Marketing Magazine SG - Nov 2014

MARKETING MAGAZINE SINGAPORE EDITION

THE ART & SCIENCE OF CONNECTING WITH CONSUMERS

SINGAPORE

NOVEMBER 2014

marketing-interactive.com

NOVEMBER 2014

IT IS ALL ABOUT COLLABORATION AND BREAKING DOWN SILOS

S$5.90 INC GST

BUT IT'S A TASK EASIER SAID THAN DONE P32

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highly-customised MediaCorp’s

solutions fit our objectives and budget.

– Casey Teh, Managing Director, Simmons (SEA) Pte Ltd

MediaCorp’s

integrated solutions meet our needs, be it in media packages or content aggregation and creation.

– Anita Yeong, Head of Trading, Magnaglobal – Singapore

MediaCorp produces premium,

engages

original content that reaches out and

our customers.

– Yvonne Low, Senior Director of Marketing, McDonald’s

Accolades are significant.

But what our partners say is more important.

MediaCorp, TV Broadcaster of the Year 2014 - Marketing Magazine

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

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, Senior Account Manager trinac@marketing-interactive.com Joey Lau, Account Manager joeyl@marketing-interactive.com Jocelyn Ma, Account Manager jocelynm@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

Ask any marketer or agency lead what their biggest challenge is and the knee-jerk answer to that is always “talent shortage”.

But is this really the case? In fact, the past few years have meant a greater pool of talent available for marketers as they realise that their future marketing team could come from various sources – technologists, data scientists, and more. The issue then is not talent shortage.

The co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, David Packard, rightly said: “Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department.” As digital quickly forces marketers to that reality, this only highlights the urgent truth to this.

I was at a discussion with several senior marketers recently and someone, in pure frustration, asked: “How am I supposed to plan my marketing team for the next five years when I don’t even know what it should look like?” This was met with agreement across the room.

This begs the question: With the landscape rapidly shifting – can leaders put together the right team for the future?

This means massive significance for anyone on the agency side as well. How do current agency models fit into clients’ quickly changing teams and marketing processes? Are the old relationships and structures still relevant?

In one interview, Mondelēz’s Pete Mitchell opined: “Most agencies are stocked with the wrong kind of people they need for the next five years”, suggesting that we need to see more millennials in senior positions to overcome this problem.

Cathy Calhoun, chief client officer at Weber Shandwick said: “In communications you have to have part Madison Avenue marketing – part Hollywood entertainment and part Silicon Valley technology.”

On page 16, we discuss how that affects traditional agency client relationships.

It’s clear both companies and agencies are striving to find out what that dream team for the future needs to look like.

It’s far too early for anyone to say they’ve nailed the answer, but several companies are taking strides to close the gap. Philips, Mondelēz, OCBC and others are taking a hard look at their teams and coming up with whole new structures, placing data-based decisionmaking at their core. The latest one to join the trend is MasterCard. On page 32, you’ll read about its massive overhaul of its marketing with a data-driven approach.

Change is never quick or easy, but I hope this issue will bring you a step closer to your answer.

Enjoy the magazine.

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

Marketing is published 12 times per year by Lighthouse Independent Media Pte Ltd. Printed in Singapore on CTP process by Sun Rise Printing & Supplies Pte Ltd, 10 Admiralty Street, #06-20 North Link Building, Singapore 757695. Tel: (65) 6383 5290.

MICA (P) 180/03/2009. For subscriptions, contact circulations at +65 6423 0329 or email subscriptions@marketing-interactive.com. COPYRIGHT & REPRINTS: All material printed in Marketing is protected under the copyright act. All rights reserved.

No material may be reproduced in part or in whole without the prior written consent of the publisher and copyright holder. Permission may be requested through the Singapore office. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in Marketing are not necessarily the views of the publisher. Singapore: Lighthouse Independent Media Pte Ltd 100C Pasir Panjang Road, #05-01 See Hoy Chan Hub, Singapore 118519 198755 Tel: +65 6423 0329 Fax: +65 6423 0117 Hong Kong: Lighthouse Independent Media Ltd Unit A, 7/F, Wah Kit Commercial Building 302 Des Voeux Road Central, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong Tel: +852 2861 1882 Fax: +852 2861 1336 To subscribe to Marketing magazine, go to: www.marketing-interactive.com

Elizabeth Low Deputy Editor

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Photography: Teck Lim — Lumina Photography (www.animulstudio.com); Makeup & Hair: Michmakeover using Make Up For Ever & hair using Sebastian Professional – www.michmakeover.com

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

WHAT’S A MODERN DAY MARKETING TEAM LIKE?

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2 December 2014 InterContinental Singapore After a highly successful show last year The Futurist Live! conference is back for 2014. The marketing industry’s leading lights will be speaking about the issues they feel will be most relevant to marketers wanting to stay ahead of the game.

HEAR FROM THE FOLLOWING

To register, please visit www.marketing-interactive.com/futurist-live/sg/register or contact Czarina Solomon at czarinas@marketing-interactive.com or call +65 6423 0329, +65 8112 6351 Sam Ahmed Group head, marketing, Asia/Pacific MasterCard

Andrew Hipsley SVP & chief brand officer McDonald’s Asia, Pacific, Middle East, Africa

For sponsorship queries, please contact Che Winstrom at chew@marketing-interactive.com

ap arly pl Bi y rd til R l 1 at 4 es N o ov f S em $1 be 99 r

John Zeigler Chairman & CEO DDB Group Asia Pacific, India, Japan

For speaker or agenda queries, please contact Andrew Davy at andrewd@marketing-interactive.com

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CONTENTS FEA TU R ES 22 PROFILE: UNILEVER’S SUSANNE ARFELT Unilever Singapore’s head of marketing Susanne Arfelt talks to Elizabeth Low about the pains of going digital, client-agency relations and managing a demanding workforce.

32 FEATURE: WHAT NEW AGE MARKETING LOOKS LIKE New age marketing is all about collaboration and breaking down silos, but it’s a task easier said than done.

Here’s how MasterCard took a step in that direction. Rayana Pandey reports.

38 CREATIVITY MASTER REPORT Case studies from top brands on their creative brand strategies.

46 NEWS ANALYSIS: 7 REASONS WHY BIG AND SMALL AGENCY MERGERS FAIL Here are seven reasons why a merger between a big agency and a small one may fail. Apple Lam reports.

The co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, David Packard once said: “Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department.” While businesses understand the need to break down the silos in theory, achieving it in reality is still a herculean task. Here’s MasterCard’s step towards building a modern-day marketing team.

Page 32.

50 MAGAZINES OF THE YEAR Here are the industry’s top publications who have weathered the storm to come out on top – as voted by marketers.

OPINIONS

D E PA RT M E NT S

20 AD WATCH/WEB WATCH

4 NEWS

Dentsu Singapore’s Jatinder Sandhu loves Buick China’s road safety ad; while Havas Media’s Josh Gallagher highly rates the website from Volvo Trucks.

Eu Yan Sang appoints Wild Advertising & Marketing its creative agency; DBS Bank moves part of its business to R/GA; BreadTalk appoints Publicis for social media duties; APB Singapore moves its account to Starcom MediaVest; plus more.

30 OPINION: Media agencies: Own your audience, own your power What does the future hold for media agencies?

Starcom MediaVest Group’s Rajesh Mahtani gives his thoughts.

21 DIRECT MAIL CASE STUDY How a strategic direct mail campaign helped History Asia garner attention for its new series.

SCAN TO SUBSCRIBE!

22 21 KEY TAKEAWAYS: >> How data can sit in the marketing team of the future. >> What to look out for postmerger. >> Singapore’s top magazines.

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

Breaking traditions Traditional Chinese medicine brand Eu Yan Sang appointed Wild Advertising & Marketing as its creative agency. This comes as the brand looks to shift its position from a traditionally heritage brand to one which is integrated and relevant to younger consumers.

The appointment is for a year and Wild is tasked to provide strategic counsel, integrated creative services through-the-line, digital and social media strategies.

Banking on R/GA DBS Bank moved a part of its business to R/GA from DDB Group, Marketing understands.

While DDB remains the agency of record for DBS, R/GA has been appointed for part of DBS’ branding business. While DBS confirmed the news, it did not respond to queries on the size of the business. Both R/GA and DDB declined to comment.

A free ride Uber, the ride sharing service which set foot in Singapore in January 2013, recently ran a promotion called “free Uber” where customers were treated to two free rides from uberX or UberTAXI. The company said the campaign was to reward its existing customer and rider base. In October, all riders also received a 25% discount on all UberTAXI rides.

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A gentle touch Boutique agency Touch PR & Events has made new additions for its lifestyle clients. The first is with renowned Japanese patisserie Henri Charpentier which opened a 4,400 square foot dessert salon at Dempsey Hill in October.

The second is with shoes and accessories brand Jelly Bunny, which will open its first flagship store in Plaza Singapura in November. Touch also recently launched its new web portal.

Asking the right questions Should you be content with having two airbags in your new car or is having six airbags a necessity today? These are some of the questions Volkswagen Singapore, through its “You Can Do Better” campaign, wants to encourage car buyers to ask. The campaign kicked off at the end of July through an unbranded billboard at Tanglin Mall, which leads people to a similarly unbranded website, youcandobetter.sg.

A taste of the high life AsiaOne, the aggregator of local, regional and international news – from Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) – has entered into a content and sales partnership with LifestyleAsia.com. The partnership is set to enhance the luxury lifestyle content on AsiaOne. Readers of AsiaOne will have access to more news and inside stories of the exquisite high life. Through the new content partnership, readers can visit LifestyleAsia.com directly via AsiaOne’s landing page.

A good cause As part of its campaign for the Breast Cancer Foundation, DDB Group Singapore ran a campaign reminding women to check their breasts first thing in the morning.

Playing on a social media theme, the agency is making the logos of Facebook, Twitter or Instagram look like visuals of a breast selfexamination. This is for this year’s Breast Cancer Foundation theme – “Together We Are Stronger”.

Open for business Boutique agency Orbital Group is the creative agency for property portal OpenHouse for a period of two years. In addition, OpenHouse also appointed Right Hook Communications to manage its content strategy campaign.

OpenHouse is a newly launched property portal helmed by Peter Tay and Patricia Sum and the pair are looking to create a foothold with its innovative property matching features and user-centric technology.

Seeing Red Promoting the second season of TV show The Blacklist, AXN released a criminal mastermind named “Red” Reddington character onto the streets of Singapore. Currently, the Red of The Blacklist is played by the Emmy award-winning James Spader. The character was running around Singapore.

On the hunt Nanyang Technological University (NTU) is looking to appoint a panel of marketing and advertising agencies. The appointment is for one year from 15 November 2014 to 14 November 2015. There is also an option to extend on a yearly basis for two successive years. Agencies vying for the account need to have experience in developing and executing branding exercises for major organisations and corporations.

Power of pink Social shopping network Clozette showed its support for Breast Cancer Awareness month with its new campaign, Pink is Power.

The campaign ran with the tag line, “Stylish. Savvy. Connected.

Aware” and was launched across Clozette’s digital platforms to encourage Clozette shoppers to show the power of pink. The campaign ran alongside facts about breast cancer and was led by the ambassadors from Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines and Indonesia.

Helping the masses The Media Development Authority launched the Digital TV Assistance Scheme to help eligible lowincome households switch to digital TV. The scheme will be implemented alongside the progressive roll-out of MediaCorp’s digital TV network. The assistance scheme package includes a free digital TV set-top box, an indoor antenna and installation. Each eligible household is entitled to one assistance scheme package.

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Making someone smile The Singapore Kindness Movement partnered with MediaCorp’s OOH Media to launch this year’s Singapore Kindness Movement campaign – “A Nation of Kindness Starts with One”. “Mirror Mirror” is a creative concept used to convey this year’s Singapore Kindness Movement message: “If I can smile at myself, I can make someone smile today.”

About 120 OOH Media’s bus shelters have been utilised to showcase the campaign.

Having a good weekend Weekender, a local lifestyle free paper, and online publication, Mothership.sg, entered a contentsharing partnership across their print, digital and social media platforms. Mothership.sg now reproduces Weekender’s lifestyle articles on its website and social media platforms, while Weekender publishes mothership.sg’s community and lifestyle articles in its paper and website. Mothership. sg also appointed Weekender Group as its exclusive media representative to help market mothership.sg’s digital media solutions to advertisers.

Smelling the aroma Commuters passing by a 35-metre square wallscape advertisement at SBS Transit’s North East Line Dhoby Ghaut station were hit by a floral scent. The flowery scent, emitted from the wallscape, was part of an advertisement campaign launched with Unilever, with the help of Moove Media, to promote its latest range of comfort aromatherapy fabric conditioner. Apart from the scent, the wallscape advertisement also featured flashing LED lights.

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Getting smart Local telco StarHub launched a new advertising solution called smart targeting. Smart targeting leverages different sources of StarHub’s big data, including mobile contextual data and return-path data from two-way set-top boxes to create customer segmentation. Depending on the advertising objective of the brand, this allows StarHub to target or retarget consumers in various ways, such as across platforms in the digital space (mobile and online) or on TV only.

Hertz’s big challenge Hertz Asia launched a campaign to raise its profile among a newly targeted market – the tertiary students in Singapore. To engage young drivers, the brand launched Singapore’s first drive challenge called the Hertz Drive Challenge.

This was an inaugural collaboration with Campus Magazine which is a free-distribution tertiary student publication. The challenge saw five teams of tertiary students battling it out.

A big move Asia Pacific Breweries (APB) Singapore moved its account within the Publicis Groupe from ZenithOptimedia to Starcom MediaVest. This is part of a global media agency alignment, Rene de Monchy, head of marketing for Asia Pacific Breweries (Singapore), confirmed to Marketing.

According to de Monchy, APB will be progressively moving its full media duties in Singapore from ZenithOptimedia to Starcom MediaVest between September and December 2014.

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Saving the rhinos Singapore Zoo launched a rhinoceros conservation awareness campaign, titled Rhinos in Trouble: The Hornest Truth, to raise awareness about the plight of rhinoceroses in the wild. It worked closely with TRAFFIC Southeast Asia and Wildlife Conservation Society (Vietnam) to stamp out the illegal trade of rhino horns. The monthlong campaign encouraged visitors to Singapore Zoo to donate their nail clippings to symbolise their commitment to rhino conservation.

A makeover The Business Times (BT), the financial daily of Singapore Press Holdings, launched a major refresh of its newspaper, website and mobile apps. The new BT website carries breaking news and stories from the print edition.

BT’s iPad, iPhone and Android smartphone apps have also been refreshed with improved navigation and a new search feature. The refreshed look carries a new masthead, wider columns and more distinct fonts.

GeckoLife launches Social network GeckoLife, the brainchild of co-CEOs Rajeev Gupta and Ashish Trivedi, has been launched – claiming to be Asia’s first social network designed for both children and adults.

GeckoLife is aiming to grow its social presence in Singapore and expand into other markets across the Asia Pacific region, while continuing to evolve its product offering. The company is headquartered in Singapore with offices in Australia, India and the US.

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Reaching out A smart way to fly Low-fares carrier Jetstar Asia launched a new service that allows travellers to board using their smartphones. The mobile boarding pass, launched at the end of October, uses a two-dimensional barcode to allow passengers straight-to-gate departures. Jetstar Asia CEO Barathan Pasupathi said the mobile boarding pass was the latest investment in innovation from the carrier to make travel more convenient for customers.

Towering over OOH advertising company JCDecaux unveiled its new “Digital Towers” which are located at the arrival immigration halls within Terminal 1 of Singapore Changi Airport. Boasting a height of seven metres, the two towers offer high quality display through nine units of high definition digital screens. In addition, the digital towers come with programmable screen rotation, which can be co-ordinated with customised image reproduction.

Adding some Cred Content marketing agency King Content has partnered with content marketing platform NewsCred in Asia Pacific. The partnership leverages NewsCred’s comprehensive software and premium content with King Content’s content marketing strategy, custom content and amplification services. Through this, King Content can now offer its clients licensed content through NewsCred from more than 4,500 content providers, including reputed publishers such as The Huffington Post and The Economist.

Edinburgh-based brand Tens sunglasses appointed DFW Creative its PR agency as it plans to expand into Southeast Asia.

DFW Creative is overseeing the brand’s PR outreach in Singapore and is focused on helping it expand into markets within the region. Founded in the summer of 2014, the brand claims to have launched the second-most successful fashion campaign on crowdfunding site Indiegogo.com.

What’s normal?

American retailer Gap is bringing its global campaign to Singapore, questioning people what it means to “dress normally”. Launching on multiple marketing vehicles, Dress Normal asks individuals to shape their own authentic, personal style. “Finding your own version of ‘dress normal’ is an art – my normal is different from your normal, and that’s the essence of the campaign,” said Seth Farbman, Gap’s global chief marketing officer.

Managing Asia CNBC signed a regional sponsorship deal with Hitachi around the network’s Managing Asia: Asia Builders series. The campaign includes an event in Singapore and runs across CNBC’s TV and digital platforms.

In addition to the on-ground event, Hitachi’s sponsorship includes promos running on CNBC Asia Pacific and digital entitlements on CNBC.com along with a series of TVCs. These promos will showcase Hitachi’s innovations.

DiGi appoints Dragon Rouge DiGi Telecommunications appointed Dragon Rouge its branding agency. The work is being handled by Dragon Rouge’s Southeast Asia team, based in Singapore. Since opening for business in May, Dragon Rouge Singapore has picked up brand assignments with corporate, government and FMCG clients in Singapore and Malaysia. The firm also recently appointed Jordy Huisman as creative director for Southeast Asia and is continuing to expand its strategy and creative teams.

A healthy move After two years of mulling over advertising standards, the Singapore government released new guidelines detailing the standards of advertising imposed for children. These guidelines will kick in from January next year. F&B companies will only be allowed to promote products through marketing communications activities if products meet the “common nutrition criteria” which is a framework to help determine which products can be advertised based on nutritional content.

Making the switch MediaCorp and the Media Development Authority launched an integrated campaign for its new digital TV initiative called the Digital TV Switch-Over. Earlier, the MDA made an announcement on the launch of its Digital TV Assistance Scheme to help eligible low income households switch to digital TV. Created by Ren Partnership, the campaign goes across television, print, OOH, radio and digital.

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5 February 2015 Mandarin Orchard Singapore

ATTENTION SOUTHEAST ASIA Mob-Ex Awards 2015 is now open for entries Mob-Ex Awards is Southeast Asia’s premier event celebrating mobile excellence and recognising the crème de la crème across the mobile marketing ecosystem. If you’ve done some fantastic work in mobile marketing in SEA, Mob-Ex is the awards for you and your team to get recognised.

Start submitting your entries here www.marketing-interactive.com/mob-ex-awards/sea The deadline to enter is 27 November 2014. Entry fee: SGD 250 (excluding GST) per entry.

For questions regarding entry submission and attending the awards ceremony, you may contact: Jason Chua, +65 6423 0329, jasonc@marketing-interactive.com For questions regarding advertising and sponsorship, please contact: Che Winstrom, +65 6423 0329, chew@marketing-interactive.com

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Clipping its wings While Red Bull may not actually have given you wings upon consumption, it has now been forced to give consumers US$10 back for false advertising.

According to several news sites, the payout could also take the form of two Red Bull products.

This comes as the company agrees to pay more than US$13 million after settling a US class action lawsuit.

Asking the right questions Facebook will be making updates to news feed to show people more relevant ads. It will allow users to specify why they don’t want to see an ad, instead of just being able to hide an ad, as they were previously able to.

A new initiative New communications consultancy A House Called Alice, which was started by Waggener Edstrom executives Nick Meir and Simon Cliffe, bagged duties for charity foundation Dame Kelly Holmes Trust to advise on strategic communications. The agency is tasked to raise awareness of the trust and its work across the UK. It is working with brands to deliver projects across the UK, Europe and the US.

A special gift pack In conjunction with the Thadingyut festival, an annual event that observes the end of Buddhist Lent, Coca-Cola has designed a gift pack, with the help of its agency TODAY Ogilvy & Mather.

HOW MUCH DOES THAT COST?

NOT TO BE SNIFFED AT

Would you like garlic scents spritzed at you from a bus stop ad? We’re not sure we did, but this ad certainly scored points for novelty.

Disney launched an integrated publicity campaign for the movie The Hundred-Foot Journey.

Distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, the campaign ran on Clear Channel’s platform at bus stops, particularly ones close to “food meccas” in Singapore: Victoria Street, New Bridge Road and Holland Avenue, said a Clear Channel release.

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A custom-built casing placed at the side of the panel housed a diffuser that sprayed the scent periodically. Commuters could also push the button to release the scent on demand. Garlic was chosen over other food scents because of its unique smell, said Clear Channel.

The campaign also ran on digital channels. The creative agency was Bates CHI & Partners, while the media agency was m/SIX. The production cost was estimated at SG$2,700 per unit, excluding media cost.

Gaining the Edge Southeast Asian digital agency Edge Asia, under STW Group, acquired Vietnam-based agency Red Brand Builders. Founded in 2004 by Marc Gough, Red Brand Builders has clients such as Kimberly-Clark, Unilever, Big C, Nestlé, Masan and Vinamilk.

After joining Edge Asia, Red Brand Builders’ managing director Chris Elkin will lead Edge Asia’s Vietnam business.

A new push Reddit announced on its blog it had closed a new US$50 million round of outside funding. With the money, Reddit plans to hire more staff for product development, expand its community management team, build better moderation and community tools and work closely with third-party developers to expand mobile offerings. The fund will also be used to pay for its growing technical infrastructure.

Dentsu acquires Covario Dentsu Aegis Network acquired search and content marketing agency Covario. Covario has a standalone SEO software unit and is headquartered in California.

The firm has more than 140 professionals who provide paid and organic search, social media and content marketing agency services to global brands and direct marketing clients. Covario’s agency business will become part of Dentsu Aegis Network, and will transition towards operating as iProspect. (Pictured: Nigel Morris, CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network Americas and EMEA)

Hootsuite closes deal Social relationship platform Hootsuite closed a US$60 million deal in financing, and acquired social telephony firm Zeetl.

According to global media, the six-year-old firm is now estimated to be worth US$1 billion. It landed a US$165 million series B funding in August last year. The latest round of funding was led by a “large Boston-based asset manager”, said the company.

Arcade wins Vaseline duties Unilever appointed Arcade for digital marketing duties for its Vaseline Men brand in Indonesia.

The win comes following a three-way pitch for the Indonesia market. Tessa Mahendra Tamin, Unilever’s country media manager, said: “Arcade once more demonstrated obvious passion, commitment and an insightful approach that put them ahead of the pack. We’ve challenged Arcade to deliver new ground-breaking work for Vaseline Men in the digital space.”

A heartfelt apology Chris Cox, chief product officer of Facebook, has apologised for its “real name” policy. The apology comes after the social media giant was caught off guard by a backlash from San Francisco’s drag community where several prominent members were locked out of their accounts for not going by their legal names. Cox said Facebook would update its policy which would enable users to identify themselves by their preferred names.

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AUDIT WATCH

T3 MAGAZINE FOLDS Mindshare wins account Tesco Lotus, a leading retail business in Thailand, handed its overall media planning and buying business across online and offline to Mindshare Thailand. The win came after a pitching process that included a number of international agencies.

Mindshare supports Tesco Lotus in an ongoing conversation with customers across the agnostic media ecosystem of paid, owned and earned to ensure the company stays ahead of the competition.

A Mirriad of offerings Native in-video advertising firm Mirriad has partnered with Universal Music Group (UMG) and Havas to enable UMG to feature digital brand integration in select music videos. This will be done using Mirriad’s video technology.

In addition, Havas, through its Havas Media network, becomes the first global agency to partner with Mirriad and UMG for strategic native in-video advertising for key clients, including LVMH, Dish Network, LG and Coca-Cola.

A sweet deal International candy maker Mondelēz inked a global partnership with Google to push further into the online video realm. This new agreement is the company’s largest investment in digital media and is part of its strategy to invest more of its media spending in digital and online video. Globally, the company also committed to shifting 10% of its ad budgets to online video in 2014.

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Publishing house Playworks has decided to stop publishing T3 Singapore. The last issue for the magazine was issue 106, which was published in September 2014. In a statement, a spokesperson from the company told Marketing it “has decided at this point to pivot its business and focus its business in the digital space”. The magazine ran monthly issues and covered topics

Wego switches onto TV Travel search site Wego has developed its first television and online video campaign. The campaign was initially launched in Indonesia and is now expected to be extended to its other core markets. The campaign consists of a series of ads that are set to run across television and YouTube. This is an extension of Wego’s investment to engage with travellers for efficient travel plans.

Creating awareness Ericsson partnered with CNN International for an integrated advertising campaign to promote Ericsson’s brand awareness among global upscale audiences.

The creative production for the advertising spot, billboards, cobranded promotions and online branding, will be developed by Turner Commercial Productions.

from the latest mobiles to sports and cars. The magazine also underwent a revamp in 2011 to provide readers with sharper visuals and insightful content. According to the publisher, the magazine had a circulation of 25,000. The magazine was not audited. Last year, the company also shut its digital entertainment magazine Playworks. The magazine was fi rst launched in 2000.

All settled Samsung concluded its global marketing review by handing the account to a roster of Publicis agencies. According to reports, incumbent creative agency Leo Burnett has bagged the account once again. The company also added another Publicis agency BBH and independent agency Wieden+Kennedy to the roster.

Starcom MediaVest has been retained for media duties, extending its grip on the business to about seven years.

Adding on IPG Mediabrands, the media investment arm of Interpublic Group, agreed to acquire Turkish social media agency Promoqube.

Promoqube was founded in 2010

by Korhan Kurt and Özgür Alaz and provides marketing solutions for brands on social platforms. Its clients include Johnson & Johnson, General Electric, Bridgestone and Is Bankasi. The company will continue to operate from its current location in Istanbul and will remain a separate entity.

Rallying against terrorism Social media is a powerful tool of communication and now it’s being used to fight terror by Muslims globally. Muslims are rallying together on social media using the hashtag #NotInMyName to shout out to the world that ISIS is not a representation of their religious views. The campaign, launched on 10 September, is being driven by British organisation Active Change Foundation.

Giving a Yelp American reviews site Yelp. com debuted in Hong Kong in traditional Chinese and English.

Hong Kong is the third location in Asia where the company has established its site. Unlike in six of the company’s most developed markets such as the US and Canada, ad spaces are not available on the Hong Kong site.

CORRECTION With regards to September’s issue which carried our feature Out of Home Media of the Year, Marketing Magazine would like to clarify that Mediatech Services is the exclusive media marketing partner of Cinema Advertising for all Shaw Cinemas. A profile of Mediatech in the top 10 rankings can be found on Marketing-Interactive.com.

With regards to our Snapped column in the October issue, the people pictured in picture 2 of The Media Shop’s event were Cindy Low, APAC Marketing, Vormetric, Inc; Christine Chong, program marketing Manager, APJ, FireEye,Inc and Jessica Toh, co-founder / regional business director, The Media Shop.

Marketing apologises for the errors.

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11/11/2014 5:35:36 PM

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

1 Campaign Future You Brief The brand campaign challenges Singaporeans to be “future ready” before they meet their future “older selves” and realise they have not prepared themselves for old age. The campaign rides on the back of a recent survey by Nielsen with young adults in Singapore between the ages of 18 to 29 where there is an overwhelming pessimism about financial preparation and retirement needs.

Client

NTUC Income

Creative

BBH Asia Pacific

Media

OMD Asia Pacific

1

2 Campaign Own Now Brief The campaign features models and young influencers from across Asia bringing the “Own Now” idea to life.

The campaign launched in Malaysia and Indonesia with a 15-second TVC. It will also roll out in the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Singapore across channels, including online, OOH, TVC and print in the coming weeks.

Client

Zalora

Creative

BBH Asia Pacific

Media

ZenithOptimedia

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

3 Campaign Dare To Be Somebody Brief The campaign has been created to build and launch a distinctive brand image for the University of South Australia. Through the campaign, the institute aims to create awareness and drive student enrolments. The campaign runs in Singapore on OOH, online, Spotify and mobile platforms.

Client

University of South Australia and M2 Academy

Creative

Wild Advertising & Marketing

Media

MediaCom

3

4 Campaign Dress Normal Brief Through the “Dress Normal” campaign, Gap asks individuals to shape their own authentic personal style. The print advertisements carry tag lines such as “dress like no one’s watching” and “let your actions speak louder than your clothes”. A 360 marketing matrix across print, outdoor, TV, digital, social, mobile and BTL initiatives have been rolled out for the campaign. The campaign also consists of a series of commercials that will air on TV, in stores and online.

4

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Client

Gap

Creative

Wieden+Kennedy

Media

In-house

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

N OVE M BE R 2 01 4 M ARKE TI N G 1 1

10/11/2014 8:26:23 PM

CNNGo_210mmx280mm_MarketingMag_OP.pdf

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5:16 PM

NEWS ANALYSIS

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SINGAPORE AUTHORITIES TIE DOWN GUIDELINES ON FOOD MARKETING TO KIDS Marketers looking to reach children under 12 will require a nutrition compliance certificate.

More here on the guidelines that will kick in by next year. Rezwana Manjur reports.

The move is expected to have a major impact on marketers.

After two years of mulling over advertising standards, the government has released new guidelines detailing the standards of advertising imposed for children. These guidelines will kick in from January next year, where food and beverage products companies will only be allowed to promote products through marketing communications activities if the products meet the “common nutrition criteria”.

The common nutrition criteria is a framework to help food manufacturers determine which food and beverage products can be advertised to children based on nutrition content. The criteria applies to both packaged food and food services. Advertisers wishing to promote food and beverage products primarily targeted at children aged 12 years and below will need to complete the nutrition criteria compliance certificate and provide the media owner with the certificate.

For any food or beverage marketing communication not accompanied by a duly completed certificate, media owners should assume the product does not meet the common nutrition criteria.

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Meanwhile, food and beverage marketing communications primarily targeted at children in all media will be assessed using the following criteria: Placement – whether the key target audience of the medium is children. For example, a TV channel that only broadcasts children’s programmes or a TV channel that broadcasts children’s programmes in specific time belts.

There should also not be any fixed outdoor advertising within 50 metres of a primary school.

Advertising content – whether advertising tools and techniques used are designed to appeal specifically to children. Examples would include the use of licensed characters or toys; use of interactive games or contests; and overall creative execution such as the use of language and visuals that are directed primarily at children.

The guidelines were developed by a publicprivate partnership consortium comprising stakeholders from MOH, HPB, ASAS, a council of the Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE), Singapore Manufacturing Federation (SMF), Food Industry Asia (FIA) as well as

representatives from media and advertising industries.

ASAS will also be conducting workshops in November to provide training for key stakeholders such as brand owners, media owners, media compliance officers, creative and media agencies.

If advertisers are found not to be keeping in line with the prescribed guidelines, ASAS will first ask them to amend the advertisement.

Subsequently, ASAS will work with media owners to withhold the advertising space. ASAS will also take steps to name and shame the advertisers if these criteria are not met.

ASAS also urges advertisers to keep in mind that marketing communications for food and beverage products primarily addressed to children should not imply that children are likely to be ridiculed, inferior to others, less popular, disloyal or have let someone down if they or their family do not use the advertised product.

The products should also not urge children to buy the food or beverage product, or persuade others to buy the products for them, via “high pressure” and “hard sell” techniques.

“Words or the tones adopted in the advertisement should not cajole, pressure or bully children or their parents into buying the food or beverage product,” said ASAS in the guidelines. The ads are also urged not to feature prices with words such as “only” or “just”, which implies a level of affordability.

Meanwhile, popular personalities or celebrities (live or animated) well-known among children must also not suggest that consumption of the product would enable children to resemble an admired figure or role model.

They must also not suggest the nonconsumption of the product would imply the children are not being loyal to the figure or role.

However, popular personalities or celebrities may present factual and relevant statements about nutrition and health.

This follows a major move sweeping across the globe at this point.This move is expected to have a major impact on the way marketers operate.

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11/11/2014 5:37:04 PM

NEWS ANALYSIS

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IS THE AOR MODEL OBSOLETE? In an age where data and therefore digital is increasingly running the show, is the traditional AOR model redundant? Here are the challenges it faces. Elizabeth Low writes.

In with the new: Can brands and agencies work on a solely project-basis?

There has been enough said of the data age. With the rapid uptake of data-driven marketing and the role digital is playing in marketing, the marketing profession has seen a major upheaval in the way it is run.

Major brands and firms are placing data centres right smack in the middle of their processes, building their own data and analytics teams in-house – of which play a key part in informing their next marketing moves. The likes of OCBC, Lenovo, Philips, IBM, StarHub and more have already taken this path.

What this also means is that it places vital

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information back in the hands of the marketer.

How has this changed the traditional clientagency relationship? Are agencies offering what marketers really need?

A recent interview with Pete Mitchell, global media innovations director for Mondelēz, seemed to indicate a gap. Speaking on the company’s goals to take on more real-time, data-driven approaches, Mitchell said this was an area larger agencies seemed to struggle to do adequately.

While praising legacy creative agencies for their ability to execute longer form work, Mitchell

said there remained a gap for agencies who can do both long and short-form work. The creative agencies tend to do great work for TV, but are falling behind when it comes to the likes of realtime marketing.

This is an area big agencies are struggling with, and what social media, digital or media agencies with creative arms are doing better, according to Mitchell.

Most agencies are stocked with the wrong kind of people they need for the next five years.

“It is full of people that have been doing this job and have an allegiance to doing so for the

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10/11/2014 8:51:14 PM

OUT NOW.

Published by Lighthouse Independent Media Pte Ltd, 100C Pasir Panjang Rd, #05-01 See Hoy Chan Hub Singapore 118519 Tel: +65 6423 0329 Fax: +65 6423 0117

www.lighthouse-media.com

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NEWS ANALYSIS

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same way that they have for the past 50 years – (taking) a highly protectionist approach – (that is thinking) TV first; working on a production margin and award-winning work that tends to be made for TV,” he said.

“These tend to be longer form work and lend themselves to a more campaign-style of execution.”

He cites one great recent example of such work being Johnnie Walker Blue’s campaign with Jude Law. (Johnnie Walker recently shot a short film with Jude Law and co-star Giancarlo Giannini in a handcrafted boat, filmed in the British Virgin Islands. The film was released online and done

by Anomaly out of New York.) “Legacy agencies such as JWT and Ogilvy & Mather are great at this (longer form work),” he points out.

Pointing out Mondelēz’s data-driven direction, much like the likes of Philips has recently taken, Mitchell opined then that agencies need to be able to work more on a project basis instead of campaigns.

“In fact, we don’t need agencies of record.

Brands should be able to work with agencies on a project basis and look for agencies in terms of what they are good at. Agencies need to be more specialised. We should be stepping away from the agency of record model.

“We should also be more comfortable with working with agencies who may work on competitors. They do that all the time anyway.”

Is the concept of AORs overrated?

Obviously the view throws into question the need for the classic client-agency relationship, which in recent years has seen a rapid shortening as clients are quick to call pitches for a new partner.

Susanne Arfelt, head of marketing for Unilever Singapore, staunchly disagrees with that view. “Brands are like people, it takes time to get to know them. If we continuously change agencies, there will be little to no consistency in the look and feel of the communication,” she said.

“Agency relationships take a long time to build and I believe the greatest work comes out once the client and agency have tried a couple of campaigns, learned how they can optimise and continuously improve through honest conversations.”

Also, through the AOR model, the client can tie the agency to the success of the brand, which ultimately assures the agency has to focus on business results, and not merely go for the creative “wow” effect.

Richard Bleasdale, of marketing consultancy Roth Observatory International, says that an entirely project-based approach has its merits.

“Agencies can pick and choose the things

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“This is an area big agencies are struggling with, and what social media, digital or media agencies with creative arms are doing better.”

Pete Mitchell – global media innovations director, Mondelēz.

they do and don’t want to work on. It will allow them to stay fresher. Work in more focused and concentrated bursts. Give their people more interesting variety. Marketers, too, can pick and choose which agencies work on what. It will keep the agencies on their toes. They’ll get more fresh perspectives and ideas,” Bleasdale said.

While the idea looks to be driven by a desire for better work, the theory may sound better than the practice, he adds.

Challenges for marketers and agencies In reality, this would mean massive hurdles for both marketers and agencies.

“For marketers, not only would they be facing increases in average agency fees, they would also face significant increases in agency management time to bring new agencies up to speed on their brands/business, and to manage and integrate the now wider group of projectbased agencies they work with,” he said.

On the agency side, uncertainty of income would make it very difficult to retain talent. “You just wouldn’t know if you can pay them. In fact, to some extent, there would be some challenge knowing if you could pay any expenses at all,” he said.

The implication is that agencies would have to significantly increase their fees to cover the income uncertainty. This is commonly seen today in the different rate cards agencies offer for retained versus project-based work.

From the company’s research, Bleasdale said the three critical factors of trust, cooperation and commitment were needed for great work.

“You can again see why purely projectbased marketer/agency relationships will struggle to establish the conditions where great relationships and so better work can be produced,” he said.

He conceded some global marketers, for example, Coca-Cola, are experimenting with a “halfway house”, where a roster of multiple specialist agencies is appointed as agencies of record. These cover areas such as shopper marketing, activation, digital and more – and the agencies work on a rotating project basis to execute campaigns.

“Coke has implemented a unique remuneration methodology for these relationships. Agencies are paid on a project

basis, with the fee determined based on the project’s strategic importance, the quality of agency talent working on it and the results of the campaign,” he said.

However, to date, there has been no formal feedback from either Coke or its rostered agencies on the success or otherwise of this model, he said.

Agencies need to catch up While it’s easy to see the difficulties a solely project-based model will throw up, it’s clear the agency model needs to play catch-up quickly Frank Bauer, CEO of JWT Singapore, agrees that communications will be more dataintelligence driven, with direct engagements with consumers through various touch-points.

This would call for more flexible partners to execute. However, he added that a brand idea needs to be consistent and evolve over time, and that would call for a trusted partner.

He also added that on the part of agencies, there is a need to specialise. Larger groups may, however, decide to create a family of brand and engagement specialists.

Bauer admits that digital fragmentation has changed the role of agencies. “PR and media agencies expanded their role as experts on ‘new media’, and digital agencies gained power and clout.

“The ad agency’s added value and role got a little blurred, and sometimes questioned, and brand owners ended up giving out the same briefing to a whole bunch of agencies.

“It is common practice for a company to have a brand campaign by their ‘agency of record’ running at the same time as a digital campaign by a different agency and a social media push by another.”

But there remains a fresh opportunity for agencies that look at brands strategically to rekindle a relationship by partnering with the C-suite.

While the debate goes on about how to reach that, agencies need to quickly find their footing in the forever changing media landscape.

“Agencies that can focus on digital development without trying to become a ‘digital agency’ and leave everything else behind, will become the go-to partner of CEOs,” Bauer said.

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10/11/2014 8:44:39 PM

001111000111100001000100010101011011110111101011000101010101000110101010101010

101011101010001011001101011010101010101110001010101011010111101010010111000101

010101101011110101110010101010110101111010101011101000110110100010101011011100

011110001111000010001101101010101010101001001101011010101010100101010101010111

101010111110100011111010001110101011111010001111100111000111010101111101000111

110110101111010101001111001000111100100011110001110101010111010101010001111000 HOTEL ACCOMMODATION

25,138 111100001111000111100001111000111100001110110001000101010110111101111010110001

010101000110101010110101010100011111001110100011010101010101010101110101011010 WALT DISNEY PICTURES

6,503 101100110010101010101011101010001011001101011010101010101110001010101011010111

101010010111000101010101101011110101110010101010110101111010101011101000110110

111010001101101

100010101011011100011110001111000010001101101010101010101001001101011010101010

100101010101010111101010111110100011111010001110101011111010001111100111000111

011010101010100

010101111101000111110110101111010101001111001000111100100011110001110101010111

111101000111100

010101010001111000111100001111000111100001111000111100001110110001000101010110

111101111010110001010101000110101010110101010100011111001110100011010101010101

111100001000100

IN JUST ONE 010101110101011010101100110101010001001111000111100001000100010101011011110111

101011010101000100111100011110000100010001010101101111011110101100010101010101

101111010110001 DAY, HOW MANY

010010010001100010011100100101101100010011110100101011110101011011001111010110

010101010101010

010110001001111010010101111111000111100001110011001010011010110101010101001010 CANON SINGAPOREANS

CAMERAS LG 101010101111101000111100111001111000111100110101100101010001100011000001110110

101011001010110

WERE INTERESTED 2,194 MOBILE 101010010011000100110101110010011100001110110111110100001000100010101011011110 8,720 111101011000101010101000110101010101010101011101010001011001101011010101010101

010110110101010 IN YOUR BRAND?*

110001010101011010111101010010111000101010101101011110101110010101010110101111

111000111101010

010101011101000110110100010101011011100011110001111000010001101101010101010101

001001101011010101010100101010101010111101010111110100011111010001110101011111

110100010101011

010001111100111000111010101111101000111110110101111010101001111001000111100100

010010101010101

011110001110101010111010101010001111000111100001111000111100001111000111100001 TOYOTA

3,155 110110001000101010110111101111010110001010101000110101010110101010100011111001

110100011010101010101010101110101011010101100110010101010101011101010001011001

101011010101010101110001010101011010111101010010111000101010101101011110101110 BMW 010101010110101111010101011101000110110100010101011011100011110001111000010001 1,523

101101010101010101001001101011010101010100101010101010111101010111110100011111

010001110101011111010001111100111000111010101111101000111110110101111010101001 SAMSUNG TV 111001000111100100011110001110101010111010101010001111000111100001111000111100 SAMSUNG GALAXY 5,632

001111000111100001110110001000101010110111101111010110001010101000110101010110 49,804

101010100011111001110100011010101010101010101110101011010101100110101010001001

111000111100001000100010101011011110111101011010101000100111100011110000100010

001010101101111011110101100010101010101010010010001100010011100100101101100010

011110100101011110101011011001111010110010110001001111010010101111111000111100 SINGAPORE AIRLINES 001110011001010011010110101010101001010101010101111101000111100111001111000111 1,809

100110101100101010001100011000001110110101010010011000100110101110010111001001 ENTERTAINMENT/MOVIES

144,082 110101110010011101001110000111011011111010_

Imagine the data we have on your audience for an entire month!

Exponential provides advertising intelligence that turns data into action enabling smarter marketing decisions. We combine media, data and technology to help advertisers find their perfect audience and reach them across display, video and mobile media at a global scale. +65 6831 5293 | www.exponential.com | scott.lee@exponential.com *Data shown above indicates the number of unique users across the eX Advertising Intelligence Platform who were interested in that category or brand in Singapore in a single day in August 2014.

Exponential Divisions

OPINION: AD WATCH/WEB WATCH

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Jatinder Sandhu Creative director Dentsu Singapore

AD WATCH HOT: Road Safety Buick

NOT: Who Is She? campaign

My favourite ad of the year so far is for Buick in China.

It’s a road safety ad, which conveys its message simply and elegantly, while managing to evoke powerful emotions.

It involves the victim of a road traffic accident holding up the very sign that was ignored by a driver, moments before the accident took place.

As a pure concept, it’s a beautifully powerful and fresh way to convey a road safety message. It even works without really having to read the line, “signs are there for a reason” (which as a copywriter, I can greatly appreciate). But just to make sure you’re knocked for six, it also tells us who the victim is and how the accident happened, which nicely adds an extra layer of emotion. The mood created through the art direction’s saturated effect also poignantly frames the victim and the sign, making sure the image isn’t one to be easily forgotten.

My least favourite ad is the mysterious, “Who Is She?” campaign for Julie’s biscuits. First, I have nothing against the campaign’s intentions of corporate social responsibility. My issues are with the unnecessary enigmatic messaging. The headline asks, “Who Is She?” From the visual we assume it’s the nice old lady.

But then the sub-heading suddenly tells us, “she is … me”. Now we’re not sure who’s talking to us, and what they’re trying to get at. The copy then goes on to explain the narrator is in fact the helper Firdaus. Before he further informs us that, “she is the best of me”. We’re then asked, “who is the best of you?”

Before being told to “share your story today”. Unfortunately for such a well-meaning campaign, it’s grammatically confusing with multiple layers of messaging that just leaves the viewer with no idea of who is who, or what they’re expected to do.

Josh Gallagher Regional strategy director Havas Media

WEB WATCH HOT: perspectivesofprogress.com

NOT: coca-cola.com.sg

I have to admit, I’m a big fan of a website that leads with an experience.

The handsomely designed website from Volvo trucks does just that.

With a clean and intuitive layout, it smartly partners with Bing and National Geographic to provide visitors with some well thought out content, videos and panoramic stills. Once hooked you can’t help but tab across to delve into more content, this time about the product, feeding a new generation of web users who like to binge on good content, all the while falling deeper into the brand story. I must be frank though, I couldn’t help thinking I wanted a bit more. With only three videos across a whole region I felt like it could have been attacked a lot harder. If there is more coming then I think it’s smart … give me a reason to go back! Even better, invite me to layer on my own experience. Until next time, perhaps.

I’m not sure whether I am part of some big joke or not, but the Coke websites – global and local – are not up to scratch. Now Coke, everything else that you do is very classy, and I’m sure the website is low on the list for a beverage company, but this isn’t bringing me any happiness. To start off with, speed matters on the web. As fast is getting faster, I’m not sure I even have the patience for this website.

The layout is not appealing, period. Interestingly when you start getting into the activations (click on “Explore the world of Ahh” as part of the extremely successful Share a Coke campaign) it’s a totally different story – a happy and inquisitive experience awaits! The local sites are another step down. Do yourself a favour, get a Coke with a meal, sit down and head to the Republic of Singapore site.

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DIRECT MAIL CASE STUDY

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A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS A strategic direct mail campaign helped History Asia garner attention for its new series.

History Asia used beautiful photography to hook its audience.

History Asia’s first original reality competition series, Photo Face-Off, took on a different approach as part of its marketing efforts. In a bid to capture the essence of the series and to introduce it to the media, clients and affiliates in Asia, A+E Networks demonstrated how a picture truly speaks a thousand words.

The series, which premiered on 23 September 2014 at 10.30pm, featured five amateur photographers from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam competing for the assignment of a lifetime – an all-expenses paid trip to New York City to photograph some of the world’s biggest stars as well as a trip to the Canon Photo Clinic in Japan.

In each episode, the amateur photographers and professional photographer, Justin Mott, battled through three challenges – speed, theme and extreme, in their home countries.

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In the finale, the amateur photographers met in Taiwan and competed against each other for the final prize, with Mott as one of the judges.

Leading up to the premiere, postcards of photographs by Mott and the amateur photographers were delivered to the media, clients and affiliates. The photo postcards were delivered twice a week from the week of 11 August to the week of 1 September to introduce the series and the photographers with their photographs.

Each photo postcard consisted of a description of the series or the photographers and a call-to-action to tune in to the premiere of Photo Face-Off on History Channel. A hashtag #PhotoFaceOff was also created and included in the photo postcards to encourage social media mentions.

There were many positive comments from the media, clients and affiliates, with some even requesting for high-res versions of the photos to

use as computer screen savers, to reprint or to republish. The total regional PR value garnered for Photo Face-Off to date is more than US$1.2 million.

THE MAIL Objective: To garner attention for its reality show.

Idea: Postcards with photography by amateur photographers.

Results: PR value of more than US$1.2 million achieved.

Hazel Yap Director of marketing communications A+E Networks Asia.

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Art Direction: Shahrom Kamarulzaman & Fauzie Rasid; Photography: Teck Lim — Lumina Photography (www.animulstudio.com); Makeup & Hair: Michmakeover using Make Up For Ever & hair using Sebastian Professional – www.michmakeover.com

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10/11/2014 8:46:52 PM

PROFILE

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Susanne Arfelt Rajamand, head of marketing for Unilever Singapore, has worn several different hats at Unilever – moving from global roles to regional ones before taking on her current role for Singapore. A Unilever stalwart, she started in the company as a management trainee before moving through various roles. She now oversees 40 brands for Unilever.

Arfelt is in her second year in her current role in leading Unilever’s marketing for Singapore, and is a familiar face in the industry. Upon taking on her role, she has been active in pushing for change within the organisation. One of the first things she changed was the overall structure – creating a category structure for different product groups – ice-cream, skin cleansing and others.

Another move she pushed for was to make a deep dive into consumer

The next biggest issue for Arfelt is managing a workforce. While she loves working with her local team, one issue with the local workforce is its low patience.

“The expectations on both monetary and title progression is very high. Managing that has definitely been a whole new challenge to me because my previous management experience has been with a more international workforce, with people from Southeast Asia or Europe, where there is not as much mobility as with the other markets – there’s a lot more focus on learning.”

Managing that expectation is one of her biggest challenges, she said.

How does she do it then? Arfelt laughs and says: “For that you have to ask them. It’s not easy.”

“THERE IS A TENDENCY OF OVER PROMISING ON PITCHES AND IT JUST DOES NOT BRING ANYTHING GOOD BECAUSE IN THE END, IF YOU’RE IN IT FOR A LONG RUN AND IF YOU’VE BEEN A LITTLE TOO OPTIMISTIC, IT IS GOING TO TURN OUT NEGATIVELY.” analytics with the team’s media agency Mindshare to change how it made its media investments. This saw Unilever moving heavily into experiential marketing in Singapore.

For example, the past few years saw Unilever execute several major experiential marketing moves, such as its Magnum Pleasure stores and events, Ben & Jerry’s Chunk Fest as well as scented out-of-home ads with SMRT for its Comfort Aromatherapy fabric conditioner.

“We went from a heavy spend in traditional media (TV especially) to a more balanced spend with new platforms (digital) for certain brands, but there was little impact for others. Going ahead we are looking at less dramatic changes, but instead focus on further optimisation of current channel usage in line with where the consumers move their media consumption,” she says.

While Unilever has been actively pushing into new digital, mobile marketing and e-commerce, Arfelt raises the issue of how difficult digital initiatives are to measure. Stakeholder management (buy-in) is a big issue in pushing for digital because of a lack of a consistent and reliable means of tracking. While measuring effectiveness (cost-per-click, etc) is possible; seeing how it measures up against competitors is not possible.

“It’s really an auditing issue. We’ve really taken a significant leap into digital which I strongly feel is the right thing to do. But it also means that usual tracking that Unilever runs by is not in place to really cover and understand how we are spending the money,” Arfelt admits.

“Justifying that is challenging in a market where you don’t have the similar analytics as you have in more traditional media.”

It is more of an auditing issue, where it is hard to track what competitors are doing in the space, unlike in traditional media.

“So there is definitely more of a challenge of arguing why we are going down that journey and if that is the right thing to do.”

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The next thing we talk about is her take on agency relations. Catch Arfelt in any conference or meeting and she’s always surrounded by agency executives looking to talk to her. What makes an agency stand out in a pitch, I ask.

The answer is simple. “Firstly, try to understand my business and try to understand my business problem rather than coming in with a tailorcut pitch which in most cases they do. Secondly, they should come in with a clear point of view on how they can be different. What I find is most agencies just tell you what they have done,” she says.

“And be honest there is a tendency of over promising on pitches and it just does not bring anything good because in the end, if you’re in it for a long run and if you’ve been a little too optimistic, it is going to turn out negatively.”

That said, she describes herself as believing in long-term agency relations. In another interview on whether the idea of having agencies of record was still relevant, Arfelt argued: “Brands are like people, it takes time to get to know them. If we continuously change agencies, there will be little to no consistency in the look and feel of the communication.

“Agency relationships take a long time to build and I believe the greatest work comes out once the client and agency have tried a couple of campaigns, learned how they can optimise and continuously improve through honest conversations.”

She notes how her current PR agency GolinHarris impressed her on a pitch for Toni&Guy. “They spent a lot of resources listening to our consumers and brought a lot of great ideas to the table. That impressed me that they really tried to take the business challenge.

“I believe very much in trusting and empowering other people.”

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11/11/2014 5:38:27 PM

45 Ubi Road 1, #03-03A, Singapore 408696

NEWS ANALYSIS

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WHY THE MARKETING INDUSTRY NEEDS MORE FEMALE LEADERS Nearly 70% of entry-level recruits in the marketing, PR and advertising industries are women. But APAC regional heads of the top five PR agencies are all men. Why? Edelman’s Cornelia Kunze writes.

Is gender diversity more than a moral requirement?

Every year, millions of young women leave Asia’s first-class business schools and universities to enter the job market. When it comes to education in both emerging and developed markets, there is almost no gender gap, apart from perhaps a few typically maledominated subjects such as engineering.

In our profession – marketing, public relations and advertising – we face a large imbalance that favours females in entry level positions. About 70% of our entry level new recruits are women, in both this part of the world and elsewhere. We should have a considerable advantage and opportunity to have equally high female representation at the

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top. And we could content ourselves with much better quotas than other sectors: 50% of our middle-management and 25% of our senior management are women.

However, the APAC regional heads of the top five PR agencies are all men. What happens to the many job starters who do not make it through to the senior-management level?

How does the change take place in the talent pool from junior to senior level? What can we as business leaders do to retain and promote them? It’s a rocky road towards increasing the percentage of women in leadership in Asia Pacific. But ignoring this path is not an option.

When coming to Asia as a female senior

executive born and bred in a thoroughly Western culture, my understanding of the gender equality topic was primarily fuelled from reading about diversity in newspapers and discussing the merits of a gender quota over dinner conversations.

The operation I came from in Germany had 70% female employees and more than 50% in senior leadership were women. We had flexible working hours and part-time work was a perfectly acceptable option. And I was the female executive at the top – so no reason to worry. Or so I thought – my bad. Diversity, and especially gender diversity, is often just classified as a moral requirement rather than

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11/11/2014 5:42:27 PM

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The opening is the first in a major ini a ve to launch the Hotel Jen brand in nine key gateway ci es across Asia Pacific by March 2015.

Greg Dogan, president and CEO of Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, said: “Hotel Jen Orchardgateway Singapore marks a significant milestone in our journey to redefine the hotel experience for today’s new genera on of travellers. Singapore is one of Asia’s leading travel and tourism des na ons and a hub-market for the region, making it a prime loca on in which to showcase our new ‘Jen’ concept for the very first me.”

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An authen c ‘informed and friendly’ service style will allow our guests to discover Singapore’s unique local culture without unnecessary fuss.”

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The launch of Hotel Jen Orchardgateway Singapore is the first of this major ini a ve to rebrand many of Shangri-La’s exis ng Traders Hotels across the region.

In the first phase of the Hotel Jen roll-out, the Traders Hotels in Singapore, Hong Kong, Brisbane, Penang, Johor Bahru, Manila, Maldives, Beijing and Shenyang will be rebranded to Hotel Jen from September 2014 to March 2015.

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11/11/2014 6:16:44 PM

NEWS ANALYSIS

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a business imperative. An active change to promote gender diversity is not supposed to marry easily with the primacy of meritocracy.

It might have been Sheryl Sandberg’s book, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, that shook up the female corporate world and made the topic the talk of the town and the boardroom.

Translated into numerous languages, business people all over the world are waking up to a new topic of conversation. While most big multinationals have representatives and programmes for “diversity and inclusion” in place, the effectiveness of those programmes is often compromised by the realities – by deeply rooted traditions, perceptions and current behaviours seemingly set in stone.

When I accepted the role of a steering committee member of Edelman’s GWEN (global women executive network) I wanted to find out what made the Asia Pacific region different. What barriers are we facing as we search for solutions to meet our firm’s global goal for 50% female leadership, set by Richard Edelman himself.

Overall, there is a serious gender gap in most parts of Asia Pacific, which means that women are underrepresented in the labour force, political decision-making, access to health and education. According to the World Economic Forum Gender Report 2013 which ranks 136 countries, India (101), Japan (105) and South Korea (111) rank among the lowest in this region. The Philippines (fifth) is one bright spot, not only leading the way in Asia Pacific, but also leaving behind Britain, the US and France.

There is no lack of research: most studies have found that few women are in leading positions, apart from some encouraging examples and figures in China, Vietnam and the Philippines. The proportion of women in the workforce decreases at each successive level of the hierarchy.

According to a report, Japanese women make up 49% of university graduates and 45% of entry level jobs – but less than 1% of CEO positions. Almost half of women employees leave their jobs voluntarily because of family commitments, mid-career or at senior levels. In South Korea a very small proportion of women move into middle management, and in India only about 30% of educated women even work in junior-level positions.

The Singapore Board Diversity report 2013 states that less than 5% of chairman and CEO positions are held by women – while 58% of listed companies have all-male boards. When it comes to our industry, there are not a lot of specific facts available, except for Australia.

And they are not encouraging: according to

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“It’s a rocky road towards increasing the percentage of women in leadership in Asia Pacific. But ignoring this path is not an option.”

Cornelia Kunze – vice-chair, Edelman Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa.

new figures from Graduate Careers Australia, the public relations industry holds the dubious honour of having the highest gender wage disparity of any industry: “Women represent just a quarter of staff in creative departments” (in Australia) according to The Communications Council’s latest Salary Survey, with just 13.5% of senior creative positions occupied by females.

The general trend is not a lot more encouraging in Europe, however, it is more acute in Asia. With generally lower proportions of women in the labour force, it becomes more difficult to feed the pipeline of leaders in Asia.

Companies are recommended to address the cultural and organisational issues to crack the gender gap, while not being equipped to solve them.

The primary role of women as wives, mothers and caretakers is deeply ingrained in cultures. Whereas women in China carry the burden of taking care of the elderly, the influence of traditional families in India includes but doesn’t stop at the choice of a husband.

The choice of the future employer, the pace of the career, the intensity of working hours, the daily commute, the required work-related travel – all of this can be subject to family decisions and put the female employee between a rock and a hard place.

The commonly discussed glass ceiling effect is not only a result of family pressure or a deliberate choice to move into a slower lane with her career. Even though it is denied by some female executives who have made it to the top, the old boys’ network is alive and kicking, hand-in-hand with a solid bureaucracy.

The Economist has created its own glassceiling index[1], according to which, the places “not to be” for a woman are South Korea and Japan. When it comes to moving up the career ladder, the traditional gender role doesn’t sync with the image of a career woman – defined by everybody else except the women themselves.

The current reality of wage gaps is not helpful, either. There is a global consensus that 35% think that women earn less than men in the same job profile.

Societal change is slowly under way. In most countries, women are increasingly educated, marry later and have fewer children. This goes

hand-in-hand with their own aspiration to pursue an adequate career and offer themselves to the job market, under conditions that allow them to “have it all” – family and career.

Back to advertising, public relations and creative agencies specifically: young graduates joining our agencies are most likely urban, career-oriented, want to be part of an exciting, global and ever-changing sector and are primarily female. Are they less affected by the cultural context they live in? No – they are part of it as much as anyone else in the world.

We as employers have to acknowledge that as much as diversity fuels innovation and great business performance, it requires our acceptance of our people’s needs and wants.

And it requires flexibility to make it work for everybody. Our firm has decided to set up a specific programme towards more female representation in senior leadership.

I love to be a part of making this happen in the Asia context and I meet many women and men who do the same in their businesses.

We also need to share responsibility with our clients. The large majority of our senior communications clients in Southeast Asia on the PR side, for example, are female. In order for this to be reflected in agencies, clients need to agree that it is manageable to have shared job roles and flexible work hours for clientfacing agency staff.

In Australia, we are beginning to see major clients add gender diversity policies as a procurement requirement in contract negotiations with suppliers. A “male champions of change programme” by the communications sector was set up and members have already agreed and signed up to this pledge.

What everybody can do is very specific: more flexible HR policies, maternity and paternity leave, working from home, flexible working hours and child care facilities – these have proven successful and are on the rise. This is in addition to role models, mentoring and a clear-cut career path for women. Companies, in which male senior executives – like ours – champion and truly support change can lead the way.

The writer is Cornelia Kunze, vice-chair of Edelman Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa.

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7/10/2014 6:30:02 PM

NEWS ANALYSIS

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MEDIA AGENCIES: OWN YOUR AUDIENCE, OWN YOUR POWER Starcom MediaVest Group’s Rajesh Mahtani talks about what media agencies need for their next step of evolution.

Media agencies have always made various investments to differentiate themselves, stand out and gain competitive advantage. They have invested in research to gain unique access to knowledge. They have invested in tools that drive productivity and create proprietary approaches for tactical planning. And they have invested in creating planning techniques which help planners formulate cracking ideas and drive innovation.

We have in our arsenal unique approaches, techniques and knowledge, but lack ownership of something tangible - something which clients would want to purchase and be willing to pay top dollar for. So what is it exactly? I believe tomorrow will be about media agencies owning audiences.

Audiences that clients want. Audiences that we can sell to clients.

A competitive edge would naturally come with greater ownership of audiences – ready cross-screen audience pools that can be packaged with products and ultimately, drive better business results for clients. I believe all media agencies will move in this direction – to own audience pools and we will, over the next few years, see three trends take shape.

1. Tech acquisitions Agencies are getting into a lot of partnerships these days. Common ones would be content and distribution partnerships, as well as data and technology partnerships that provide access to unique data and services. All that agencies have dabbled in so far are driven by research which enables the development of unique planning frameworks and approaches that help planners think, organise and ideate – therefore, delivering innovation and breakthrough campaigns. This is complemented by proprietary tools developed by agencies that boost productivity, optimisation and decision-making capabilities to develop unique perspectives in client deliverables. All in the name of gaining a competitive advantage in this dynamic landscape. We all want (to be the only one) to provide the best to our clients – unique and proprietary knowledge, insights and solutions. Partnerships are great. But we

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might need to start buying to have greater freedom and control over the development and packaging of products as well as the audience.

Just as how we’ve seen media companies or networks acquire other agencies and research firms, it may soon apply to tech companies and vice versa.

2. ‘True’ product development With such acquisitions in place, greater ownership enables the generation of unique solutions to provide clients with off-the-shelf products that are sold consistently and marketed in different ways. Admittedly, agencies have never exactly been in the data and technology business, in the sense that we do not own high-end technology. Often, what is referred to as a product is a service or solution bespoke to a specific client. The definition of a product is something that is produced in a standardised fashion for all customers and marketed at large, while configured to individual segments as necessary.

3. Ownership of audience pools across multi-screens Owned audience pools are generated from agencies’ practice of programmatic buying.

Agencies’ access to unique data points through

programmatic buying bolsters inventory from ad exchanges with a layer of audience filter that results in a unique pool of audiences that can be sold to clients. These audiences are now primarily found attached in the banner space. However, as media becomes increasingly digitised – from television to print and radio – audiences will pool across media as everything will eventually be served in the digital space and connected to IP addresses. And more importantly, all media inventory will be sold in ad exchanges as they become digitised. Digitisation has also increased addressability and complements even the offline space. For example, consumers who read e-copies of newspapers will enable marketers to study their responses to ads. Through the inventory of collected data, we can then better understand behaviours with the various audience identifiers in place.

In the near future, I have confidence we’ll eventually be able to accurately identify whether it is the same person across different mediums, even with different cookies. This is where partnerships and perhaps, acquisitions, would come into play in expediting the process.

The writer is Rajesh Mahtani, head of strategy and growth for Southeast Asia, Starcom MediaVest Group.

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11/11/2014 6:54:32 PM

28 NOVEMBER 2014, 9AM FOUR SEASONS HOTEL SINGAPORE B2B marketing is no longer the ‘poor cousin’ of B2C marketing. Hence, we’re bringing to you our inaugural B2B marketing forum.

Ruth Rowan Chief marketing officer for Asia, Middle East and Africa BT Global Services

Rashish Pandey Director, marketing, Asia Pacific Cisco

Lynn Huang Freeman Senior director of marketing & strategy, APAC Honeywell Scanning & Mobility

Adelina Peltea Vice president of marketing TradeGecko

Eric Chong Senior director channel marketing, APAC Trend Micro

Colin Foo Director, marketing communications Volvo Construction Equipment

KP Unnikrishnan Marketing director, Asia Pacific & Japan Palo Alto Networks

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11/11/2014 6:09:38 PM

FEATURE: BIG DATA AND MARKETING

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IT IS ALL ABOUT COLLABORATION AND BREAKING DOWN SILOS BUT IT'S A TASK EASIER SAID THAN DONE. HERE'S HOW MASTERCARD TOOK A STEP IN THAT DIRECTION. RAYANA PANDEY REPORTS.

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11/11/2014 7:12:21 PM

FEATURE: BIG DATA AND MARKETING

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11/11/2014 7:12:41 PM

FEATURE: BIG DATA AND MARKETING

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The co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, David Packard once said: “Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department.” The way digital is shaping the reality for businesses now, it only reinforces what he said.

Driven from the top, an organisation needs to break down the silos to be truly customercentric. Conversely, as the pressures of ROI and accountability increase, marketing needs to step out of its comfort zone and collaborate with other functions across the business.

While businesses understand the need to break down the silos in theory, achieving it in reality is still a herculean task. Big global brands have already taken a step in this direction, such as the likes of P&G and Mondelēz who have been bringing about the organisational changes required for a modern-day marketing team.

MasterCard is another example. The financial services corporation recently launched its data and analytics-driven platform called Priceless Engine. It enables the company to track trends as they happen and collaborate with merchants to tailor their offers to consumers based on those trends, all as much as possible in real time.

I sat down with Sam Ahmed, senior vicepresident and group head of marketing for Asia Pacific at MasterCard, to ask what went on behind the scenes to launch this platform. Not just any other launch, Priceless Engine required the company to make fundamental changes to its cross-functional workings – a change Ahmed says is irreversible.

“It is the new way of working for the marketing department.”

The discussion for Priceless Engine started sometime in November last year and what triggered it was a few things. The issuers, or MasterCard’s partner banks, were talking more and more about digital marketing, but through the lens of driving business and not just advertising.

At the same time, MasterCard conducted digital landscape research about who was doing a good job in this area, from which it learnt that the best brands weren’t doing great digital advertising. They were driving business through digital and social. The conversation internally centred around how to come up with a system which helped everyone in the ecosystem: the issuer, the technology teams and the merchants.

After a discussion with Raja Rajamannar, chief marketing officer of MasterCard, it was decided APAC would take the lead. The numbers also made perfect sense. E-commerce growth in the region is growing at a staggering 30%, the internet population in Asia stands at about

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1.3 billion with nearly 11.5 million being added to it on average every month.

TAKING THE ORGANISATION ALONG There were various teams that needed to be on board, Ahmed explains, beginning with the global digital and technology teams. Priceless Engine is made up of 20 different tech platforms.

“There was no way we could have done that alone. The marketing team collaborated with them to get the project going.”

An important priority was to link this initiative to business and drive transactions.

A key learning for the marketing team was that the digital marketing language isn’t suited for business.

“Here is an example. Previously, we would walk into the room ecstatic with the 5% engagement rate we got from a certain campaign. To a business person, 5% of anything is not worth their time.” There was a need, therefore, to change the metrics and language.

And finally, the global accounts team, which leads big accounts in terms of sales and service. “Their belief in this has been incredible.

They saw from their end that this was a big discussion in this area and they really backed us."

“We have now interacted with over 38 issuers across APAC and without their help, we wouldn’t have got it done.”

This, according to Ahmed, is the first time MasterCard has had to rewire cross-functional workings to this extent.

“In marketing we have found over the last few years that you cannot succeed without the cross functional teams aligning because without it, you will have a great advert, but nothing else.

This rewiring is what helped us with the launch of Priceless Engine.”

IDENTIFYING THE RIGHT SKILLS One of the learnings the team had early on was the job couldn’t have been done by itself alone.

Therefore, it appointed one digital agency

“It is the new way of working for the marketing department.”

Sam Ahmed – SVP, group head of marketing, APAC, MasterCard.

It came up with dashboards and metrics to inspire the business people, but before that the marketing team interviewed the likes of Vicky Bindra, president of Asia Pacific and global accounts for MasterCard Worldwide, and key presidents in the region, including Eddie Grobler, division president of Australasia for MasterCard.

“And they helped us shape the key metrics they wanted us to drive and one of them was click-through transactions,” Ahmed says.

The objective of the business was simple.

Digital advertising should drive consumers to a purchase action and not an engagement action. “This meant we had to rewire things,” he says.

The third function involved was the market development team which liaises with the merchants. Historically, the two teams spoke for a few weeks, developed a campaign and then spoke to the issuers and the whole process would take weeks. But with Priceless Engine, the conversations need to be far more frequent and in some cases, almost instant.

“Some campaigns needed answers within 12 hours. That’s a new culture – feeding back, getting sign-offs with sometimes four to five people and legal. That has enabled us to move fast with the merchants,” Ahmed says.

across the region, for the first time. This meant it now had a partner that it could scale the work with.

Together with TBWA\’s Digital Arts Network, it looked at specific resources it needed. This included digital strategists, data analytics experts, data scientists and content producers.

Internally, it also hired people from different areas. Another big learning for the company was that there was no extensive experience in this area, according to Ahmed.

It’s really hard to source for the right people in this area. So, if you are looking for someone with 10 years of experience to make you feel comfortable, it’s just not there.

So, what’s the solution to this? “You need to judge people on their runway ability; that has been my learning. Do they have the ability to take this to the next level, even though they may not be doing it currently?” he says.

Over the next three years, MasterCard has a resource plan in place to hire across these new roles, including that of a community manager to act as the link between digital and media.

“It took us a few years to start hiring digital specialists and then we started hiring media people. And now we realise it’s time to mesh them and, hence, the need for community managers,” he says.

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FEATURE: BIG DATA AND MARKETING

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Another important learning is that such talent is typically in the age group of 25-30 and along with digital, they have had business experience as well. And if they have had regional experience, it really adds to their credentials, according to Ahmed.

THE DAY-TO-DAY RUNNING OF THE ENGINE The regional team meets twice a day. In the case of the ongoing campaign with Justin Timberlake, for example, the team meets at 10am. This team includes the digital strategists, content producer, analyst experts and the marketing team together with the agencies – the media agency, the digital agency and often Facebook as well.

The team distils three key things: • Insights into current trends.

• How is the content produced doing across all the platforms.

• What the next steps are.

They then have joint calls with all markets – India, Japan, Hong Kong and Australia in this case. All four engines then get on a call again

“Previously, we would walk into the room ecstatic with the 5% engagement rate we got from a certain campaign. To a business person, 5% of anything is not worth their time.”

Sam Ahmed – SVP, group head of marketing, APAC, MasterCard.

in the afternoon to share what they have learnt and raise questions or concerns. “This helps us pick up learnings from one market and apply it to others if needed. What it also enables is giving marketers an option to raise their hands and discuss challenges they are facing in their market and not give up,” Ahmed says.

The business teams also get involved at a regular interval. “What we found that it’s best to involve business in a week or two. Too much if it can be overwhelming, but if campaigns need, we approach them almost instantly.”

Also, the way the marketing team operates internally – how often it meets and updates – has changed. As Ahmed puts it, the operating model the team has built will change six months down the line.

“We have a lot of learning yet to happen and when it does, the model will change or evolve.”

And iterative learning is crucial to the newage marketing teams. "For marketing to be able to raise their hands and say we don’t know all the answers, but we will get better, and for the business to let marketing run this way is a huge shift," he adds.

“10 years ago that would mean 'losing face' as a marketer, if you said you’re trying something that won’t last,” Ahmed says laughing.

From now until the end of the year, MasterCard will roll Priceless Engine out through the Priceless Surprises platform to drive transaction velocity. This will be issuer agnostic, that is, for all of MasterCard’s partner banks.

In 2015, it will start to work with specific issuers and merchants on specific campaigns using this technology depending on their business needs and priorities.

MASTERCARD LAUNCHES PRICELESS ENGINE MasterCard recently announced the launch of its Priceless Engine – a new innovative platform for marketing that allows the brand to provide its bank partners with deep insights that will subsequently help them deliver the right offers to their customers at the right time.

Specifically through leveraging its depth of analytics, MasterCard will assist banks – through a four-part process – in understanding consumer sentiment and trends based on social conversations; track

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engagement and transactions on campaigns to translate these findings into meaningful feedback; create and share content across borders to increase scale; and, finally, analyse data in real time.

Sam Ahmed, senior vice-president and group head of marketing for Asia Pacific at MasterCard, said: “Innovation is crucial to staying relevant in this swiftly evolving digital age, and the MasterCard Priceless Engine will be the cornerstone in the payments ecosystem, connecting issuers, merchants and consumers.

“As MasterCard research shows, the transaction is where social and digital engagement happens, and having the right offers, the right data, the right assets, and the right content at the right time will create a behaviour change with the consumer.”

Ahmed added that with the rapid and exponential growth in social media, “digital marketing can no longer be just about communication or engagement”.

He further noted that with Priceless Engine, MasterCard now possesses the “ability to drive brand differentiation and significant revenue growth for [its] partners”.

To ensure the Priceless Engine has global scale and reach, MasterCard will be working closely with key partners in the social media space, including Facebook, giving consumers in the region unprecedented access to the most relevant offers.

MasterCard also plans to triple its investment in digital marketing in the Asia Pacific region over the next three years, as part of its continued commitment to working with banks and merchants to understand and match consumer needs and wants.

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10/11/2014 6:56:25 PM

FEATURE: BIG DATA AND MARKETING

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1.3 BILLION REASONS WHY YOU CAN’T IGNORE DIGITAL Three big trends are reshaping how consumers interact with brands and, while they are hardly any secret, the point businesses often miss is that digital is not a marketing tool; it is essentially the new way for businesses to operate or run the risk of losing out.

Speakers at the MasterCard symposium on digital and social held in Sydney reiterated this issue.

Here is a brief overview of these three changes: The zero moment of truth Historically, the first step for brands was to create stimulus or awareness of the product which led to the first moment of truth – purchase – and eventually, the second moment of truth – consumers experiencing the product.

Now, a crucial step has emerged before the first moment, called the zero moment of truth. It’s when after being made aware of the product, the consumer searches the product online and seeks reviews and referrals before making the decision to purchase it.

“Brands need to be prepared for this moment. If you and your marketing teams are only creating that stimulus, you are helping some other businesses, not yours,” said Taru Jain, founder of Maxential.

The network effect Social media has given rise to the tremendous influence a consumer has online. Before you know it, a message has been amplified multiple folds – a reach which even paid media can never offer (or at least not without a hefty spend). Brands need to recognise this, especially in the Asia Pacific region where internet penetration, and therefore uptake of social media, is unprecedented.

The ability to target the right audience at the right time Technology such as programmatic buying has now enabled brands to target a very specific audience in real time. With the right kind of content, brands stand a chance to garner the attention of their audience almost instantly. An agile approach to marketing messages and campaigns, therefore, can move the needle really quickly as far as business objectives are concerned.

“And if brands don’t get this right with the right kind of content, they can easily be

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labelled as spam,” said Sam Ahmed, senior vice-president and group head of marketing for Asia Pacific at MasterCard.

So, the question arises: why go digital now?

As Jain pointed out: “In the markets that many of you operate (referring to Asia Pacific), that are your major growth areas, and source of revenue, 1.3 billion people are using the internet.”

And that number is only growing. Every month nearly 11.5 million new users are coming online.

“It is not a new or emerging media. It is fully emerged, so if you are still toying with the idea of digital, this is how much opportunity you lose out every month,” he said.

And what are the consumers doing online?

They are shopping – e-commerce is growing

at a staggering 30% in APAC. Lastly, the world’s most social media active population is Asia Pacific. “As a business leader, and not just a marketer, your job has changed fundamentally. The time to wait has gone.

The time to act is upon us,” Jain said.

Therefore, there are three crucial things businesses need to prepare for and they are precision targeting, creating compelling content and investing in analytics.

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FIND OUT FROM THE “2014 AGENCY RANKINGS & STRATEGY TOOLKIT” RESEARCH REPORTS: •

Creative services

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Digital marketing

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Media buying/planning

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Social media marketing

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Public relations

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Mobile marketing

•

Brand consultancies

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Search/SEO marketing

•

Event marketing

•

CRM/loyalty marketing

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Direct marketing

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Market research

Now available in the Marketing Research Centre www.marketing-interactive.com/research

Marketing Research provides peer intelligence on marketers’ strategy development journey through syndicated reports. In addition to its suite of syndicated reports, Marketing Research also provides specialised customised research services to leading companies.

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CREATIVITY IS THE INDUSTRY’S KEY CURRENCY. BUT IT’S ALWAYS EASIER AS A CONCEPT THAN IT IS IN EXECUTION. MARKETING LOOKS AT THESE ORGANISATIONS’ BEST CREATIVE STRATEGIES, AND HOW THESE PULLED IN THE RESULTS THEY NEEDED IN THE CREATIVITY MASTER REPORT.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY:

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HOW TO GET CREATIVE – WHEN YOU’RE NOT Creativity is the industry’s key currency – here’s how to make sure you don’t run out.

Rezwana Manjur writes.

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While the marketing landscape keeps changing, the demand for creativity remains unabated across all companies.

In an interview with Leo Burnett Worldwide’s Mark Tutssel, Marketing asked if creativity could be nurtured. No, is his take.

“I think great creativity is something you either have or you don’t,” said the chief creative officer. However, he added that certain skills could be learned over the years. While, the debate of “nature versus nurture” in the creative field remains ongoing, here are some quick tips to rejuvenate your tired Friday mind.

GET TIRED An article on Fast Company says that being tired can actually work in your favour because this is when your brain filters lesser information and you are more distracted. Unrelated issues crop up in your mind and that can sometimes result in the unexpected birth of creativity.

A study by Scientific American also echoes the notion that distraction is not always bad.

“Insight problems involve thinking outside the box. This is where susceptibility to ‘distraction’ can be of benefit. At off-peak times we are less focused, and may consider a broader range of information. This wider scope gives us access to more alternatives and diverse interpretations, thus fostering innovation and insight.”

The article by Fast Company also stated the period of coming out of sleep (yes, when you are still a little groggy and tired) called the hypnopompic state is when surrealist painter Salvador Dalí was known to churn out his famous works.

“Creativity and innovation come from human interactions and collaboration. The lone genius that develops an idea doesn’t exist or perhaps didn’t really exist.”

Michael Held – director of design, Steelcase

MODERATE NOISE Before you crank up the stereo, read this.

According to a study, “Is noise always bad? Exploring the effects of ambient noise on creative cognition”, published in the Journal of Consumer Research, various levels of noise while working affect creativity in different ways.

The study, which was also later published on The Atlantic in 2012, said that while a high level of noise (85 decibels) may cause a great deal of distraction, absolute silence (50 decibels) can

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be just as overwhelming. A moderate level of noise, however, is expected to distract people without significantly affecting the extent of processing.

Next time you’re stuck, try heading down to the nearest cafe.

BE BLUE Well don’t start crying at your desks now folks, but do surround yourself with the colour blue.

A 2009 study by the University of British Columbia asked the question: What colour most improves brain performance and receptivity to advertising, red or blue? The findings showed that both colours can. However, while red is the most effective at enhancing our attention to detail, blue is best at boosting our ability to think creatively.

The colour blue was also closely associated with openness, peace and tranquility which made the participants take more risks, said the study.

MAKE SOME FRIENDS AND GET OUT OF THE OFFICE This should come as no surprise as we are all in the people business – but if you are one of those brooding Mad Men-type of creative directors, you should stop right now.

“Creativity and innovation come from human interactions and collaboration. The lone genius that develops an idea doesn’t exist or perhaps didn’t really exist,” Steelcase’s director of design Michael Held said in an earlier interview with Marketing.

Meanwhile, Erick Rosa, ECD of Lowe + Partners, also added that movies and conversations with his three-year-old son definitely contributed to his creative process. Rosa also added that as often as possible he likes to take the creative team to brainstorm outside of the office – to a café or eatery.

Similarly, when asked how he induced creativity, Grey Group Kuala Lumpur’s group executive creative director David Sin said: “Take a walk, get out of the office, have a conversation with someone unrelated to the project I’m working on. The spontaneous responses from people are usually surprising. You could look at a problem from another lens and come up with something totally unexpected.”

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CREATING A NEW BRAND IDENTITY

In 2010, Universal Networks International (UNI) rebranded the Hallmark Channel as DIVA Universal as part of an effort to give the portfolio in Asia a cohesive, united look and feel that was distinctively NBCUniversal. So why, just four years later in July 2014, did DIVA launch a whole new look and tag line?

We caught up with Natalie Gee, creative director and head of production for Universal Networks International, to discuss the refresh and provide valuable insight into the project’s creative process.

“DIVA is the leading channel for women in Asia but, as we all know, this is a tough business with heavy competition for the female spend,” says Gee, a 25-year veteran of the media business.

“Where did we look first? We looked very closely at the competitive set – from messaging and brand look and feel – to the Pantone of the colour palette. We wanted our new look and voice to stand out from the crowd.”

The creative team had to be careful in crafting and refining the new brand identity: a new-look DIVA that was relatable, modern, contemporary and connected to a younger female audience.

It had a large task on its hands – to make sure its new look would, according to Gee, “retain and reinvigorate loyal viewers while attracting new subscribers comprised of a younger female audience that would drive a 20-44-year-old demographic, leading to viewership growth and improved revenue streams”.

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“We wanted our makeover to turn heads and be the talk of the town.”

Gee and the team – in collaboration with UNI’s central marketing team – developed the refreshed channel over three months, combining many meetings, many late nights, lots of coffee and lots of research. Their key areas of focus were refining DIVA’s vision and brand values, creating a unique positioning, powerful tag line, new look and – most importantly – solidifying a connection with the audience.

This rebranding was also underpinned by extensive research. The team utilised findings from the commissioned “High Heeled Warriors” research – a unique psychographic study of women across Southeast Asia that uncovers the new choices women are making as they redefine their identity in a contemporary context.

“We took an in-depth look at what motivates the contemporary Asian woman: her ambitions, values and self-identity,” Gee says.

Following the research phase, Gee and the team turned their attention to crafting a tag line. “We knew that developing a tag line would further help define our brand promise, values and on-air positioning.”

“Be Yourself” was created in-house, conveying both a call to action and reflecting the empowerment inherent to the brand. “It is a statement and point of view for the brand, an expression of our positioning, and is easily relatable and involves the viewer.” She also emphasised there was no one better positioned to create the brand’s tag line than the creative people “living and breathing the brand every day”.

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The transformation of all the on-air elements followed suit. “We have two branded blocks on the channel – the Telemundo dramas and our movies. To tie into the refresh, we placed bumpers on either end of the Telemundo Block that read "feel the passion", and used colours and packaging which reflect the new look for the movie block REEL DIVA." Gee took the additional step of sending a team to film local landscapes in both Malaysia and the Philippines. Reaching out to connect with their local audiences, they shot a local DIVA brand campaign with eight stunning channel identifiers that brought to life the aspirational qualities of DIVA: inviting, fun, confident and passionate – things every viewer can feel right at home with, connect and relate to.

“We wanted DIVA to reflect our Asian audience and their environment.”

Following its rebranding, DIVA looks poised to be an ideal partner for advertisers, already working with big-name brands to build content and media solutions. Gee sees branded content as a way to enhance marketing strategies by heightening the appeal of brands with the new generation of viewers and consumers that advertisers are trying to reach. With branded content aimed at more emotional engagement, Gee believes this will lead to positive consumer behaviour, sales and profitability for its advertisers.

Just a few months on from the refresh, the revamped DIVA has already garnered more attention and produced results.

“We have seen requests for branded entertainment from clients such as Hugo Boss increasing over the past year. This trend will continue as advertisers look beyond the standard advertising options and look for other ways to engage their target market.”

Natalie Gee, creative director and head of production for Universal Networks International

In the near future, Gee envisions the new DIVA contributing to more integrated marketing campaigns, with clients reinforcing the concept or message on their own in-store and other marketing materials, on-air and in the digital space, be it online, social media or mobile.

Even when you are the leading channel for women in Asia, there is no time to rest. The creative team at NBCUniversal International Television continues to elevate DIVA to new heights and bigger opportunities. What is the ultimate aim behind this?

“To be valued by our viewers and the perfect partner for media solutions and advertisers,” she says.

ABOUT NATALIE GEE Natalie Gee is a multi-award winning creative director at NBCUniversal Asia. Appointed in May 2008 and based in Singapore, Gee is responsible for driving creativity and brand integrity, strengthening the presence of NBCUniversal channels brands including DIVA, E!, Syfy and Universal Channel with consumers, affiliates and advertisers in Asia. Also head of production, Gee oversees local production projects including specials, series and vignettes on the channels. She leads a team of producers and graphic designers managing the on-air promotional activities of the channels portfolio as well as overseeing creative direction for all off-air marketing efforts of the business.

Visit Diva Channel’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/DIVAtvAsia

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CASE STUDY

KLM’S ‘HAPPY TO HELP’ TWITTER CAMPAIGN

In an interesting take to the social media age, KLM set up a real-time customer service centre that was aimed at hijacking travellers’ Twitter feeds.

KLM set up a team for six days, operating from a hub in Amsterdam. A custom-designed glass pavilion was built at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, serving as a central control hub for the international campaign, connecting Amsterdam with various airports spread across the globe.

The KLM customer service team and DDB & Tribal Worldwide Amsterdam’s, team of 250 specialists worked from the glass pavilion for 24 hours each day, in shifts of 30 people at a time.

The campaign launched with an international #HappytoHelp Twitter takeover hashtag, where passengers worldwide could send in questions and they would be answered in real-time by the KLM customer service team.

The specially designated KLM customer service team constantly screened Twitter feeds in search for messages that indicated someone was in trouble during their travels. The team then responded with a creative and relevant #HappytoHelp answer which was personalised for each single passenger in real-time.

Bart Mol, creative director at DDB & Tribal Worldwide Amsterdam, said: “We wanted to show how important customer service is for KLM by engaging a team of helpers ready to serve with personal advice in real-time. With this Twitter takeover we wanted to help as many people as possible, not only KLM customers, but passengers worldwide, to travel more comfortably.”

Pol Hoenderboom, creative director at DDB & Tribal Worldwide Amsterdam, added that for the past six months, the team had been

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actively searching Twitter for the most common questions travellers asked. “#HappytoHelp was a huge international, real-time event where we actually didn’t know what questions we would run into. I can say one thing though: we were thoroughly prepared,” he said.

This centre not only aided travellers on social media, but also in person at the airport or on board. KLM had stationed its staff at key airports worldwide. Those customer service teams screened the airports for people in trouble and connected with the glass pavilion team in Amsterdam to tackle any travel problems.

The campaign started on Monday 13 October and ended on Friday 17 October.

The airline also had film crews on standby to shoot filmed responses to customers’ problems and record footage of the most interesting and unusual problems solved, which was later aired on YouTube.

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CASE STUDY

HOW A DIVA REINVENTED HERSELF From Madonna to Lady Gaga and Miley Cyrus, staying current and maintaining relevance is the ongoing mission of many pop culture divas cultivating their own personal brands. In fact, being creatively innovative is a key focus for any bona-fide diva. Celebrities are constantly evolving and refreshing their image and style to reflect the latest trends or mark a new career milestone or direction.

While Shakira, for example, is still the same hip-shaking, energising performer she was when she recorded her 2001 hit Whenever, Wherever video, she has constantly evolved her look and recently adopted a more natural, earthy look after becoming a mother.

Of course, brand refreshes are not exclusive to divas and celebrities.

NBCUniversal International Television’s pop culture powerhouse channel E! Entertainment Television and flagship general entertainment brand Universal Channel have undergone refreshes in the past two years. And, most recently, NBCUniversal launched a new look and attitude in July 2014 for its own DIVA – its female-skewed channel.

OBJECTIVE DIVA’s previous brand positioning didn’t resonate as well with a younger audience. From an advertising perspective, the brand’s descriptors no longer defined the channel’s unique selling proposition. By refreshing, it affirmed its commitment to invest in both the programming and the look of the channel.

Before DIVA’s brand refresh, the channel boasted an extremely loyal viewership, while continuing to attract a younger demographic. A brand study conducted during the first half of 2014 showed DIVA was perceived as the number one English pay-TV channel that celebrated women and the number one channel that provided TV tailored for women.

It also tied as the number one channel that is most worth paying for and the number one most-loved channel. In fact, DIVA is the number one English pay-TV channel in Malaysia out of nine measured channels that target women aged 15-plus and women from 20-44*.

But divas don’t sit on their laurels and NBCUniversal wanted to better reflect the DIVA viewer by giving the brand a savvy makeover.

DIVA had traditionally been a confident, feel-good lifestyle channel for women, packed full of drama and passion.

STRATEGY The team decided to review and refresh and establish a global brand position that was relevant to channel requirements in all its markets.

The refresh allowed local flexibility where needed and developed a brand positioning that would inspire the look and feel of a new channel identity. If done right, it would retain and reinvigorate its loyal viewers while attracting new subscribers and revenue streams (e.g ad sales).

With that foundation in place, DIVA was further refined with a more well-defined positioning, updated look, logo and tag line: “Be Yourself.”

The refreshed DIVA is fun, inviting and passionate at its core. DIVA has a warm and friendly personality that encourages viewers to be themselves. This positioning is at the heart of her new identity.

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DIVA’s new look is lighter, brighter, warm, welcoming and contemporary. This is expressed in new identifiers that bring to life the aspirational qualities of DIVA. The concept is called “Living Instagrams” which depict memorable moments that viewers don’t want to forget.

The inspiration for the colour palette and on-screen packaging comes from the beautiful effect of a lens flare created by changing light; the new look reflects DIVA’s core value of “passionate” with subtle light effects and confident, vibrant colours.

DIVA’s new logo is designed with a lighter font and softer rounded edges which make it stand out and give it a more contemporary feel.

The redesign retains the brand’s core identity, but evolves to reflect a new modern look.

Of course, programming is a core component of any channel brand and the content on DIVA is no exception. DIVA invests in knowing her audience and what they want to watch and offers relatable, compelling and fun programming.

From reality series such as Supermodel Me and award-winning dramas, including The Good Wife, Suits and Downton Abbey to comedy fare such as the Golden Globe-winning Brooklyn Nine-Nine and the REEL DIVA movie block – the formula works. This top-notch range of quality content delivers on the expectations of DIVA viewers.

And the new DIVA is even more than a brand refresh and continuing to deliver the best content; there is a fundamental change to the service – DIVA wants her viewers to see content first – “Express from the US” within 48 hours of the US telecast.

DIVA continues to excel in an expanding and crowded pay-TV market by remaining fresh, fashionable and focused – reinventing herself over the years to remain relevant.

RESULTS DIVA continues to be the leading English GE (general entertainment) channel for women. Viewership also continues to increase and it offers a value proposition that engages advertisers and provides creative solutions for their campaigns. *[1] Source: Nielsen Media Research (Malaysia)/Arianna. Kantar Media Research (Singapore/Philippines)/Infosys.

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NEWS ANALYSIS

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7 REASONS WHY BIG AND SMALL AGENCY MERGERS FAIL Here are seven reasons why a merger between a big agency and a small one might fail.

Apple Lam reports.

How long should the post-merger integration take?

Here are seven reasons why a merger between a big agency and a small one may fail.

Apple Lam reports.

It is not uncommon to hear about a merger where a big agency acquires a small one, often an independent agency started by an innovative entrepreneur with experience in his or her industry, whether it is public relations, marketing or advertising.

Why do some of these mergers fall apart whereas others manage to thrive in spite of the differences between the two agencies?

1. Insufficient time allowed for post-merger integration How long should the post-merger integration process take?

“The adjustment period could take months or years. It simply depends on when you sort out the chaos,” said Aaron Lau, CEO and president of Cheil Greater China, whose boutique ad agency Bravo was acquired by Cheil Worldwide in 2012.

“It depends on whether the senior

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management of the acquired company can quickly reinstate the vision of the company. The let’s-wait-and-see period is critical.”

A communications professional, whose boutique agency went through a merger with a big agency, says the big agency has to see the integration as an ongoing one, rather than a process that finishes after just a few months.

“It’s a constant battle to keep people educated about why the merger is taking place,” she says.

Some small agencies can be more than a decade old and their ways of working are ingrained, meaning the actual integration process can even take a few years.

David Ko, co-founder and MD at Daylight Partnership, had sold his boutique PR agency Shout Communications to PR giant Waggener Edstrom in 2005.

After his earn-out finished over the course of two years, he stayed on at Waggener Edstrom for two more years to find and train his successor, while ensuring the entire team supported his successor.

2. Not doing due diligence for the two agencies’ differences in organisational culture from top-to-bottom Before a large agency merges with a small one, it often conducts due diligence to investigate the financial assets of the small agency.

“But they don’t do much due diligence for the soft-side of the acquired. When the visions of the two agencies don’t tally up, this contributes to a fall out,” Lau says.

The soft-side includes the culture, vision and dreams of the people in the small agency.

For example, the family atmosphere of a small agency is very different from the often bureaucratic culture of big agencies.

Even if a cultural litmus test is done before the deal is sealed, it often occurs between the CEOs of the two companies rather than the staff members.

“Because M&A negotiations are confidential by nature and the leaders are the ones making the decision, the people most affected by the acquisition – the staff – are usually the last to know,” Ko says.

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NEWS ANALYSIS

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“Right from the start, they don’t have a say, and as a leader, you don’t have their buy-in or emotional support.”

3. Stomping out the entrepreneurial spirit of the small agency Because small agencies often begin as start-ups, their owners are very entrepreneurial. Owners of successful agencies are adept at finding clients and running the business, which requires stamina, creativity and a proactive attitude.

Once the small agency is acquired, if the owner chooses to stay on, they must find a way to thrive in a big agency environment.

Ko believes the CEO of the small agency should be offered the autonomy to make decisions to make sure they still have a sense of control and do not become a cog in a big machine.

“People who start agencies are very entrepreneurial and are used to running their own show, with plenty of ideas. When they become lost in a large agency, they will become very demotivated,” he says.

Lau takes a different view.

“Once you are acquired, you have to change your mindset to one where you are looking after someone else’s asset. It isn’t quite yours anymore and it’s a shared responsibility,” he says.

“You need to take the interests of the acquirer into account and realise there is a bigger agenda beyond what you want to do.”

One argument for why the small agency voice should be protected, rather than assimilated into the big agency’s, is to retain talented people.

Often, small agencies have capabilities that big agencies don’t because staff members get things done in a certain way, made possible by the culture of that particular small agency.

One example is the acquisition of digital marketing or public relations agencies by large agencies.

“A lot of big agencies acquire small ones because of their client or talent bases. Why don’t the big agencies have these digital capabilities to begin with? It’s because there is something in the company stopping them from developing,” Ko says.

“If you absorb a digital agency completely and impose the same obstacles on the small agency, it would kill the business.”

4. Not effectively empowering middle managers to communicate with front-line staff The communications professional says that staff members often take on a completely different character in a new organisation. When a merger takes place and a new organisational culture is formed, staff members must adjust their

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“The adjustment period could take months or years. It simply depends on when you sort out the chaos.”

Aaron Lau – CEO and president of Cheil Greater China.

personality and work ethic to fit in with the new organisation.

One way to communicate the reason why the two agencies needed to be merged and what comes afterwards is to empower respected middle managers to help disseminate the new mission through the culture and to front-line staff members.

“Senior managers should work with middle managers to create a new mission through discussion sessions,” she says.

This is particularly important when big agencies often have global senior management.

Middle managers based locally can help frontline staff feel part of a new organisation – giving them the moral and technical support of a big agency. Planning the integration process properly is crucial.

5. Not effectively managing changes to pricing and expectations of existing clients Big agencies typically charge more than small agencies, usually because they have more resources which can be leveraged to offer a more diverse range of services, and in many cases, to larger clients.

After a merger, small agencies may be asked to raise the fees they charge for their services.

They are then presented with the situation where they need to convince a long-term retainer client why they need to charge more.

This may include arguing that now the small agency is part of a large one, it can benefit from economies of scale and, thus, offer better and more diverse services.

“It can be difficult to convince clients and you can lose some of them – that’s natural,” the communications professional says.

The new pricing of services can affect the small agency’s client base. If some open-minded retainer clients are willing to accept the higher fees and the proposal of an expanded service, the small agency will still experience the stress of needing to be extra proactive to ensure they are generating that added value.

In the beginning, the small agency must learn how to access the larger pool of resources owned by the large agency. This can present an extra obstacle to quickly stepping up the quality of services for clients.

Meanwhile, some clients choose small agencies because they believe boutique agencies produce higher quality work more quickly, are potentially cheaper and will take better care of the clients’ needs.

Such clients may be worried about a loss of focus on them after the merger takes place.

Theoretically, the more clients an agency has, if the number of staff remains the same or people leave, it’s likely the small agency will have less resources and attention for the client.

Ko says the acquisition of digital advertising agencies by traditional ad agencies can be difficult financially speaking, because digital projects and accounts offer smaller profit margins.

“In the transition period, this could have a negative impact on revenue. The same could apply to PR agencies, but it’s slightly easier for PR agencies because their revenue bases are not threatened by digital,” he said.

6. The small agency’s staff may not be able to handle the big agency’s large MNC clients Small agencies may usually take on smaller clients or just a part of a big client’s account whereas big agencies usually serve large multinational companies and big remits.

The communications professional says sometimes after a merger, the small agency’s staff may be asked to help out with accounts of big corporate clients that previously only belonged to the big agency.

While this helps give exposure to staff members, a lot of management time is dedicated to ensuring these clients are serviced properly because not every small agency has senior managers and account managers with experience serving large corporate clients.

This could also take time away from the small agency for servicing its existing clients.

7. During the integration process, you lose half of the CEO Before the merger, 100% of the CEO’s time will probably be focused on client acquisition.

After the merger, the CEO’s time would be split between running the business and communicating with the small agency’s staff members and senior management of the big agency as part of the integration process.

“I would say that my first year after the acquisition was very difficult and I was very stressed out. I had a 150% increase in workload – I was doing my usual work and also integrating with the big agency,” Ko said.

“Many of my new bosses were in different time zones halfway across the globe and I wasn’t getting enough sleep.”

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NEWS ANALYSIS

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DID FACEBOOK MANIPULATE OCCUPY CENTRAL’S PARTICIPATION? Having conducted an emotional manipulation study on users in the past, could Facebook have manipulated its algorithm to show Hong Kong users more Occupy Central posts than what is relevant to them? Apple Lam reports.

If you have scrolled through your Facebook news feed in the past month, it has probably been dominated by content relating to Occupy Central.

Is it possible Facebook tweaked its news feed algorithms such that more Occupy Central posts showed up in the news feeds of Hongkongers?

In the past, Facebook has manipulated its algorithm to see how users would respond.

In June, scientific journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), published the paper, “Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks”.

It showcased the results of a 2012 emotional manipulation study conducted by the paper’s authors – Facebook’s data scientist Adam Kramer and Cornell University researchers Jamie Guillory and Jeffrey Hancock – on 689,003 Facebook users.

In the study, Facebook reduced the amount of positive or negative posts in the users’ news feeds.

“When positive expressions were reduced, people produced fewer positive posts and more negative posts; when negative expressions were reduced, the opposite pattern occurred,” the authors of the paper wrote.

“These results indicate that emotions expressed by others on Facebook influence our own emotions, constituting experimental evidence for massive-scale contagion via social networks.”

On 2 October, Facebook’s chief technology officer Mike Schroepfer wrote in a blog post that Facebook was unprepared for the reaction to the publication of the paper.

“It is clear now that there are things we should have done differently. For example, we should have considered other non-experimental ways to do this research,” he wrote.

“Over the past three months, we’ve taken a close look at the way we do research. We are introducing a new framework that covers both internal work and research that might be

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published.” A digital consultant in Hong Kong believes there are reasons to be suspicious.

“Facebook has a history of controlling what you can and cannot see. It said it would show more news in your news feed and Occupy Central counts as news,” he says.

In response to a query about whether Facebook manipulated its algorithm to show more Occupy Central posts in Hong Kong users’ news feeds than usual, a Facebook spokesperson said: “This claim is absurd and completely unfounded.

“News feed shows stories based on the people and things you’re connected to and it would be inaccurate and misleading to suggest we had updated news feed to prioritise the content you mentioned.”

Tweaking the algorithm may not be necessary after all Digital marketers and social media experts who spoke to Marketing on the topic believe Facebook does not need to tweak its algorithm – Occupy Central would still take up the top spots in our news feeds anyway.

“I think it’s insane to think that somebody in a foreign country could create radical change in another with Facebook posts,” says Jay Oatway, an independent digital marketing consultant.

He points out Facebook’s algorithm is already designed to try and show individual users what is most relevant and interesting to them.

“If you are using Facebook a lot, clicking, liking or commenting on Occupy Central posts

and they are coming from someone located geographically near you or your friends, they become signals processed by Facebook’s algorithm. Facebook doesn’t need to flip any switches – the algorithm already does what it is designed to do.”

Also pointing to the fact that Facebook’s algorithm is centred around relevance to the user, Henry Wood, the Greater China digital lead at Waggener Edstrom Communications, believes manipulation of the algorithm is unnecessary.

“Facebook certainly could have manipulated the algorithm either to share a love of democracy or to boost its popularity as a platform, but I don’t think it was necessary.

“Occupy Central was and still is a highly relevant, personal and engaging subject in Hong Kong.

Another possible cause of Occupy Central posts dominating Hongkongers’ news feeds were the sheer number of videos of the protests uploaded onto Facebook since the government fired tear gas at protesters on 28 September, according to Lleyton Li, manager of intelligence and analytics at CMRS Digital Solutions.

“Facebook has been saying that it would like to show more video content to users. The more videos you watch, the more videos will show up in your news feed,” said Li, who oversees a team of analysts monitoring social media platforms, including Facebook.

The fact that many brands have stopped most of their Facebook activity, including advertising and marketing campaigns, in light of the Occupy Central protests is another contributing factor to the vast amount of Occupy Central posts in news feeds.

“Most brands have stopped their ads and campaigns. Occupy Central is the hottest topic that the whole of Hong Kong cares about right now and there are no other topics competing with it,” Li said.

“Combined with this, the lack of activity on the part of brands have helped increase the likelihood of Occupy Central content showing up in Hongkongers’ news feeds.”

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10/11/2014 6:59:47 PM

Asia’s Premier Content Marketing Event is Back!

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

First line-up of speakers include: • Kris LeBoutillier, digital content director, APAC, Visa • Miguel Bernas, director – digital marketing, PayPal • Vaasu Gavarasana, head – digital marketing, AXA • Rupali Shah, digital marketing lead, Asia Pacific, Fuji Xerox • Priyanka Nath, digital & social media lead, South Asia, Dell • Myra Gorostiaga, social media analytics lead, Lenovo …and many others to be named soon

When: 8 – 9 April, 2015 InterContinental Singapore 9.00 am to 5.00pm (Registration starts at 8)

To book your seat and take advantage of our early bird rate until 19 December, contact Joven Barcenas at +65 6423 0329 / +65 9820 5195 or email jovenb@marketing-interactive.com

Brought to you by:

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

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MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR

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

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MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR

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OVERALL MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR 1. Singapore Tatler

2. 8 Days

3. Her World

Published by: Edipresse Singapore Frequency: Monthly Circulation: 16,000 (publisher’s claim)

Published by: MediaCorp Frequency: Weekly Circulation: 75,000 (publisher’s claim)

Published by: SPH Magazines Frequency: Monthly Readership: 183,000 (Nielsen Media Index 2013)

Taking home the coveted top spot for Overall Magazine of the Year is Tatler. The magazine now has a more modern, cleaner and luxurious look as it refreshed its look after six years. In September, it also published a 506-page issue, the biggest in its 32-year history. The magazine offers articles of depth by some of the world’s most respected authorities in the fields of investments, wine, travel, art and auctions, fashion, beauty, decor and properties.

Local entertainment magazine 8 Days takes second place for this year’s Overall Magazine of the Year category. In terms of advertisers, more government clients are increasing their spend with the magazine. Its core readers are aged 20 to 39, but essentially the magazine positions itself for the masses – for the discerning multi-generational reader who has a curiosity about life, a thirst for knowledge and is a passionate consumerist.

Her World takes third spot in the overall category this year. To make a push into digital, this year, the magazine has generated additional digital-exclusive content tagged to print stories as well as creating digital-only stories. Some stories now come with interesting digital enhancements such as videos, photo galleries and animations for a 360-experience with Her World.

WOMEN’S MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR 1. Her World

2. Cleo

3. The Singapore Women’s Weekly

Published by: SPH Magazines Frequency: Monthly Readership: 183,000 (Nielsen Media Index 2013)

Published by: SPH Magazines Frequency: Monthly Readership: 81,000 (publisher’s claim)

Published by: SPH Magazines Frequency: Monthly Readership: 85,000 (Nielsen Media Index 2013)

Her World takes top spot for Women’s Magazine of the Year. The magazine had a change in the editorship this year with the new editor Pearlyn Tham taking the helm. Also new to the team is Justin Cheong, Her World’s deputy editor. Now Her World readers can get on-the-go information from its popular herworldplus.com website as well as enjoy quick updates on its social media assets.

In January 2014, Cleo launched a new section called Trending, which covers global fashion, beauty, street style and lifestyle trends. It also reinforced the “Your Life, Your Rules” philosophy with its own section, with columns on love, sex, relationships, career, money and confidence.

Overall, it aims to engage readers on a new level.

This year The Singapore Women’s Weekly launched a digital edition and refreshed its layouts and flow, in line with the developing needs of readers. The magazine also saw an uptake of the digital edition. Every digital edition has 10 exclusive digital edition-only stories that are not available in the print issue. These stories can be print, video, extra pictures, editorial or advertorial.

WOMEN’S FASHION MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR 1. Female Published by: SPH Magazines Frequency: Monthly Readership: 102,000 (publisher’s claim) The top spot for Women’s Fashion Magazine of the Year goes to Female this year. This past year the magazine added Repetto, Tory Burch, Hugo Boss, Ralph Lauren, Burberry Fragrance, Magnum and Samsonite as new advertisers. The magazine claims it targets women who enjoy fashion and “want more insider and industry information other than what traditional women’s magazines are providing”.

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2. Harper’s Bazaar

3. ELLE

Published by: SPH Magazines Frequency: Monthly Readership: 25,000 (publisher’s claim)

Published by: MediaCorp Frequency: Monthly Circulation: 40,000 (publisher’s claim)

With the November 2014 issue, Harper’s Bazaar Singapore underwent a cosmetic makeover. Its key focus right now is on social media and making its tablet addition more interactive.

The magazine also has plans to launch a website in the coming months.

Its Facebook page is primarily a way to support its marketing initiatives and the magazine has been consistent in maintaining a core stable of luxury brands in its advertising portfolio.

ELLE comes in third for this year’s rankings. The women’s fashion magazine turned 21 this year and has changed its cover strategy to focus solely on celebrity exclusives. It also launched spin-offs of its publication such as ELLE Weddings and ELLE Go Green, a collaboration with H&M. The publication informed Marketing it was launching ELLE.SG in 2015. Carolina Herrera and Michael Kors have come on board as advertisers.

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MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR

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MEN’S MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR 1. Men’s Health

2. FHM

3. Esquire

Published by: SPH Magazines Frequency: Monthly Readership: 101,000 (2013 Nielsen Media Index)

Published by: MediaCorp Frequency: Monthly Circulation: 50,000 (publisher’s claim)

Published by: Mongoose Publishing Frequency: Monthly Circulation: 28,000 (publisher’s claim)

Taking top spot this year is Men’s Health. Keeping with the media consumption habits of its readers, Men’s Health has continued to focus on developing its tablet edition and add value for both advertisers and readers. The Men’s Health “urbanathlon”, an annual obstacle run, has also over the years continued to grow in terms of branding, audience and scale.

Falling one spot from last year is Singapore FHM. It underwent a revamp in April to take on a more contemporary layout. With the rising popularity of mixed martial arts, the local FHM partnered with Asia’s biggest MMA organisation, ONE FC, to offer MMA content to readers. It also co-organised FHM ONE Arena, an event held over two weekends in October and November. New advertisers include Motor Image (Subaru) and more.

Esquire Singapore recently hired a new managing editor in Janie Cai. Some of the new advertisers who have come on board include Rolex, Nikon, Infinity, Tom Ford and Hermès. Esquire’s core target group consists of males aged 25-35, who are well travelled, intelligent and engaged in world affairs.

Esquire readers mainly have a significant disposable income which they spend on fashion and lifestyle.

MEN’S FASHION MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR 1. August Man

2. Men’s Folio

3. Style: Men

Published by: Burda Singapore Frequency: Monthly Circulation: 33,000 (publisher’s claim)

Published by: Heart Media Frequency: 10 issues per year Circulation: 36,000 (publisher’s claim)

Published by: MediaCorp Frequency: Monthly Circulation: 30,000 (publisher’s claim)

Taking top spot is August Man which will be celebrating its 100th issue in December and is creating a standalone small format book to commemorate the occasion: Rules for the Modern Man. August Man recently revamped its website in content and is currently working on a new design that will enhance mobile usage. It is also exploring opportunities in mobile app design. As of 2015, it will be redesigning its digital magazine for a smoother read.

Men’s Folio once again takes second position this year for the Men’s Fashion Magazine of the Year category. Its online space has the latest updates on the spiffiest runway looks and the coolest gadgets and hang-outs in town. Men’s Folio reaches an influential and affluent audience. It’s the definitive platform for all fashion and luxury brands looking at reaching opinion leaders and discerning consumers.

Brand consistency is a source of pride for Style: Men. According to a spokesperson for the magazine, it is important to establish its brand consistency by the articles.

Currently, Style: Men is on Magzter, which allows readers from other countries to have instant access to the magazine. Meanwhile, some of the advertisers who came on board for the magazine for the first time this year, included Piaget, Givenchy, Franck Muller, Bremont and Hackett London.

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

2. Business Traveller

3. Action Asia

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

Published by: Panacea Publishing Frequency: 10 times per year Circulation: 30,466 (audited by ABC HK)

Taking top spot is Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia. Its website saw a total revamp and was relaunched in February 2014. Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia offers various digital products, including a website, eDMs, custom-built microsites and a tablet edition of the magazine. It publishes four digital destination guides every year.

Business Traveller takes second position this year.

The magazine underwent a redesign with a new lifestyle section and is now available in both print and digital editions. Its online platform includes a website and weekly e-newsletter servicing readers with a daily news feed and weekly updates. The magazine appointed a new group publisher and new writers.

Published by: SPH Magazines Frequency: Bimonthly Circulation: 56,000 copies (publisher’s claim)

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Taking third spot is Action Asia. In 2014, Action Asia’s social media and web audience grew and going forward the magazine aims to deepen audience engagement, especially because Blu Inc’s parent company, SPH Magazines, has declared a move to a “digital first” strategy.

New advertisers were also added to its fold.

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IA HE AST AS T+ L SOUT

T+L SOUTHEAST ASIA

T+ L SOUT HE AST AS IA

W Hotels ● Rimowa ● Korean Air ● American Express Marriott ● Hermès ● Hyatt Hotels ● Orient Express Preferred Hotels ● St Regis ● Rolex ● Singapore Airline ● Turkish Airlines ● Rosewood Hotels ● Patek Philipp ● Lexus ● Hilton ● Asia’s ● Canon ● Brune Bangkok Airways Southeast leading regional ● Sofitel ● Berjaya ● Langkawi Tourism ● Cap Tourism and lifestyle Travel publication ● Hotel Collection Sheraton ● Le Meridien ● Maca Tourism ● Four Seasons ● Fairmont Hotels ● Saba Tourism ● Mövenpick ● Sala ● Ascott ● Orissa Touris ● Dusit ● The Westin ● Regal Hotels ● Macau Touris ● Marina Bay Sands ● Meritus Hotels ● Outrigger Luxury collection ● Anantara ● Intercontinenta Hotels ● Swiss ● India Tourism ● Ayana Bali ● Har Rock Hotels ● Conrad ● Bintan Resorts ● Nikko Ba ● Centara ● The Racha ● Tudor ● Kempinski ● Pimalai MAYA Ubud ● Padma ● Indigo Pearl ● W Hotels ● Rimow NEW LOOK ● Korean Air ● American Express ● Marriott ● SIEM Hermès REAP Hyatt Hotels ● Orient Express ● Preferred Hotels ● S UNDISCOVEREDAirline Regis ● Rolex ● Singapore Airlines ● Turkish ● Rosewood Hotels ● Patek Philippe ● LexusSRIL●ANKAHilton TURKISH DE LIGHT ● Brunei Tourism ● Sofitel Bangkok Airways ● Canon 95 Hotel Collection Berjaya ● Langkawi Tourism ● Cape Sheraton ● Le Meridien ● Macau Tourism ● Four Season ● Fairmont Hotels ● Sabah Tourism ● Mövenpick ● Sal ● Ascott ● Orissa Tourism ● Dusit ● The Westin ● Rega Hotels ● Macau Tourism ● Marina Bay Sands ● Meritu Hotels ● Outrigger ● Luxury collection ● Anantara Intercontinental Hotels ● Swiss ● India Tourism ● Ayan Bali ● Hard Rock Hotels ● Conrad ● Bintan Resorts ● Nikk ● The Racha ● Tudor ● Kempinski ● Pimala Bali ●Travel Centara + Leisure Southeast Asia would like to thank ● MAYA Ubud ● Padma ● Indigo Pearl ● W Hotels ● Rimow all our clients and their Express agencies for voting for us ● Korean ● American ● Marriott ● Hermès Air the best regional Express travel magazine of the year. ● Orient ● Preferred Hyatt as Hotels Hotels ● S Regis ● Rolex ● Singapore Airlines ● Turkish Airline ● Rosewood Hotels ● Patek Philippe ● Lexus ● Hilton Bangkok Airways ● Canon ● Brunei Tourism ● Sofitel Berjaya ● Langkawi Tourism ● Cape Hotel Collection Sheraton ● Le Meridien ● Macau Tourism ● Four Season ● Fairmont Hotels ● Sabah Tourism ● Mövenpick ● Sal www.TravelandLeisureAsia.com ● Ascott ● Orissa Tourism ● Dusit ● The Westin ● Rega Hotels ● Macau Tourism ● Marina Bay Sands ● Meritu Hotels ● Outrigger ● Luxury collection ● Anantar ● Intercontinental Hotels ● Swiss ● India Touris SOUTHEA ST ASIA

MAY 2014

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A U G U S T 2014

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MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR

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FOOD MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR 2. Epicure

3. Wine & Dine

Published by: Regent Media Frequency: Monthly Circulation: 25,000 (publisher’s claim)

Published by: Magazines Integrated Pte Ltd Frequency: Monthly Circulation: 9,765 (audited by ABC SG)

Published by: Wine & Dine Experience Pte Ltd Frequency: Monthly Circulation: 35,000 (publisher’s claim)

Epicure magazine takes second spot this year.

The liquid This past year has seen heartiest bangers and issue the emergence of a new mash Meet the world's richest billionaires & their vineyards editorial team headed by best rum, whiskey and sake picks 6 capitals, 14 cool bars group managing editor, make your own new york-inspired cocktails Adeline Wong. The publication was the official media partner for key culinary events in 2014 such as the World Gourmet Summit organised by the gourmet lifestyle magazine and Marina Bay Sands’ Epicurean Market. It also coorganised a dining affair with Jaguar in line with a private viewing of its newest F-TYPE CoupÊ.

Wine & Dine comes in third place this year. In terms of senior management, Weiwen Lin has been appointed the new editor The Korean of the publication, while Wave * * Eugene Lim has been made the COO for both Wine & Dine and Today’s Parents. Lim told Marketing the magazine was in the process of launching apps on both Android and Apple iOS. Beam Suntory and Jaguar also came on board with Wine & Dine this year.

epicure Win! pan pacific orchard dining vouchers and marrenon petula rosĂŠ wines from ewinegallery.com worth over $1,200

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Taking top spot this year is Food & Travel magazine which continues to cater to modern foodies who enjoy cooking, dining and travelling. The publication has fine-tuned its online portal, www.food-travel. com, along with its accompanying mobile application that can be downloaded on Google Play and Apple App stores. Among its group of distinguished advertisers are Standard Chartered Bank, Tourism Australia and CapitaLand, just to name a few.

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ENTERTAINMENT & LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR 1. 8 Days

2. Expat Living

3. I-S Magazine

Published by: MediaCorp Frequency: Weekly Circulation: 75,000 weekly (publisher’s claim)

Published by: Expat Living Publications Frequency: Monthly Circulation: 18,454 (audited by ABC SG)

Published by: Asia City Media Group Frequency: Twice a month Circulation: 25,000 (publisher’s claim)

Local entertainment magazine 8 Days comes in first place for this year’s rankings. The magazine now allows readers to download the digital copy on Magzter, where the number of downloads have tripled in a matter of months.

In terms of advertisers, 8 Days also revealed to Marketing that government sectors had been increasing spend with the magazine.

Expat Living clinches second place in this year’s Inside rankings. The magazine FAMILY recently added a regular monthly fashion and beauty Our Favourite supplement called LIV. With Storage Ideas the relaunch of the site, Lamps & Lights Expatliving.sg in 2013, this year has seen a massive increase (1,700%) in its online audience. Readers can also enjoy the responsive user interface across various platforms, while on the go.

SINGAPORE

October 2014

HOMES

PORTRAITS

STEAKS

China Getaways Return to Angkor Boats for Hire

I-S Magazine is in third place for this year’s rankings.

LOUIS With a new managing editor RICKY onboard, Mrigaa Sethi, THE BARTENDERS the magazine informed KAMIL Nick NAZ Marketing it would revamp HILDA MARK TOM its print edition in time for its 20th anniversary. The publication also launched a new mobile app – I-S Now –allowing users to search through up-to-date event listings. New advertisers for I-S include Thai Airways, Chope and more. it's free!

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LUXURY MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR 1. Singapore Tatler

2. The Peak

3. Prestige Singapore

Published by: Edipresse Singapore Frequency: Monthly Circulation: 16,000 (publisher’s claim)

Published by: SPH Magazines Frequency: Monthly Circulation: 17,753 (audited by ABC SG)

Published by: Burda Singapore Frequency: Monthly Circulation: 15,574 (audited by ABC SG)

Singapore Tatler has once again taken top spot.

This year the magazine underwent a redesign – its first in six years with the March 2014 issue. It hired an online director to oversee all digital operations, editorial and sales. The publication now has more than 100,000 unique visitors per month and more than 650,000 page views. Its online advertisers include Tiffany, Cartier, Patek Philippe and Coach. New advertisers this year include Hugo Boss.

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This year marks The Peak’s 30th year in print and the team produced a coffee table book – The Peak 30/30: The Game Changers – to commemorate the occasion. The Peak also pushed into the digital sphere launching its Facebook profile, website and tablet edition. Online, there are daily updates and website-exclusive stories. The Peak also produces the quarterly Gourmet & Travel magazine as well as Timepieces, an annual watch publication.

SINGAPORE

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Prestige Singapore launched its new look in April 2014 to keep up with the change in the appetite for luxury among readers; from a pursuit of material luxury goods to intangible luxury experiences. Prestige also came up with additional supplements to cater to the needs of its audience such as its Yacht and Wealth supplements. Its readership profile is mainly the high-net-worth individuals, socialites and more.

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INFLIGHT MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR 1. SilverKris

2. Going Places

3. Jetstar

Published by: Singapore Press Holdings Frequency: Monthly Readership: 1.5 million (publisher’s claim)

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

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

Coming in first in this year’s rankings, SilverKris has pushed itself in digital, revamping its site SilverKris. com in July. Along with a tablet edition and fully interactive editions on both iOS and Android platforms, the magazine has ensured its reach beyond print, complementing the travel experience. A new associate editor has also been introduced, strengthening the existing team of editorial and design staff.

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

Jetstar comes in a commendable third this year. The magazine went through a major revamp in July departing from celebrity covers to a more conceptual direction with mixed media.

The magazine has furthered itself online through various ticket giveaways on both Jetstar Asia Airways’ Facebook page along with the magazine’s own page, encouraging cross-interaction. Marina Bay Sands and Genting Malaysia are among the new advertisers who have joined hands with Jetstar.

MOTOR VEHICLE MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR 1. Torque

2. Top Gear Singapore

3. Evo

Published by: Singapore Press Holdings Frequency: Monthly Readership: 34,000 (publisher’s claim)

Published by: Big Bang Media Frequency: Monthly Circulation: 18,000-20,000 (publisher’s claim)

Published by: Magic Pen Publishing Frequency: Monthly Circulation: 25,000 (publisher’s claim)

Top Gear places second for this year’s rankings.

Though the magazine did not experience huge changes, its website was revamped recently and D L !

RL RLD O W WO W ARRSS RIGHT NO populated with more AR STT CCAR EST THE BES pertinent local car lifestyle content. Furthermore, Top Gear ensures social media presence with both Instagram (@ topgear_singapore) and Facebook accounts.

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THE BEST CARS IN THE WORLD • NEW PORSCHE CAYENNE • M3 CRT MEETS F80 M3 • RALLYING AN F40 WITH TAXTHERICH

Torque comes in first place for its category this year. The publication has accelerated further ahead with localised stories such as the title’s signature threecar Group Tests. For its digital edition, it has created exclusive editorial content, and for its Facebook engagement, it has continued its “Guess the Car!” contests to a good response.

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Taking third position once again this year is car magazine evo Singapore. Now on its 46th issue, the monthly publication has continued with its coverage of performance cars and the like, with automotive and lifestyle articles that are targeted at local car enthusiasts. It has also begun to extend its reach via a social media presence on Facebook and Twitter.

CONSUMER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR 1. HWM

2. Stuff

Published by: Singapore Press Holdings Frequency: Monthly Readership: 72,000 (Ipsos Magazine Readership Survey in 2012)

Published by: Haymarket Media Asia Frequency: Monthly Circulation: 32,000 (publisher’s claim)

HWM takes top spot in this year’s rankings for consumer electronics magazines. The magazine saw a change in its editor at the start of 2014 and also underwent a revamp with its May 2014 issue.

This saw a flatter, modern design inspired by the shift in consumer technology trends towards mobility and smartphones. HWM works closely with www. hardwarezone.com as a sister publication, with differentiating, but complementing content. The publication also acquired new advertisers, namely watch brand Casio and dating site Lunch Actually.

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Stuff maintains its spot in second place once again this year. The gadget magazine has continued to build its audience both in print and online. Its readers have also been enabled to access content via Stuff’s localised social media channels, such as Facebook (more than 21,000 likes), Twitter (@Stuff_SG) and Google+.

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MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR

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PARENTING MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR 1. Young Parents

2. Today’s Parents

3. Motherhood Magazine

Published by: Singapore Press Holdings Frequency: Monthly Readership: 22,000 (Nielsen Media Index 2013)

Published by: Wine & Dine Experience Pte Ltd Frequency: Bimonthly Circulation: 25,000 (publisher’s claim)

Published by: Eastern Holdings Limited Frequency: Monthly Circulation: 30,000 (publisher’s claim)

Clinching second spot, Today’s Parents informed Marketing it was in the Cuteness Overload midst of developing a mobile commerce app, + a move that seeks to allow both readers and consumers to browse through products in the scope of parenting and children. Internally, Eugene Lim has been named the COO for both Today’s Parents and Wine & Dine. In terms of advertising, Pfizer and Heritage TCM have partnered the publication. today’s parents

Join us on Instagram and FacebookToday’s Parents Magazine SG

October / November 2014 $5.00

Coming in at top spot for the parenting magazines category, Young Parents has been around for more than 28 years, packed with in-depth local features on pregnancy, health, education and development, along with expert tips from doctors, psychologists and educators. Furthermore, it publishes an annual education resource title, Young Parents Preschool Guide. The magazine’s digital edition offers exclusive extras from articles to videos.

Happy Halloween

Our single dad shares how Halloween is a special time for kids and the adults

From promoting charity to big birthday bashes, check out how parents can do both

Look out for our Christmas announcement and great giveaways!

Feast your eyes on the latest and greatest for your infants and your kids in our new fashion spreads!

GET LOST IN THE FAIRYTALE! Check out our travel section for great getaway ideas both near and far, far away…

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Motherhood drops a spot to third place for this year’s rankings. With more than 22,000 likes on its Facebook account, the publication continues its reach to the demographic of parents with young children, moving across channels from print to online to social media. Motherhood has also gone digital and is now available onthe-go for free just by liking the Facebook page. According to its 2013 rate card, it has a circulation of 30,000 monthly.

CHINESE MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR 1. i-Weekly

2. ICON

3. Nuyou

Published by: Mediacorp Frequency: Weekly Circulation: 125,000 weekly (publisher’s claim)

Published by: Singapore Press Holdings Frequency: Monthly Circulation: 15,513 (audited by ABC SG)

Published by: Singapore Press Holdings Frequency: Monthly Readership: 28,000 (publisher’s claim)

i-Weekly takes the first spot once again. The publication refreshed both its content and look in May this year for readers to enjoy a more comprehensive read.

Alongside digital copies that can be downloaded on the Magzter store, readers can also engage with i-Weekly via social media platforms with exclusive content.

ICON magazine comes in second place. The publication underwent a revamp in June this year with both a content restructuring and design uplift. Its new and refreshed website was also recently launched. ICON has a digital edition that carries tablet-exclusive content such as videos, photography spreads and articles.

Coming in third place, Nuyou celebrated its 38th anniversary this September, taking on the theme “Fabulous Ways To Celebrate” for its issue that month. As part of the festivities, Nuyou launched three capsule collections, a collaborative effort between editor Terence Lee and three prominent local designers.

LOCAL BUSINESS MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR 1. Singapore Business Review

2. BizQ

3. The SME Magazine

Published by: Charlton Media Frequency: Bimonthly Circulation: 24,688 (audited by ABC SG)

Published by: Singapore Press Holdings Frequency: Quarterly Circulation: Circulated to 23,000 members of the Singapore Business Federation (publisher’s claim)

Published by: Singapore Press Holdings Frequency: Bimonthly Circulation: 31,200 (audited by ABC SG)

Issue No. 62 61

Singapore Business Review clinches top spot for this year’s rankings. Aside PROPERTY ISSUE from the introduction of a +EASY CREDIT Financial Insight section in June 2013, it also launched the Eminent Speakers Series in July 2013 to further establish its foothold as a premier discussion starter. Several new advertisers have come on board as well, including Royal Cliff Hotels Group and PEACH. Display to 30 November 2014 S$5.90

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Coming in second this year is Singapore Business Federation’s BizQ. The magazine has not seen much change, remaining focused on delivering greater thought-leading advocacy and business-centric editorial content on local, regional and global business communities. BizQ has also been made available as a PDF version on the SBF website.

The third spot for the local business magazines category goes to The SME Magazine which has undergone a number of major developments over the past year. The team has evolved by condensing certain roles, with a new addition of a designer and editor. While the magazine was previously uploaded on the Business Times website, it now has its own placement on the main web page.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2014

“EVERYONE (GOES ON ABOUT THE LABOUR ISSUE BUT) I THINK IT’S ABOUT WHAT WE DO ABOUT IT. BEING IN THIS SITUATION IS FORCING US TO BE CREATIVE.” ELIZABETH TAN, MANAGING DIRECTOR OF HEATWAVE

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MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR

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REGIONAL BUSINESS MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR 1. Forbes Asia

2. Bloomberg Businessweek

3. Fortune

Published by: Forbes Asia Frequency: Monthly Circulation: 80,000 (publisher’s claim)

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

Published by: TIME Asia Frequency: 18 issues annually Circulation: 85,002 (audited by ABC HK)

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

Coming in second is Bloomberg Businessweek.

The magazine, helmed by editor Josh Tyrangiel, continues to offer a global perspective, extending its reach to more than 150 countries. Its online site Businessweek.com has experienced a steady growth in traffic and its app, available across devices, offers yet another reading experience.

New advertisers include Singapore Tourism Board, Economic Development Board and more.

Coming in third, Fortune magazine saw a change CAN in its team, with Alan IBM Murray named the editor EVER BE in August 2014. Its online COOL? version, Fortune.com, was also relaunched in June, along with 24 new hires in the recent months prior to that launch.

The publication’s conference business has continued to grow as well with events such as the Fortune Global Forum that was held in Chengdu, China last year.

50 MOST POWERFUL WOMEN

GM’S CRISIS, MARY BARRA’S OPPORTUNITY

By Geoff Colvin

A PROMISE KEPT AT BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY

By Colleen Leahey

CEO Ginni Rometty’s plan for competing— and teaming up— with Silicon Valley.

BY MICHAL LEV-RAM

PLUS:

JANET YELLEN, FIDELITY’S ABBY JOHNSON, SANTANDER’S ANA BOTÍN AND THE WOMEN OF ALIBABA

INTERNATIONAL EDITION OCTOBER 6, 2014 NUMBER 14 / FORTUNE.COM

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

2. TIME

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

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

The Economist clinches first place in our rankings this year. With content on print, website, and apps on tablet, smartphone as well as mobile, the magazine now has a larger global audience reach.

Furthermore, there are two apps set to launch soon – Daily App, offering daily intelligence on the go, as well as the China App, the first local language edition of The Economist.

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

OC TOBER 13, 2014

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

BY HANNAH BEECH

time.com

METHODOLOGY HOW DID WE ACHIEVE THIS? The Magazine of the Year 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 managerlevel decision-makers and above, with 10% from the most senior ranks

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of client advertisers – CEOs 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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CAREERS

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CAREER PATH Beatrice Van den Abeele

Brand manager Evian,Volvic, Badoit – Southeast Asia and Oceania First job? I started in sales as a sales representative at Mars Inc, in Belgium, selling promotions to shop managers and after that executing them in-store.

First job in advertising/ marketing? My fi rst introduction

to the industry was at General Mills in the UK, though my current role at Danone in Singapore is my first real marketing job.

Best job? My current job at

Danone. I especially love the diversity of my role, which allows me to engage with a variety of people, different cultures and a range of emerging and developed markets. Not to forget the way in which I am given the freedom to “experiment” on the creative side.

Perks of your current job?

I work with brands that I can personally relate to. For Evian, I am constantly challenged to develop marketing campaigns by tapping into my inner source of youth. It’s almost as if my job is to relive my childhood every day.

Worst job? Probably a summer

job during my university years for a local food supplement manufacturer.

Marketing professionals you admire? I would say more brands

than people – Innocent, Apple, Nike, Coke. Their work stands out consistently, it touches people and truly engages with the different audiences they target.

Best career advice you’ve been given? Move between

different jobs (for example, from sales to marketing), different business units within a company, and countries.

If you weren’t in marketing, what would you be? A doctor.

How do you wind down? With exercise and music. I play tennis and go to the gym several times a week, and I play the piano at home.

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JOB SHUFFLE Following his departure from MediaCorp, previous head of strategic marketing Patrick Yong resurfaced at a Singaporebased media company that aggregates, produces and distributes China-related content for a global market. He takes on the title of chief executive officer of MyChinaChannel. He has held several senior roles at MediaCorp over 16 years, including managing director of its press business and heading its integrated media sales.

Publicis appointed Ed Booty its APAC team’s regional head of planning.

Booty is based in Singapore and reports to Loris Nold – CEO of Publicis APAC and emerging markets. Most recently, he was regional head of planning for Unilever and The Coca-Cola Company at Ogilvy. Before that he was head of effectiveness and headed up international planning across the BBH group out of London.

Tech marketing agency DWA appointed Matthew Yorke president of global business innovation and CMO of the company. He is also responsible for leading global product and service innovation and development across all lines of business. He will also lead DWA’s sales and marketing functions.

Simon Lockyer, who was appointed

by Droga5 to help kick-start the agency’s business with Tiger Beer, has moved on from the company. David Nobay, founder and chief creative officer, highlighted the agency had never had a Singapore business before, and that Lockyer was

with the company on a temporary consultative basis. Earlier this year, Droga5 Sydney snagged duties with one of Singapore’s most iconic brands Tiger Beer.

Geometry Global appointed Jon Hamm its global chief creative officer. He begins his new role in November and will be based in London, reporting to global CEO Steve Harding. Hamm founded his own digital agency in 2000 called Greenroom Digital where he worked with clients such as Sony PlayStation, Nestlé, TopShop and Twentieth Century Fox. The agency was later bought by IPG/ Momentum Worldwide.

Publicis appointed Sebastien Vacherot chief creative officer of Publicis 133 in Asia Pacific. Meanwhile, Publicis 133 also launched in Singapore, with Jae Soh as general manager to lead the team.

Loris Nold, CEO of Publicis in APAC, said: “With Publicis 133 in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore, we have a unique expertise in the region for the benefit of our clients.”

Just a year after taking on her role at Twitter as the head of news, Vivian Schiller is stepping down.

Twitter VP of global media Katie Jacobs Stanton will take up her responsibilities as part of an internal reorganisation. Schiller (pictured) announced the move in a series of tweets. Before taking on her role at Twitter, she was the chief digital officer at NBC News.

Scripps Networks Asia Pacific appointed Leena Singarajah

as the head of distribution and ad sales. She will develop strategies for the continued distribution growth and regional and local ad sales business development for Scripps Networks’ channels across the region, including Asian Food Channel, Food Network, Travel Channel and HGTV. She will also manage programme sales and distribution in the region.

Tony Wright, chairman of Lowe and Partners, will be moving into a new role in holding company Interpublic (IPG) next January. He joined to lead Lowe and Partners nearly a decade ago and has been noted “as a major driver of a successful turnaround at the network, particularly with Unilever”, said the company in a press statement.

Wright will report to Michael Roth, chairman and CEO of IPG. MEC appointed Marie-Claire Barker its first global chief talent officer. She joins from the Ogilvy Group, where for the past six years, she was chief talent officer, responsible for driving and delivering talent strategy for its 22,000 staff globally. She will work with the agency’s global CEO Charles Courtier, the company’s global executive committee, discipline leaders and people and culture teams worldwide.

Bell Pottinger appointed Mark Canning, a former senior British diplomat, to bolster the company’s growth in Asia and counsel clients who are targeting markets in the region. At Bell Pottinger he will work closely with the company’s senior management team in Asia.

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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.

Head of Meetings & Events, APAC F General Management Position F Full P&L Responsibility F Regional APAC position 30 !*'#,2 '1 5-0*" *# "',% 2& 2 '1 5#** #12 *'1&#" ," %0-5',% 0 .'"*7 ', 1' !'i!@ 3# to its global strategy and growth targets, it is are now looking to recruit a high calibre individual to "0'4# '21 #4#,21 31',#11 !0-11 2&# 0#%'-,@ Reporting to the global head, this role will be responsible for developing and implementing the 31',#11 120 2#%7 $-0 2&# 0#%'-, 5'2& 2&# %- * -$ #!-+',% 2&# 3,"'1.32#" + 0)#2 *# "#0@ Managing a regional team, you will lead in developing new and existing business, increase the presence and reputation in the market, strengthen operations to ensure excellent service delivery, ," ',,-4 2# 2&0-3%& 2&# 31# -$ 2#!&,-*-%'#1@ -0)',% 5'2& 2&# *# "#01&'. 2# +1 0#%'-, **7 ," %*- **7A 2&'1 '1 &'%&*7 120 2#%'! .-1'2'-, 2& 2 0#/3'0#1 120-,% ',j3#,!',% 1)'**1 !-3.*#" 5'2& !0#"' '*'27 ," %0 4'2 1@ To qualify, individuals must possess: F minimum 10 years’ business development / general management experience F a strong track record in driving revenue growth and a successful business proposition F experience within the events industry F a track record in P&L management F #6!#**#,2 ',j3#,!',% 1)'**1 ," 2&# '*'27 2- *' '1# 2 ** *#4#*1 Contact Matthew Gardner on (65) 6854 5633 or email matthew.gardner@ambition.com.sg quoting reference number MXG27174.

Head of Marketing, Singapore & Malaysia F Global FMCG Brand F ASEAN Leadership Position F Malaysia Based Opportunity 30 !*'#,2 '1 -,# -$ 2&# 5-0*"`1 *# "',% 0 ,"1 5'2&', 2&# 1. !#@ 2 '1 *--)',% $-0 0)#2',% *# " 2- # 1#" ', * 71' 2- 03, -2& 2&# * 71' ," ',% .-0# + 0)#2',% $3,!2'-,1@ #.-02',% 2- 2&# 0#%'-, * A 2&'1 0-*# '1 0#1.-,1' *# $-0 *# "',% 120 2#%7 1 . 02 -$ 2&# 0#%'-, * *# "#01&'. 2# + ," + , %',% 2# + -$ + 0)#2##01 2- #6#!32# 2&#1# 120 2#%'#1 2 *-! * *#4#*@ &# team will provide portfolio and brand growth guidelines that the Head of Marketing will bring and *-! *'1# $-0 2&# 25- + 0)#21@ )#7 $-!31 5'** # -, 2&# "#.*-7+#,2 -$ 2&# 120 2#%'#1 2&0-3%& 2&# right communication channels and drive cross-functional coordination especially with the !-++#0!' * 2# +1@ To qualify, individuals must possess: F minimum 12 years’ in FCMG marketing positions F a strong track record of leadership F 120-,% ',j3#,!',% ," 2# + + , %#+#,2 1)'**1 F Bahasa language skill is preferred Contact Matthew Gardner on (65) 6854 5633 or email matthew.gardner@ambition.com.sg quoting reference number MXG27174.

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

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LAST WORD

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APPLE EXPERIENCE NO LONGER SUGAR COATED Buying an iPhone is no longer the sweet experience it once was, writes Matt Eaton.

xxxx

A few weeks ago when Apple launched its iPhone 6 and the bigger iPhone 6 Plus version, I decided to head to Apple’s Hysan Place store to see what all the fuss was about.

I didn’t come close to even stepping inside the store. Not because of the massive crowds and a line-up which stretched almost down to Hennessy Road, but because of the crazy grey market taking place right outside the store.

It was a fascinating sight. People lining up to buy a new iPhone were literally walking out of the store and selling it to one of the many cashed up buyers paying up to HK$16,000 for an iPhone 6 Plus.

Days following the launch, this was not an uncommon scene. The areas surrounding all Apple stores in Hong Kong – even inside IFC – were full of people buying any new iPhone possible, which could then be smuggled to China and resold at a tidy profit.

The iPhones were ripped out of their boxes and put into paper containers for cream pies and toothpaste, coffee and tea boxes. One report said a man was caught carrying eight devices in his underwear.

Back when I bought my first iPhone I remember it being a real experience, something Apple and consumers could be proud of.

It’s now just a free-for-all where the experience of buying a phone, opening the slick packaging and using a revolutionary device has very little meaning.

Apple might as well sell the phones in a brown paper bag – it would surely save the streets of Hong Kong from being littered with empty iPhone packaging.

It’s hugely disappointing and a blight on the Apple brand. Loyal fans have been overrun by a group of people looking to cash in on a situation that Apple has created and seems uninterested to fix.

Marketers should also look at this situation and take note. Not only have investors punished the company for rushing the phone to market and putting out a device which bends in your pocket, but it’s a stain on the Apple brand which can only benefit rival smartphone creators in a market where the stakes are incredibly high.

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YOUR BUSINESS

RESULTS DELIVERED

OUR INSIGHT

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