the PDF pages are interactive, allowing users to view videos, scroll through picture galleries, get story updates, watch interactive ads and play games.

Within the first two weeks of the launch, the app shot to the number one position on “Free News App” downloads on the IStore with more than 22,000 downloads on IOS and Android.

The app also hit 3.3 million page views in that short period.

This year My Paper clinches sixth position. From a niche newspaper with a heavy emphasis on lifestyle coverage, My Paper has moved to position itself as a comprehensive source of n news for people starved of time, but anxious tto stay in touch with important developments.

T The paper has seen the introduction of pages ssuch as business, opinion and sports and it no now breaks exclusive stories on a daily basis.

My Paper is also mindful of the fact its pr primary audience is professionals, managers, ex executives and technicians. Hence, the co content focuses sharply on the job market, edu education, housing, healthcare, politics and bus business news – topics close to their heart.

The paper also reaches this segment through targ targeted distribution at homes, offices and MRT stat stations.

The past year has seen an important editorial

shift for My Paper. A new editorial team is in place, led by Rahul Pathak, previously executive editor of The Business Times, and supported

by Lee Yulin and Jermyn Chow, previously from The Straits Times.

The newspaper differentiates itself from others in two ways. First, My Paper is Singapore’s only bilingual newspaper and most of its readers read both sections. Second, every article is carefully curated to be relevant to the lives of its readership.

The paper also claims that surveys conducted have shown the average time spent on reading the newspaper has gone up.

Also, by making sure that every page has something worthy of capturing the reader’s attention, the editorial provides a great platform for advertisers who want their offerings to be seen.

THE NEW PAPER Clinching fifth spot this year is The New Paper.

There have been two major initiatives in the past 12 months. The first was a complete overhaul of its strategic thrust, resulting in a sharper focus on what it publishes, where it stands in the local newspaper landscape, and the way it looks.

The second was to broaden its presence – and impact – on the digital sphere.

On 3 October 2014, readers of The New Paper were surprised with a completely new newspaper. Nothing was left unchanged, from the look, to the content focus, to the flow.

This included the bold gamble of moving the popular sports section from the back to run it as a pullout for greater reader-friendliness. There was also a consolidation of its entertainment magazines into a single special section.

The revamp was the culmination of intense effort and research involving a large number

MY PAPER

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NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR

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LIANHE ZAOBAO Holding onto seventh position in this year’s Newspaper of the Year is Chinese paper Lianhe Zaobao. The paper says that what sets it apart is the trusted respect it has gained in its readers’ minds as the source of news and opinion for both Singapore readers, as well as the region’s Chinese community.

Besides the general Chinese community, it also reaches out to PMEBs, SME bosses, high-brow readers, as well as the growing new immigrants from the Greater China region. With a readership of 760,000, it is an influential a and authoritative n newspaper giving v valuable insights in into local and fo foreign news.

Lianhe Zaobao is also regarded as an important so source of political an and economic new on East Asia, news especially China. Zaobao.com, its online version, has 10 million monthly unique visitors and four million page views daily.

Lianhe Zaobao’s increasingly affluent and sophisticated Chinese-speaking communities has attracted advertisers from different trades.

This year the paper saw ad revenue from sectors such as property, banking, retail, health and government bodies.

In 2012 Lianhe Zaobao also made an attempt to beef up its digital capabilities.

Apart from its online version, it was also made available in digital formats, including a Zaobao web application via all tablets on Android and Apple. It also launched an iPad PDF version.

LIANHE WANBAO

Lianhe Wanbao once again clinches eighth position this year. In 2013, it embarked on the digital bandwagon to ride on the age of connectivity. In September, the paper also simultaneously launched three new platforms.

This was on the iPad app, iPhone app and web app.

Through the multi-pronged approach, Lianhe Wanbao aims to engage readers and promote greater interaction between the readers consuming news and content producers. In addition, it also hopes that with a digital front it can draw new and young readers.

Being an evening publication, courts and crime, health and beauty, and entertainment segments have always been Lianhe Wanbao’s mainstay and forte. To better serve regular readers and to entice new readers, the paper took several new approaches to news reporting.

This included introducing crime stories with a human element as the prime focus, exploring investigative reporting, and initiating charity drives through collaboration between Lianhe Wanbao and its business partners.

Lianhe Wanbao says its news reports reflect the sentiment of the public at large.

Lianhe Wanbao also has a large number of advertisers from various sectors and products/ services.

SHIN MIN DAILY NEWS Once again, Chinese language newspaper Shin Min Daily News is in the top 10 for this year’s Newspaper of the Year. This year the paper comes in at ninth position.

Shin Min Daily News says it’s the heartbeat of heartland Singapore and reaches out to a sizeable readership of 449,000. The paper specifically caters its news to reach and engage heartlanders. It claims that grocery buyers making purchase decisions for the family form 65.6% of its readers. However, the paper also maintains its diversity with a pool of readers who are PMEBs and bosses of SMEs. Shin Min Daily News claims its unique selling proposition is in its good relations with the average person on the streets, coupled with strong community news (including exclusive crime news) as well as an exclusive column titled Words of Wisdom.

As such Shin Min Daily News attracts a wide array of products and services targeted at heartlanders. This ranges from beauty, health, furnishing and fast-moving consumer products.

The newspaper also focuses on feature news and column reads from contributing writers across Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore, with an eye on a more in-depth read to reach out to new readers.

TABLA! Making it into this year’s rankings in 10th position is Tabla! The paper targets both the Indian expatriate community and Indian PRs. It also targets new Singapore citizens of Indian origin and local Indians.

In May this year, the paper launched a new community initiative called “Tea with Tabla!”

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where it invited the heads of all regional Indian ethnic community groups for tea and snacks to listen to them and explore ways on how the paper can serve the community better.

The objective of this was to bring the various Indian communities together. The tea session was also aimed at building communities and growing the paper’s reach in the community.

The paper hopes to make “Tea with Tabla!” a regular feature with meetings being held every few months. Similar tea sessions are being planned with more Indian cultural groups and associations.

The paper has an array of advertisers.

These range from educational institutions, property developers, show organisers, banking and finance companies, religious associations/ temples, beauty products distributors and others.

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NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR

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REGIONAL

FINANCIAL TIMES This year, the Financial Times (FT) is being refreshed. With a profitable print circulation and a strong, healthy global print readership, this investment is to reaffirm the newspaper is a very important part of the organisation and its multichannel offering. By responding to evolving reader habits, the new FT will be a modern paper for current and future readers who place a high value on it.

The new FT newspaper will prioritise original, agenda-setting news with global insight, analysis and context. Its new design will prioritise simplification and ease of reading. The new look will also hold a strong proposition for both readers and advertisers, delivering the very best of the FT’s journalism and keeping readers on the front foot of emerging trends.

FT has also restructured its commercial team to reflect its global nature and transformation to universal publishing. The new team is structured by disciplines – B2C, B2B, trading, career management, education and emerging markets – rather than region. The move allows the FT team to better serve clients and focus on areas of competitive strength such as special projects, luxury, weekend, education, emerging markets and growing regions.

For advertisers, the FT offers a unique and valuable proposition with its ability to deliver targeted and relevant campaigns to an engaged, high-profile audience. Its integrated commercial team works across formats and regions to deliver value-added and insight-led campaigns to clients. Meanwhile, the paper is also focusing on areas of competitive strength and is developing focused digital strategies. It is also exploring fast growing regional digital opportunities, education and emerging markets.

Last December, FT also extended its tool Smart Match to global advertising clients after a successful initial trial. The technology, provided

by Smartology, recognises the meaning of news articles, allowing advertisers to match their content to relevant news stories in real-time on FT.com.

Dow Jones, was determined to increase ad sales and, hence, the fundamental electronic publishing equation had to change. Mark Pope, the VP of ad sales for 10 months in the region, was charged with a new role as managing director/publisher.

Pope, together with Asia editor Paul Beckett, launched a series of editorial-based initiatives that were hits with advertisers, including a gala innovator of the year ceremony; and editorial package in Beijing; a topical event series across the region; and a full day with live programming devoted to technology in Tokyo.

Increasing video reach was also a priority, with a 13% increase in Asian video downloads year-over-year.

Succeeding Pope, Hong Kong sales head Mark Rogers was promoted and now runs all regional ad sales. A savvy digital Dow Jones

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

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL The Wall Street Journal is one of the world’s largest publishers of business news and information for the web with 1,800 journalists in 78 editorial bureaus, filing thousands of items a day. In Asia, an English-language edition is available in print, web, mobile and tablet app formats. Additionally, four local-language digital editions provide more in-depth coverage tailored to the specific information needs of Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Bahasa Indonesia speakers.

The Wall Street Journal claims it commands more consumer confidence because it is both trusted and influential. With more than three times the news staff in Asia as its closest competitor, the paper is consistently ranked as the most important business reading in Asia by business elites across the region.

In 2014, a new CEO at parent company

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

Since then, it has strengthened the INYT’s position as a newspaper of the world and placed it at the centre of the New York Times Company’s global operations.

The International New York Times readers have a sophisticated, global outlook and what unites consumers of all New York Times products is their intellectual curiosity.

In April 2014, the paper launched NYT Now and Times Premier, two radically different digital subscriptions to broaden its readership.

NYT Now was created for an audience seeking slightly more content than their 10 free monthly articles, and at a lower price than the full news report. It is the first standalone news product that provides readers with its most

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essential stories of the moment, and is now its least expensive digital package. Unlike NYT Now, Times Premier is a premium subscription service, designed with the Times’ enthusiast in mind. It includes tailored content and experiences exclusively for premier customers.

NYT Opinion, launched in June 2014, is the paper’s first digital product to offer a standalone subscription to all of The New York Times’ opinion coverage, along with a continuous feed of commentary from The New York Times and other reputable sources from around the web.

Its new range of digital products have been designed and optimised for mobile because more than 50% of the articles are read on mobile devices. With Android devices significantly more popular than iOS outside of the US, The New York Times’ Android app version 4.0 was also launched.

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MOBILE RESEARCH: BREAKING THE BARRIERS Great insights can make or break a business’ marketing initiatives. But those powerful insights don’t come easy. Traditional research methods come with their own challenges for market researchers and marketers to understand what people want, and deliver a product or service that addresses a real need.

The growing mobile space has created the much-needed opportunity for immediate and accurate insights into consumer behaviour.

Mobile devices have become an inextricable part of consumers’ lives. To thrive in the future, marketers and researchers realise the importance to tap into this medium to better understand consumers. How do you really leverage this medium then?

About 80 industry professionals gathered to discuss the potential of smartphones when doing research at Marketing’s Insights sponsored by InsightAsia Research.

According to statistics by Nielsen, smartphone penetration in Singapore and Hong Kong stands at 87%. Malaysia and China figures stand at 80% and 71% respectively.

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“Looking at the approximate total population figures, which total over three billion people and calculating the actual number of people with smartphones in the region, we are looking at more than 1.2 billion people that have a smartphone,” said Julian de Vries Andries, associate director of InsightAsia Research.

What does all this mean for market research?

“Obviously, not all of these will participate in research through their phone, but it does show you the number of people that potentially can be reached.”

While traditional research still carries great value, it has some drawbacks which mobile can help overcome.

Issues with traditional research According to Andries, there are three main issues with traditional research. They are: Recall - Traditional research relies a lot on memory, we always ask what brands one interacted with, what was it they purchased in the last week or last month or year. Humans tend to forget certain things, especially things that were of low interest or as seen as ‘natural’.

Moreover, when asking questions about an event in the past, chances are we get only get rational answers, and we miss out on the emotions that could have triggered an experience.

Research setting – With traditional research we tend to take people out of their daily lives and put them in an unnatural situation. The situation where they have to sit down, being in a focus group discussion with strangers, or one-on-one with someone they have just met, to discuss a subject that they are usually not aware of until the conversation starts. They are prepared to answer research questions and thus have put on their research answering hat. This is unnatural behaviour which can lead to biased or skewed

DATE: 03 July 2014

VENUE: Shangri-La Hotel, Singapore

MADE POSSIBLE BY:

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has helped businesses, Peter Chan, managing director of F&B Solutions, said the company had used the app for an out-of-home beverage insights study.

F&B Solutions wanted to know what people were drinking, points of purchase/consumption, when were they drinking, beverage consumption reasons, key decision triggers and frequency of consumption.

Additionally, it wanted to know what food was being consumed with the beverages, were there intuitive connections between beverage choice and trade channels, and so on.

The app helped the company report consumption moments as they happened

answers, being twisted from the truth or with aspirational thoughts behind it.

Visuals – Lastly, traditional research lacks visuals. You only have words to describe certain situations or experiences. Every person will paint a different picture in their mind when only hearing words. This in turn can lead to an inaccurate understanding of answers given.

On the contrary, mobile offers a more engaging environment for consumers. According to Andries, a mobile app for research can go a long way, provided it is: Immersive – With all the technology and visual-capturing capabilities of smartphones nowadays, the research app should also be able to capture this. We should get the sense that we are standing next to the consumer or looking over his/her shoulder while they are experiencing it in the moment.

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Interactive – Besides looking over one’s shoulder, we should also be able to communicate with them directly while they are still going through the experience. The app needs to have a chat function so we can interact, share and collaborate with our consumers.

“This enhances how we listen to customers how we understand them and values the consumer more as well. This will lead to deeper relationships and strengthen customer loyalty,” he says.

Immediate – Because we want to be there with the consumer in the moment and interact with consumers in the moment the results need to be instant. The app should bring real-time results and conversations to you (marketer/client), wherever you are.

Andries then shared about 3Sixty, an integrated quantitative and qualitative app, dedicated for research purposes. Talking about how the app

with location, type of beverage, reason for drinking and the brand name where known.

The group chat function allowed moderator and respondents’ interactions and one-on-one conversations as well. This gave opportunities for further probing or prompting if required.

The online reports generated in real-time threw light on an overview of the feedback and personal messages per brand experience, group discussion boards, survey results and quantitative analysis of brand experiences.

During the event, Mark Bowling, chief crafter of Remarkability, debunked a few myths of research through mobile. For example, that it’s just about smartphones; that clients want doorstop research reports or that social research doesn’t work. According to him, mobile research has clear benefits, namely: • The opportunity for geo-location making research tailored and focused.

• The opportunity to ask the right question in the right context.

• Easier to manage.

• Fast/real-time response.

• Social sharing with users getting their friends involved.

His message to marketers? Don’t apply oldschool thinking; use mobile or lose out; think big start small; start a revolution; and change your business mentality.

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INSIDE WPP’S STREAM INDONESIA..

Rayana Pandey reports on WPP’s annual Stream event. Here’s how it looked like.

It was my first time attending Stream and I have to say, there were quite a few things that caught my attention. Other than the awesome venue and some great discussions on the past, present and future of marketing, what really made Stream an (un)conference were a few components:

The ignite This was a four-minute talk with 15 slides that auto-rotated: on stage, and in front of everyone.

The topics ranged from public transport in Indonesia, to e-commerce, to what makes you happy in life – basically anything you wanted to talk about. I was highly impressed with quite a few of the 17-odd presentations we saw and

The extravaganza The marketing industry is quite talented, as I learned, and definitely not shy to display it.

From songs to power-point Karaoke (making stories out of 15 slides shown to you in quick succession, on the spot and to be recited “realtime” – no kidding!) to dance and histrionics. You could find all of it there.

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Stream Indonesia saw 250 guests in attendance and it wasn’t just a number. The impressive cross-section of guests meant you could be talking to a scientist over breakfast, a techie over lunch, an astronaut over drinks and some students as well. All of this on top of agency professionals and marketers who are always fun to meet.

The three-day event is called (un)conference for a reason. Once you’re at Stream, you’re expected to not do certain things:

this session was all about. From Oculus Rift to drones and much more, the amount of cool gadgets at this conference was eye-opening.

hey, a few also got standing ovations from the audience.

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Midnight cooking madness … by the guests, yes. Guests opted to participate in a culinary competition. I was no judge, but if you had asked me, my points would have gone to Dhaniya chicken (chicken cooked with coriander and the judges also agreed), Oreo fritters (yes, there is such a thing and it was heaven) and, of course, the tropical sangria.

Here is the list of don’ts.

1. Do not wear anything remotely formal.

2. Do not talk about work, always.

3. Do not expect 40-minute power point presentations.

4. Do not stop drinking. (Kidding! There was a free flow of booze throughout the day though.)

5. Do not hog the limelight – there was a strict time limit of 15 minutes for presentations to be made on stage … … and the list continues. Overall, it was the ultimate “un-conference”. Until next year guys!

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EVENTS

Date: Thursday, 29 May 2014

Venue: Shangri-la Hotel Singapore

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Marketing’s luncheon meeting on the challenges of digital on retail, sponsored by GfK, saw senior retail decision-makers share tips and views on what they think is the relevance of offline versus online retailing. Reporting by Rezwana Manjur.

Marketing’s luncheon meeting on the challenges of digital on retail, sponsored by GfK, saw senior retail decision-makers share tips and views on what they think is the relevance of offline versus online retailing.

While digital no doubt offers a plethora of opportunities, it also poses a threat to the retail world – a threat which is very real. Challenges for the brick and mortar retail outlets are many as digital sweeps away the audiences, offering avenues to compare prices, shop and get the purchase delivered to their doorsteps.

One issue the retailers are facing is that of price transparency, according to Diana Koh, marketing manager of Mothercare. Retailers will have to come up with a unified global pricing strategy or else they will lose out to online retailing very soon. Moreover, as travel becomes more

feasible for a large section of the audience to fly to a destination to shop for cheaper goods, it is adding to the woes of retailers.

“In time to come, price transparency will be a norm and retailers need to create a unified global pricing strategy,” said Koh. Segregation to curb showrooming Many attendees also agreed there needs to be a concerted effort by the industry to save the brick and mortar retail business because it is not completely devoid of value. Consumers still shop at stores and that trend will not be wiped out quickly.

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store to come up with a strategy to boost sales.

And one way to do so was through product segregation.

“Brand owners need to carefully delegate certain products as exclusive to the physical retail stores,” she said. “Only by segregating the goods through channels can you get consumers to come to your brick and mortar store.”

This will also help curb showrooming which most retailers experience these days.

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Optical, also agreed showrooming was a growing trend, and is something that is quite challenging to tackle.

Yang explained that at Nanyang Optical it was a worrying phenomenon since most of the brands the store hosted were not its own.

“Often there is such a huge gap in pricing that the only thing you as a retailer can guarantee consumers is warranty,” Yang said.

Manpower and public perception Another aspect is the lack of talent in the industry,

particularly at the junior levels. Together with digital, this is a double whammy for retailers.

OG’s Tang said it was a big challenge, adding that there simply weren’t enough people who wanted to work as sales associates. And customer service in-store is perhaps the only major differentiator between online and offline retail.

“When a consumer goes to a store, he/she expects service, but due to the lack of manpower it is becoming difficult to deliver a great experience to customers,” he said.

This points to a bigger issue – the low perceived value of retail jobs.

At a macro level, retail jobs need to become more lucrative. Education and awareness is needed to help improve public perception of the retail job, the attendees said. Meanwhile, retailers also need to focus on training and retaining staff.

“We tell our retail staff that when a consumer comes back to you that is a moment of pride because it shows how good you are. But at the bigger level, the issue lies in how this job is viewed in society,” Wang said.

However, Stanley Kee, managing director for Southeast Asia at GfK, added this was a phenomenon faced by all businesses, including retail.

“The young and aspiring want to climb the corporate ladder faster, and as the world is changing, we need to ask what are we striving for?” Kee said.

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The protagonists Diana Koh, Marketing Manager, Global Outsource Solutions Pte Ltd (Mother Care) Nishiwaki Sosuke, Executive Director BHG Sally Tang , Senior Manager, OG Private Limited Tey Soon Heng, CEO, Spring Maternity (Camomile Spring Pte Ltd) Bernard Yang, Director Nanyang Optical Senior sales lead, Leading fragrances company Wheemin Wang, General Manager, SUTL Investments Stanley Kee, Managing Director, Southeast Asia - GFK Lawrence Yeow, APAC Director, Retail World - GFK

of the core value proposition. Ultimately it is about being relevant to your consumers,” Kee said.

At the end of the day, if the business is relevant to consumers, they will visit the stores to buy the products.

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Lawrence Yeow, regional retail director for Asia at GfK Asia, highlighted that one of the biggest challenges retailers faced in staying relevant was getting to the consumers at the right time. There is always pressure in all retail activities and promotions because consumers are moving faster, he said.

“Take for example the Great Singapore Sale (GSS). GSS takes place in June, but the promotions start two weeks before. As a retailer, if I hold back on promotions now, I will lose out on sales, but if I do it now I will still lose out later, that’s the challenge most retailers face,” Yeow said.

Sosuke Nishiwaki, executive director at BHG, said another alarming problem brands faced was

the huge competition with their suppliers who were going into digital in their approach in an attempt to keep relevant. Ultimately this leads to an infighting of sorts for the same target audience between both the supplier and the retailer.

While most retailers agreed that digital is an important medium to communicate with consumers, it’s implementation across the board is a challenge that is hard to overcome. Despite various mediums and grants being available, the biggest challenge for stores is changing the mindset of the mid-level staff.

“There’s no point if the top-level management tries to change the working conditions, but the mid-level sees it as more work. There’s resistance to change,” Yang said.

Hence, a digital strategy takes a long time to be effectively implemented.

Tey Soon Heng, CEO of Camomile Spring, said for his company it is the top management driving the push into digital because the company was still young.

“We are infusing new blood and digital skills into our team to come up with a solid digital strategy and identify the points at which we can engage customers digitally. It is not all about changing everything at once, but rather going slowly.”

Kee also added what was needed to digitise was constant monitoring. With the changing landscape of consumers, there is always a need to adapt.

“Digital is certainly not a one-time investment.

It is for the long-term,” Kee said.

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WHAT YOU MISSED AT SHOPPER MARKETING 2014 Shopper marketing today is a fast evolving space. With new technology constantly emerging, it’s vital for marketers to understand how to convert potential customers into buyers.

In the second edition of Shopper Marketing 2014, here are the key issues highlighted by our speakers.

Omni-channel marketing: is it an ideal?

The session opened with a panel discussion on omni-channel marketing, and if it was a realistic direction for brands to take. On the panel were Hywel Evans, Aimia’s regional director of decision science for APAC; Lawrence Yeow, GfK’s APAC retail director; and Diana Ho, brand manager of shu uemura Hong Kong. All panellists agreed that for many brands the concept was an ideal

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at this point. For omni-channel to work, retailers needed to map out which touch-points they wanted to excel in, Evans said.

Ho pointed out that a lack of a good database system was currently hampering advancement in omnichannel marketing. “The new-age customer is very promiscuous, so you need to know what makes them loyal to you as a brand,” Yeow added.

Stanley Kee, managing director of SEA for GfK, however, argued that for an omni-channel strategy to work, a brand doesn’t need to try and address all the channels at the same time.

Kee also warned against overhyping certain channels, such as mobile for example, quoting figures for mobile use in Singapore as being low for in-store shopping.

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Yan Tsang, director of client services at eBay Enterprise, also made a case for omni-channel marketing. “Omni-channel is not where you want to be. It is where you should be. You have to be where your consumers are 24/7,” she said.

Pankaj Batra, chief marketing officer of home service at Pizza Hut – Asia Franchise, spoke on e-commerce, eCRM and social – the three strategic pillars for digital engagement.

“It’s 40% to 60% cheaper to service a customer online; average spend is higher; frequency of buys are 35% higher,” he said.

Standing out in the digital realm In the following panel discussion, Bob Neville, global retail creative director and head of retail at New Balance; Roger Egan, co-founder and CEO of RedMart; and Patrick Steinbrenner, director for on-site marketing for Zalora, discussed the challenges of building a brand online. Egan said the key thing to note when building an online brand was to establish trust, also warning against over cluttering a site. Three things that were pointed out as being key to building a brand online were price, selection and experience.

New Balance’s Neville spoke about the strategy in placing its brand in the digital space.

It is important brands invest in technology, given the pervasiveness of the digital space. He spoke about New Balance’s Warrior brand – which offers lacrosse and ice hockey equipment and gear – and how it had created an app where users could virtually try on the equipment on their mobile. However, he gave a caveat to brands in the digital space: “While digital technology is abundant, don’t lose sight of who you are as a brand.”

Shu Uemura’s Ho picked apart the brand’s success on social media to offer three tips: Choose the right celebrity for your market; use an emotional hook and play up the surprise factor.

Ho talked about how having Charlene Choi as a brand ambassador worked for the brand.

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Maximising promotions Finally, Hans Zantingh, managing director of Asia at BrainJuicer, gave marketers tips on how to maximise their promotions with the help of behavioural economics. Everything is emotional, said Zantingh, suggesting people in general think less than they think they do. A human decision is based on three aspects: Social, environment and personal, he added, suggesting marketers can phrase promotions in a certain way. Make it easy for consumers to make decisions, he said, citing an example of where a taxi app gave consumers the choice of tipping at 20%, 25% and 30%, average tips jumped to 22% of the total fare. (Previously, tipping was 10% before this was introduced.) “Framing allows people to have a set of guidelines to follow. Hence, framing can help set purchase patterns,” Zantingh said.

Insight and audience profiling Dr Lim Woo Lip, vice-president of SmartHub, StarHub’s analytics platform, spoke about using data in shopper marketing, speaking about how it was able to use the network’s mobile metadata to target mobile users where they are, offering what the brand calls mall analytics.

AIMIA’s Evans argued the point of why demographics are no longer as important in audience profiling, instead, the path to purchase is more important. “How a consumer shops is more important than who they are.

“Many sources of data can help drive understanding, then action, but in an evolving noisy and more complicated shopper marketing space, generalist assumptions are no longer good enough.”

Creativity in shopper marketing Both Dan Paris, regional managing director of TBWA\ Group and Mahesh Neelakantan chief operating officer at Advocacy, spoke about using creativity in shopper marketing to achieve the most effective results. For example,

Paris showed an ad by M.J. Bale, which had collaborated with Heritage Bank and Visa to create a “power suit”, in which men could pay through a contactless payment chip sewn into their sleeves.

Neelakantan showed a marketing move Advocacy created for Cadbury Malaysia, in which users could send in messages and have them imprinted on its chocolate bars. The messages could only be seen when the bars were opened.

E-commerce and attribution analysis Anil Srinivas, director of e-commerce at Dell, spoke on effective attribution analysis, advising marketers to spend more time defining the problem than solving it. “Ninety-five per cent of your time should be spent on defining the problem and 5% on the solution. Not the other way around,” he said, suggesting marketers can start with free analytics tools such as Google Analytics, then use an attribution model that tracks the customer journey and measures the outcomes.

Physical retail BrainJuicer’s Zantingh, Kensaku Konishi, president and chief executive officer of Canon Singapore, and Terry Sales, regional marketing manager of Electrolux Major Appliances – East Asia, discussed the importance of having a highstreet storefront. Both Canon and Electrolux work through distributor models and both found it necessary to allow consumers to enter a store to experience the products, citing the importance of a physical store.

Finally, Whee Min Wang, general manager of group retail, leisure division, at SUTL Investment, said the online shopping and digital wave made in-store visual merchandising a challenge.

“When selling a product in a multi-brand retail space, relationships matter. Make retailers see your product’s value,” she said.

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16/7/2014 4:35:34 PM

HAVING TROUBLE SETTING UP YOUR RETAIL STORE? Do you place your star product upfront or at the back? Should you place more emphasis on the lesser known products or the ones that traditionally sell well? Whee Min Wang of SUTL and Hans Zantingh of Brainjuicer give marketers tips.

Retail space is often the silent interaction between the brand and shoppers’ minds. It is a vital step in converting shoppers into buyers, especially when the retailer is faced with online competition, Whee Min Wang, general manager of group retail for SUTL Group told marketers at Shopper Marketing 2014. Today, increasing rentals often mean retailers need to generate even higher yield per square foot to maintain profit margins, she said. This puts pressure on retailers to make the most out of their retail space.

Despite the cold war between online marketers and retailers, their strategy in luring consumers remains somewhat similar. In both cases, the marketer needs to remember he or she is telling a story to the customer.

Wang shares the three vital stages to setting up a retail store: Stage 1: Captivate your shopper This is where window displays matter. The display should be positioned in such a way it

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is able to cut through the clutter and make the customer stop and look. “Window displays are the first touch-point for most shoppers. Use this to point out the difference in your products.

Remind shoppers about what your brand is doing,” Wang said.

Meanwhile, in an earlier panel, Han Zantingh, managing director of Asia at BrainJuicer, also stated a similar point.

Window shopping allows marketers to create a visual idea for their consumers. “Showing a product in use makes consumers imagine what it might be like for them to try it on or use it. This is part of behavioural economics,” Zantingh said.

Stage 2: Engage and lure in your consumers After you give your target consumer a glimpse of the story in the window, they will naturally enter to find out more about the brand’s story.

“The presentation of your store needs to be related to the story you promised the shopper at the window. Have some props or peripheral items to evoke emotions or even nostalgia,” Wang said. All these should finally result in

piquing the customer’s interest strongly enough to proceed to the next stage.

Meanwhile, placement of products in the store is also vital. At times, placing products related to each other closely can boost sales.

While there are no absolute rules on placement, where to place the product, Wang suggests asking these questions: What are shoppers looking for? Just a product or an identity? What do shoppers associate the brand with?What does the retailer want shoppers to remember the brand for?

Specific products or a certain experience?

Stage 3: Create the connect When you have engaged with your consumer, you can finally connect with them. This is where having trained and valued staff comes in. Your staff need to be able to give ready information to the consumers. Human interaction is still a key value in the retail experience and is the fundamental difference between shopping online and off. “The in-store staff should be able to magnify the brand story and filling in the gaps.” she said.

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•

Celebrity power: Hong Kong star Charlene Choi helped Shu Uemura achieve viral success.

THREE STEPS TO A VIRAL SUCCESS Shu Uemura’s brand manager Diana Ho unveils the thinking behind the brand’s viral success.

Rezwana Manjur reports.

Earlier this year, Japanese cosmetics brand Shu Uemura rolled out a digital campaign to associate the artistic flow of the brand with local star Charlene Choi. The campaign saw immense success both online and on the retail front for the brand. Diana Ho, brand manager for Shu Uemura – Hong Kong, shared the three key steps for the video’s success during the two-day Shopper Marketing 2014 conference held in Singapore.

Step 1: Branding Branding is vital when you wish to create a unique artistic approach and proposition for a brand. Ultimately you want to tell consumers a story. For Shu Uemura, the focus for this campaign was to emphasise the professionalism of its products and, more importantly, to come across as an artistic brand, said Ho. Step 2: Have a big idea Despite being taken over by L’Oréal, Shu Uemura is still very much known as a Japanese brand. To come across as an artistic brand and remain true to its Asian heritage, the art form of calligraphy

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was chosen as the brand’s inspiration for the campaign.

While the idea was bold, ultimately what the brand needed was for the campaign to go viral.

Precise execution was thus necessary.

Here’s what the brand did next: • Pick the right celebrity: It comes as no surprise that celebrities make for great brand buzz and help in gaining public awareness of a campaign. However, picking the right celebrity matters. Asian singing sensation Choi was picked for this campaign because, much like the brand, she was also celebrating her 30th birthday. Shu Uemura saw this as the perfect opportunity to pair the two up. “We needed to pick a celebrity who would be relevant to the brand and whose passion would be in line with the brand. Choi at this stage in her career felt as though she is happy and satisfied and growing. All these qualities were in line with our brand,” Ho said.

• Emotions matter: An emotional hook either makes or breaks a campaign. You

either love it or hate it. But either way, it creates conversation. For a campaign to go viral, people need to feel in touch and connected to the brand. Shu Uemura – through the campaign – talked about Choi’s journey as an artist to try and reel in the consumers. “The public is always interested in a celebrity’s personal story and we built up the campaign using this story which resonated well with the consumers,” Ho said.

Play up the surprise: Any campaign which aims to go viral needs to catch the audience off guard. “We chose an artist who drew a big picture of Choi. After the entire painting, which was 10x10 metres, only one eighth of the eye liner was used. This shocked and surprised the public,” Ho said.

Step 3: Product and merchandising No doubt, like any brand and marketer, the goal of the entire Shu Uemura campaign was to sell the product, said Ho. To sell a product, demonstrating its unique selling point through the campaign is a must.

For this make-up range, a body painting of Choi was done in detail to depict the versatility in the range of thickness the eyeliner can provide.

Also the fact that only an eighth of the product was used, despite such a big piece of art work being created, added to the product’s wow factor.

Meanwhile, merchandising was also key.

The retail stores ensured the online campaign translated offline. The beauty advisers in-store personally used the liners to show their creativity and more than 56 looks were showcased.

“Having the right channel is vital. It’s about having synergy and seamless brand expression for the consumer. While WhatsApp and online platforms like Yahoo and Google might have more mobile penetration, Facebook and Instagram were more in line with the campaign as it was so heavily focused on imagery. It made more sense to be on Facebook and Instagram and later translate that to offline,” Ho said.

Results: According to Ho, the campaign created a lot of PR buzz. It resulted in almost nine times ROI and HK$11 million in PR coverage. The video also shot up to the second-most viewed campaign on YouTube, despite launching in mid-February.

Meanwhile, it saw an overall 200% growth in the eyeliner range and a 30% increase in sales for overall eye make-up.

Shopper Marketing 2014 is a two-day event held on 25 and 26 June in Singapore at the Grand Park City Hall

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17/7/2014 12:56:11 PM

GETTING THE PRICE RIGHT Premium luggage brand Samsonite chooses not to discount its core products, despite participating in several sales promotions. Here’s how it strategises.

Juggling the need to clear inventory while watching the bottom line can make discounting a tricky proposition. In the US, this phenomenon has reached the point where a number of large retailers will increase retail prices above what they intend to eventually sell their products for so as to create a buffer for sales events such as Black Friday.

We spoke to Wing Chan, commercial director of Samsonite Singapore, to find out how the premium luggage brand manages its pricing and discounting strategies in Singapore.

Marketing: How price-sensitive Samsonite customer?

is

the

Chan: Our customers, especially business and leisure travellers, are looking for a premium brand and do not mind paying the best value for it. They’re conscious about style and quality, and they need merchandise that’s reliable and fully executes on what it promises.

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Marketing: What is Samsonite’s take when it comes to product discounting?

Chan: Our core products are not discounted at all. Samsonite participates in price discounts during sale periods for the benefit of acquiring new customers who may be price-sensitive or for existing clientele who want another Samsonite to add to their collection.

We participate in the Great Singapore Sale (GSS). However, our core merchandise does not go on sale during this period. In addition to the regular end-of-season sales where past season merchandise is cleared at a special discount – mainly during the GSS – Samsonite also brings in a special holiday assortment to supplement this.

During the sale season, about 30% of our store merchandise are sale items. In addition, we also do a tactical programme known as a trade-in, where we allow customers to bring any old luggage in any condition to our stores and

buy hard-case luggage at a special discounted price. This happens yearly and the luggage that is being offered will revert to its original retail price after the trade-in campaign.

Marketing: What do you do to ensure price consistency across all your stores?

Chan: Our stores, department stores and retailers all share the same pricing policy across Singapore. Any discounts made or offered are controlled by Samsonite. Discounts are offered on selected ranges and this could be for the following three reasons: (1) a discount may be given on a past season colour that we are phasing out; (2) a discount may be given on products that we are clearing to make way for a newer range; or (3) a discount is given during a tactical promotion where we reward customers with a gift with their purchase or a purchase at a special price following a regular purchase.

Marketing: When are the most effective periods to offer discounts?

Chan: Given the competitiveness of the market, Samsonite offers promotional prices during the GSS and year-end sales where customers may be looking for value-for-money products for gifting purposes or to prepare for their travels in the following year.

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integration is not clearly defined. Often, there is a challenge in justifying the cost – what is the return likely to be? People tend not to look at the opportunity cost of not carrying out an integrated strategy.

Marketing: Which retailers employ the best omni-channel retail strategies?

Kee: One good example is in the luxury goods sector. Burberry manages to integrate the digital experience in the physical store by equipping sales representatives with tablet computers, which tie into customers’ loyalty programme systems and social media feeds to enable them to make tailored suggestions to the customer with a view of their existing wardrobe.

Some of the huge players like Tesco have integrated click-and-collect capabilities even in grocery, so you order online, drive to the store and someone brings it straight to the car, thus avoiding the issue of being home when your orders are delivered.

Marketing: Where are Singaporean retailers in terms of the adoption of mobile commerce?

WHAT OMNICHANNEL MEANS FOR RETAILERS We spoke to Stanley Kee, managing director of Southeast Asia at GfK, to find out what omni-channel marketing really means for retail marketers.

Marketing: Explain omni-channel marketing to us in a nutshell.

Kee: Omni-channel has grown to be a broad topic, but slimmed down to a very basic level, it simply means that a retailer engages with its customers over all possible sales, communication and marketing channels as a single distinct entity. Whereas the initial multi-channel boom was very much a case of bringing websites to physical retailers, those websites often develop to become separate and distinct entities with

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separate departments being made responsible.

Omni-channel became the buzzword for those retailers who tried to integrate the different platforms and in time began to encompass more elements of mobile commerce and social media commerce opportunities.

Marketing: How many retailers actually employ effective omni-channel marketing strategies?

Kee: There are still many retailers without mobileenabled sites, let alone a clear e-commerce strategy. There is a lack of understanding as to how to integrate all the aspects of omnichannel retail. Such aspects are often handled by a marketing team, which is one step removed from the commercial retail function and, hence,

Kee: The potential of mobile commerce as a whole in Singapore can probably be evaluated by looking inside the MRT during peak hours.

However, when it comes to payment and the last steps prior to making that final purchase, there is going to be a swing towards the more trusted PC-based payment. This trend is not unique to Singapore only – it’s something we see globally in our research, especially where payment details are involved.

Marketing: What are the growth prospects for physical retail?

Kee: There will always be a large proportion of people who enjoy the physical experience of shopping, and the online process has been unable to replicate that feeling. The physical environment can be used to demonstrate the product far more clearly than online can – the challenge is how to stop the customer enjoying the in-store experience and then making the purchase from another retailer online. The step to activating purchase at fixture is one of the main issues for physical retailers. The benefit that physical retailers have is they are able to upsell far more easily than online players can. This is the big advantage and very difficult for online players to replicate. As consumer products become more connected, and to some extent more costly, there will be a requirement for people to be served and not just sold to.

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14/7/2014 6:09:22 PM

RESEARCH ASIA INTERACTIVE 2014: A ROUND UP With the market research function facing a sea of change, we thought it necessary to hold Research Asia Interactive for the second time.

Here’s what was discussed.

The session opened with Tyrone Almeida (pictured below), director of insights and planning for Kellogg Company, Asia Pacific and S.S Africa, speaking about the future of market research. He advised marketers and researchers to deal with data influx by breaking down data as much as possible for meaningful insights. He also advised marketers to keep 10% to 20% of the research budget for experimenting with new research methodologies.

The conference then moved into interactive sessions, where hosts facilitated a series of

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discussions on selected topics such as the challenges and opportunities of real-time research, visual storytelling, research ROI and leveraging mobile and social media for research.

Next was a panel (pictured right, next page) on whether traditional research methods were still relevant. On the panel were Philip Steggals, insights director for Kadence International; Sohyun Song, assistant vice-president for market research, group customer experience, OCBC Bank; and Mukesh Kumar, head of marketing for the Maggi light meal business, Nestlé India. The three discussed their current research strategies; the challenges in the clientagency relationship and the challenges of integrating all data sources.

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Anna Rokina, (pictured, bottom left) a social data consultant for Lenovo’s global analytics hub, spoke next on social media listening, talking about the challenges of mining social data for meaningful use, such as product or service development. She also addressed the concern that such an operation needed to be a heavy investment – her team for social media data mining is a lean three-person team.

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Mukesh Kumar (pictured, bottom center), of Nestlé India, was up once again, speaking on competitive intelligence versus market research and how marketers still need to lead their consumers instead of relying too much on research to lead their decision-making.

In the final session, Michael Chadwick (pictured, bottom right) , director of brand strategy for Mondelēz APAC, spoke on how research needs to stop being a dampener for creatives, and be fuel instead for better work.

Research Asia Interactive 2014 was a one-day conference held by Marketing magazine on 27 June, at Grand Park Hotel in Singapore.

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16/7/2014 6:05:19 PM

BREAKING THE RESEARCH CLIENT-AGENCY BARRIER While marketers are often quick to sit with their communication agencies to build strategies, the same courtesy is seldom extended to research organisations. Rezwana Manjur reports.

While marketers are quick to sit down with their communications agencies to build campaign strategies and communication material, the same courtesy is not always extended to research organisations.

This was an issue highlighted during a panel discussion at Research Asia Interactive 2014.

Philip Steggals, insights director at Kadence International, said while there were some clients who saw market research agencies as trusted partners to build the brand up together from day one, it was rare.

“One of the barriers that market research agencies are facing today is that marketers are still not bringing their research agency on board for the co-creation of the brief. What can we do to break that?” he asked.

Mukesh Kumar, head of marketing for the Maggi India light meal business at Nestlé India, said a partnership was a critical factor when it comes to building good research for the future.

“Those on the client-marketer side are quick to admit they work closely with communication partners to build up communication strategies,” he said. “This co-creation strategy should be

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extended to the research partners during the process of creating a brief. It should not just be a client posing a question to an agency, which is what is still typically happening in market research.”

He said consumers today had evolved because of the influx of technology and information. Hence, it is even more crucial for marketers and research agency partners to sit together to define the right set of questions. It is no longer feasible for the marketer to simply hand out a set of questions to their research agency to get the data done.

“The only way to get the right answer is if you ask the right set of questions. Only then can marketers comprehensively decide the way they should conduct the research – be it traditional or not,” Kumar said.

However, this is not always the easiest to execute.

Overcoming barriers Sohyun Song, assistant VP of market research for group customer experience at OCBC, said for sectors such as banking, there were a lot of restrictions put in place when it comes to

gathering consumer data and, hence, a lot of research needs to be done in-house.

“Currently we employ our research partners to conduct the field work, but most of the thoughts and studies are designed in-house because of data protection issues,” Song said.

“While we can enlist help from agencies to conduct research, we cannot simply share the data at hand.”

Hence, the organisation has to rely on an in-house market research team that conducts surveys, and data analysts who work on this data.However, she admitted, this does not always result in the best practice because they might end up behind the curve without the guidance of a market research expert.

Meanwhile, another hurdle in building a closer relationship between research agencies and marketers lies in the rise of digital players such as Facebook, Twitter and Google.

With each of these digital platforms offering their own set of analytical data on consumer consumption and media habits, how should a marketer’s budget be split? Is there a way for research agencies to marry these platforms for a comprehensive analysis?

“I don’t think anyone has been yet to crack that,” Steggals said.

While the jury is still out on the matter, what he does recommend is that research agencies should be constantly evolving and challenging their research team to find new methodologies – regardless of information coming from social media or traditional research means.

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KELLOGG’S ON WHAT MARKETERS EXPECT FROM RESEARCH PARTNERS With newer methods of market research emerging, what do marketers need to know in order to get best possible outcome from their research budgets? Kellogg’s Tyrone Almeida reveals.

To make sound business decisions, accurate and up-to-date insights about your customers, markets and competitors are essential, but to achieve this marketers must be fully aware of the tools and techniques and the changes in the market research (MR) space.

Marketing caught up with Tyrone Almeida, director of insights and planning for Asia Pacific and S.S. Africa at Kellogg Company, to find out how it has taken advantage of the new wave of market research to better understand its customers.

Marketing: How has the use of market research at Kellogg’s evolved over the years?

Almeida: There have been a number of aspects that have changed over the past few years in terms of how we use market research. The first big change has been in using MR to be more forward-looking versus just seeking to explain the past or have a gauge of the immediate future (like gauging a proposed product’s market potential).

This means that the same MR we did in the past is now redone in a way that we are able to understand shifts in the market dynamics and their underlying micro and macro causal trends. An understanding of these underlying trends then helps us build possible scenarios for the future and in a way predict what kinds of ideas or product streams are likely to be more successful than others in the future. This is far more efficient, and I would dare say accurate, than the old process of brainstorming based on today’s market conditions.

The second big change has been in terms of the places where MR insights are applied.

Traditionally, it has been in marketing and product development. Now it is playing an increasingly prominent role, even in areas like supply chain – right from ingredient-sourcing options that best resonate with consumers to location of warehouses and depots that best balances sales coverage with cost of coverage.

PR and corporate communications is another area that MR is increasingly influencing. In a nutshell, the application of MR is going wider and deeper.

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The third big change has been our shift to reuse and re-mine existing data rather than just generate new data.

Each new piece of data or information is actually just one part of a large jigsaw puzzle (or the market) with the added complication this jigsaw puzzle is an evolving one. So the best way to understand the jigsaw is to always look at any new piece in the context of all the pieces you have so far and not in isolation.

What this means is that all new pieces of data are examined in terms of how they fit in with past data – what is consistent, what is different and what that means to our overall understanding of the evolving marketplace. To do this, we’ve had to shift some of the focus to re-analysing past data through different lenses versus just generating new data. This has also been helped by the fact that new analytical approaches applied to old data sets often yield new insights.

Marketing: What are your views on traditional marketing research versus emerging marketing research?

Almeida: Well this is a topic where any answer is going to sound very clichéd. So let me get a few patently obvious observations out of the way first. MR, or for that matter any field, has

to continuously evolve with the environment to stay relevant. Like many other industries, in MR, the forces driving change have largely been technological, social and economic.

We have newer ways of generating, collecting and analysing data. We have a better understanding of the science of consumer behaviour and that’s driving new research methodologies.

As markets have gotten more sophisticated with newer trade channels, modes of buying, newer communication/interactive forms and so on, there are more avenues to apply MR work.

So on the whole, MR has rightly had to evolve.

The real issue is the very poor amalgamation of traditional and emerging market research.

I specifically refer to the emerging/recently emerged practice areas such as social listening, behavioural economics, neurosciences and others which have not been fully integrated or made fully compatible with work from traditional MR – the case in point being the still long drawnout process of trying to create new unified media measurement metrics that merge traditional media GRPs with those for new-age digital media.

This is because, unlike many other industries, the emerging approaches have come from agencies/vendors not traditionally into MR (social media research, neurosciences and others).

This has created two distinct sets of players in the industry – those pushing the traditional approaches and those advocating the new ones – while what is really required is for both to be compatible. Perhaps a bit of multicompany collaboration or otherwise merger and acquisition activity in this space might be in the interest to the entire MR industry.

Marketing: What are some of the current research tools employed by Kellogg’s?

Almeida: 1. Demand space-driven segmentation which looks at the five Ws (what, when, where, with whom, why/why not). Segments created in this way often tend to be far more insightful than just clustering consumers or their needs.

2. Mix-modelling for both understanding category and brand dynamics as well optimising our spends/efforts.

3. Element-wise drivers’ analysis which looks at the different components that go into a product/proposition and quantifies their end impact on consumer appeal so one can optimise for the product experience and the cost.

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16/7/2014 3:11:42 PM

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14/7/2014 10:23:31 AM

FUELLING CREATIVITY WITH RESEARCH Research is in a state of change - driven predominantly by technology. But brands need to stay focused on how it can drive creativity. Mondelez’ Michael Chadwick writes.

Let me begin by stating the obvious.

Research right now is in a state of change – exciting change – driven predominantly by technology. And for those of us who use it to help build brands and drive businesses, that’s a great thing.

However, change tends to create a certain kind of conversation. New methodologies set the agenda. We’ve been presented with a shiny new box of toys, and there’s a temptation to spend all our time being dazzled by it.

That means that equally important conversations about why and how we use this new stuff may not be happening. And in many ways, these conversations are the essential ones – because if we lose sight of why we are researching, we might never figure out the best ways to use all the new techniques coming down the line.

Research as a brand-building tool is at such a crossroad. What kind of relationship should research and creativity have? Currently, research and creativity seem to have two kinds of relationships in the world of marketing, and these are polar opposites. You could look at creativity as a car. In the first relationship, some use research as fuel. In the other, others use it as a braking system.

The former is surely the more preferable.

No doubt creativity needs fuel, and the creative act can’t happen in isolation. Developments in both consumer understanding and also technological advances mean these inputs can be more meaningful. We now have more fuel and, crucially, we have better fuel.

Breakthroughs in understanding about how consumers make decisions have given us a clearer view on how to structure and interpret research. We know that us consumers are,

fundamentally, irrational beings and if we tell you that we are planning to purchase something, frankly you can’t trust us an inch. Behavioural economics has made great strides in showing us that apparently rational decisions are anything but. This may seem like a hindrance rather than a help.

But technology is here to help. Analysing physiological and even neurological responses helps us understand what consumers are thinking and feeling, not just what they are saying.

More powerfully, we can simply observe how consumers behave in real-time. That means we can set our goals and objectives more clearly. Best of all, it means we can be more agile: we can experiment and learn.

The problem is, if we don’t remember why we are doing all this, the sheer quantity of new methods, the voluminous flow of new data available, may trip us up. Worse still, it may become a replacement for creativity: when brands merely follow or mirror consumers rather than leading culture and establishing their own identity. We’ve never had more tools at our fingertips to do these things. The alliance between research and creativity can be more powerful than ever.

MARKETERS, DON’T FOLLOW YOUR CONSUMERS BLINDLY It’s time to lead the consumer instead, which is something your research can’t tell you how to do. Rezwana Manjur reports.

While market research is integral to the success of any marketer’s strategy, it doesn’t always paint the full picture.

“Sometimes the consumer doesn’t know what he (or she) wants. And if he doesn’t know what he wants, market research cannot give you the answer. Hence, in some cases product launches and campaigns should be executed completely by a marketer’s instinct.

Marketers still need to lead consumers,” said Mukesh Kumar, (pictured) head of marketing for the Maggi India light meal business for Nestlé India, at Marketing magazine’s recent Research Asia Interactive conference.

Kumar explains this is because traditionally, market research is a tool to understand consumers in their present situation and past experiences. It does not look forward. Kumar says today the best market research can only be done when paired with competitive analysis.

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While market research is the science of marketing, competitive analysis is the art which studies the business environment.

“Today both are extremely important, the thing is to hit the sweet spot. We need to map the competitor environment and keep an eye on

our competitor landscape. With e-commerce making a play, the competitive landscape has completely changed.”

Kumar also added that with rapid technological shifts, competitive analysis today is a task for everyone in the organisation.

Companies can no longer afford to limit the task to designated research teams. Those on the ground need to be just as equipped to understand the market and the competitive landscape.

Ultimately, this leads to the need for better talent in the organisation and the need to build talent with deep industry knowledge.

“Market research and analysis needs to be done with the right context in mind.

Your employee needs to be able to read and interpret the data and convey this to the teams to build the right tools needed for the evolution of the research methodologies. The key to success is constant evolution.”

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16/7/2014 3:12:36 PM

5 SIGNS YOUR MARKET RESEARCH LACKS DEPTH How to ensure your research isn’t wasteful. Relevance’s Amitabha Das writes.

While most marketers understand the importance of market research, if not done well, research may end up only yielding shallow insights which don’t help in decision-making.

It is understandable smaller companies often tend to avoid top quality research because of financial constraints. But it’s not only the smaller brands who are guilty of wasteful research.

In fact, the larger brands are more prone to undertaking research just for the sake of it, thereby wasting loads of money without getting decisive inputs. Here are some signs that your brand is doing the same: 1. You know the attributes, but not your brand’s DNA Through traditional research you can get attributes, but it cannot bring out a brand’s real DNA. Every brand has a distinct image and a differentiated profile in the minds of consumers, but traditional research fails to reveal them.

Research offers a brand insight about the different attributes it has, for example, innovation, quality, reliability, etc. However, if the research is shallow, all a brand will get is these attributes without getting a real picture of the brand. Also, trying to track brand attributes can be tricky.

If a respondent already has a good impression of a brand, there could be a “halo” effect when he or she answers questions about brand attributes. For example, if a consumer already perceives Volkswagen as a better brand than a Hyundai, it will show higher scores on most brand attributes.

2. Your brief to your communication agency is complicated and full of generic words A briefing to the communication agency is often long and loaded with data and graphs, but without clear cut indicators for the creative guys. A creative agency might receive words describing the product or service which actually do not help the team – for example, “spacious car” or “tasty potato chips”, which would be what typical research findings may offer. Get better insights – get your target audience to explain what they mean. To the middle-aged car buyer, for example, a “spacious” car might be one which allows enough space for kids to feel comfortable, while a younger buyer might take it to mean a “spacious” car which could fit a surf board. And the creative agency might actually have a whole different take on it as well.

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3. You can’t explain to your grandma why consumers buy your brand Some of the deepest things in life are actually very simple. If you can’t explain why consumers prefer your brand over competitors to your grandma, you have not understood the fundamentals of your brand’s DNA. So avoid explanations such as, “Our brand is seen as more tasty than D, but not as tasty as C, while consumers find it more crunchy than A, but less crunchy than B. And our flavour is not as good as A, B or D”.

You should be able to simplify it to the level for any layman to understand. Here’s an example: Consumers buy car Brand A because they find it ‘sporty’ and ‘attractively designed’ while a major challenge the brand faces, is in its perceived ‘quality’ due to some of its accessories having a ‘plastic look and feel’ – simple, to the point and yet a clear representation of consumer perceptions.

4. You are aware of the broad concepts, but not the words to communicate them Often the key insights are revealed by the research, but because they came from traditional closed-ended questions, it is impossible to find semantic associations with those words. If I want to communicate my brand of potato chips as being “convenient” what are the words I need to use? Research using open-ended questions might be able to reveal that the most used words for “convenient” are “practical” and “handy”, but not “always available” and “not heavy”.

To cite another example, unprompted responses allow us to understand subtle differences between semantic words used for one brand compared with another, even if the broad concept is the same. Mercedes and Peugeot are both perceived as brands with “attractive design”, but for the former, consumers use words such as “elegant” and “classy” while for the latter, they use words such as “designer” and “stylish”.

5. Your research springs no surprises Lastly, brand marketers often end up with a report on their table which, despite being detailed and exhaustive, fails to provide anything new and is hardly inspiring. The main reason for this is the researcher inadvertently ends up asking predictable questions, thereby generating predictable responses. After going through this

huge pile of data, you realise you probably knew more about your brand and category than what this brand equity study has provided.

Clearly, you are restricting your respondents to what you already know and not allowing them to open themselves up to what is in their minds.

So for the attributes you wish to find about, stay limited to the ones that you have pre-decided upon. This kind of research will always end up with expected results and bring in what is commonly known as “confirmation bias”.

Many marketers make the mistake of doing quantitative research when they should be doing qualitative research, or vice-versa. The ideal situation lies in the proper blend of both, which is what Relevance Tags ® methodology offers.

The qualitative aspect keeps room for surprises and allows fresh insights to emerge, while the quantitative aspect makes it numerical and statistically representative.

The bottom-line: Too many marketers are using market research without being able to extract the best out of it due to their lack of openness to newer approaches.

Traditional quantitative research cannot reveal deeper insights into consumer perceptions due to their close ended approach.

Most of these grey areas can now be eliminated, through the intelligent usage of open-ended questions, which adds an element of qualitative inputs to the robustness of quantitative research. This is precisely what Tags ® methodology aims to achieve, by bringing the best of both worlds together.

In the coming days, marketers will have access to more data than they can handle.

While it will allow them to understand the “where, when and who?” better than ever before, if they cannot complement that data with the “why?”, the overall insights will continue to lack depth and remain incomplete.

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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 CLIENT DIRECTOR F Global Advertising Agency F Responsible for International Brand Campaigns F Creative Client Facing Role Our client is a global leading branding consultancy that is looking to recruit a high calibre Senior Client Director to support the team in Singapore.

Reporting to the Managing Director the successful candidate will be responsible for developing and maintaining regional relationships with a core set of clients for the agency. You will also be managing and conceptualising brand development and campaigns across the region to meet the client’s objectives.

To qualify, individuals must possess: F minimum 10 years’ in an agency environment F a track record in driving highly successful Brand Campaigns for international clients F a background working within a Brand / Design consultancy F demonstrable skills in client acquisition and retention F i012 !* 11 !-++3,'! 2'-, ," .0#1#,2 2'-, 1)'**1 F &'%&*7 !0# 2'4# +'," ," ',j3#,!',% 1)'**1 Contact Richel Hidalgo on (65) 6854 5606 or email richel.hidalgo@ambition.com.sg quoting reference number RTH27647.

DIGITAL MARKETING TECHNOLOGY LEAD F Leading Global FMCG Business F Newly Created Regional Role F $180,000 SGD to $240,000 SGD Basic Salary Our client is one of the most prominent FMCG companies in the world and it is currently looking for a '%'2 * 0)#2',% #!&,-*-%7 # " 2- 13..-02 2&# 1' !'i! 31',#11 !0-11 ** ! 2#%-0'#1 ," product lines.

Reporting into the Digital Director, you will take sole responsibility for developing the complete strategy for marketing technology capabilities such as mobile, search, social, trading desk analytics, CRM and eCommerce. This role will support all brands across the business ensuring optimum performance and commercial results. To achieve this, the marketing technologist will need to be an advisory bridge to the in-country marketing teams, digital marketing teams, and technology teams.

To qualify, individuals must possess: F 12 to 15 years’ experience in digital F strong experience in building marketing technology strategies F experience within digital agencies and technology partners F web design and UX methodologies/ front end creative development tools F web development experience in technical management role is preferred Contact Matthew Gardner on (65) 6854 5633 or email matthew.gardner@ambition.com.sg quoting reference number MXG27631.

Data provided is for recruitment purposes only Business Licence Number: 200611680D. Licence Number: 10C5117.

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SENIOR APPOINTMENTS

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SENIOR APPOINTMENTS

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14/7/2014 5:22:09 PM

CAREERS

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CAREER PATH Yvette LimPagnoux Integrated marketing communications director The Coca-Cola Company

First job? Account executive at Leo Burnett Singapore.

First job in advertising/ marketing? Same as the above.

Best job? My current job,

of course! There are lots of challenges and opportunities that are associated with my role, which I greatly enjoy.

Perks of your current job?

It’s great to work with the brands I’m passionate about, while having the freedom to be creative and innovative. On top of that, I have the pleasure of working with a bunch of awesome happy folks.

Worst job? I won’t name names,

but the ad agency has since closed its doors. Enough said!

Marketing professionals you admire? There are many, but top

of mind is Sheryl Sandberg. As a woman, she is an inspiration in balancing corporate success with family life.

Best career advice you’ve been given? To succeed, do the

right thing, stand up for what you believe in and say it straight.

Why a career in marketing?

I believe it’s the perfect balance of art and science. Building brands is a passion that has kept me in the industry for 15 years.

If you weren’t in marketing, what would you be? Marketing

is the only career I’ve ever wanted, so I guess the next best thing would be a stay-at-home mum.

How do you wind down?

Though seemingly simple, cooking, baking and spending time with my family really allows me to wind down – especially with my husband and daughter.

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JOB SHUFFLE Amobee appointed president and COO Mark Strecker as its new CEO after Trevor Healy stepped down from the role. Strecker was last responsible for Amobee’s worldwide sales and operations, including management of its product and engineering teams, client management and service and support across all markets.

Healy will stay on for the next few months in an advisory role to ensure a smooth transition.

Social media agency We Are Social bolstered its senior management team in Asia, appointing Don Anderson as managing director in Singapore. Joining Anderson is Tuck Wai Yue and Julien Carsenti, who join as business director and group account director respectively. Simon Kemp, formerly managing director of We Are Social in Singapore, moved into the role of regional managing partner for Asia.

Dentsu Möbius appointed Michael Lisboa as creative director. He reports to the agency’s general manager Margery Lynn and works closely with existing creative director, Fredrik Englund. Lisboa was recently the creative director at Gate26 for nearly two years.

With more than 20 years of international experience, he has led user experience, integrated digital strategy and experiential design for brands such as Pepsi and Microsoft.

Leo Burnett appointed Clarence Chiew executive creative director of Singapore.

Meanwhile, Tim Green was

promoted to chief creative officer of Singapore and global creative director of SK-II. This comes on the back of the agency’s recent appointment of Nigel Tribe as head of strategy of Singapore and global planning director for SK-II as well as new business wins, including MBT, Skyscanner and Diageo Smirnoff.

Iris Worldwide Singapore appointed Ed Cheong its new creative director, reporting to Grant Hunter, regional creative director, and Craig Mapleston, managing director of iris Worldwide Singapore. He joins iris from DDB where he was creative director.

He starts in July. “Ed’s blend of storytelling, human insight and curiosity will be a perfect fit and accompaniment to the creative folks here on China Street,” Hunter said.

Maxus Singapore’s managing director Lena Goh left the agency at the beginning of June after just a year to head marketing for the Infocomm Development Authority.

Her role at Maxus was replaced

by Desh Balakrishnan, who was the executive director at Havas Media for more than five years. Balakrishnan reports to Ajit Varghese, Maxus’ CEO of APAC and Jon Thurlow, CEO of GroupM Singapore.

Adobe appointed Paul Robson president of the company’s Asia Pacific operations, replacing Craig Tegel. He is leaving the company after 17 years. Robson reports to Matt Thompson, executive vice-president of worldwide

field operations. He is based in Adobe’s Sydney headquarters, but will travel frequently to oversee its operations in Australasia, Southeast Asia, Korea, India and Greater China.

Omnicom Media Group appointed Pankaj Nayak director of business development, replacing Laura Gordon who is leaving the agency.

Nayak has been with Omnicom Media Group’s sister agency OMD for the past four years as regional business director. In his new role, he will provide strategic leadership to support new business development initiatives for Omnicom Media Group’s agencies and specialist business units.

OOH media firm JCDecaux Singapore appointed Evlyn Yang its deputy managing director.

She was formerly the assistant general manager at SMRT Media, SMRT Investments.

Before that she was general manager of Verita. She also worked at JCDecaux Singapore from 1996 to 2011 as general manager, leading the sales team.

Meanwhile, head of sales, Sabrina Tan, leaves the company after a 12-year tenure.

Havas Worldwide SEA promoted Victor Joseph ‘VJ’ Yamat to the role of managing director of healthcare operations for SEA to strengthen the agency’s growing health portfolio and business across the region. Previously the healthcare director of SEA, he was responsible in launching and nurturing Havas Life, the agency’s specialised healthcare practice.

Under his leadership, Havas’ health and wellness business in the region saw significant growth.

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LAST WORD

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CAN A CONNECTED WORLD SAVE US ALL? After losing my passport in Shanghai, I have a new found appreciation for the world of connectivity, writes Matt Eaton.

Bring on that “connected world” already.

I recently had one of my worst days in years. I wrote this editor’s note from Shanghai after I’d lost my passport and had to stay for 48 hours while I got a temporary one.

While it’s not the most ideal situation to sit down and write an editor’s letter, it seems the circumstances allowed for it.

I was there for the GSMA Mobile Asia Expo and spent two days hearing how connected devices and personal data will change the world as we know it.

It’s a concept I’ve been at pains to accept for some time.

Take the Fitbit, for example. I’ve been using it on and off for the past month and to be honest, I’ve struggled to maintain it.

I haven’t appreciated the bigger idea about how my data can help.

I’m a heavy Foursquare user, I also tweet a lot and use Facebook regularly, so my paranoia about being tracked is not at issue.

Using Fitbit requires some effort, not much, but you have to sync

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data, charge the battery, fill in some details, but most of all, remember to wear it.

My experience in Shanghai is clear evidence of how the concept of connectivity can change situations like the one I was in.

Passports are huge diplomatic paper trails.

The chip that is embedded into the document itself is useless. It’s not connected to me, apart from my holding it in my hands.

I can’t track it and I can’t monitor my travel behaviour, aside from the stamps on the pages.

I doubt personal items such as passports will remain static for long.

The world is evolving, personal items such as a toothbrush will detect oral health, a Fitbit will track your fitness and heart rate, and Google Glasses will monitor brainwaves.

For me, I think I’m about ready to embrace the possibilities of how a digitally connected world can help.

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