Issue216 by Sledgehammer Communications (M) Sdn Bhd

www.marketingmagazine.com.my

ISSUE 216/// MID-FEB 2018

MEDIA PRIMA TV

INTO THE DIGITAL

HIGH & BACK JOHAN ISHAK

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER MEDIA PRIMA TV NETWORKS

INSIDE

THE AWARD SHOWS MUST GO ON FOCUS ON ADVERTISING EXPENDITURE STORYTELLING WITH DATA VISUALIZATION HUMAN BEHAVIOUR CAPTURED IN DATA ISSN 1985-5575

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ISSUE216MID-FEB2018

EDITOR’S NOTE

YOU ARE BARKING UP THE WRONG TREE By The Turbanned Stranger | ham@adoimagazine.com

If you have a pet dog at home, you will quickly realise that however soon you return home, perhaps to get the phone you left behind five minutes ago, your dog will greet your coming back like you’ve been gone a long long time. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been away, could be just two minutes, but the dog is always happy to greet you.

RETAIL MARKETING

The same cannot be said of your family, who mostly wants to know instantly why you came back so soon or fear something grave. The dog however looks at your quick and brief return as another chance to be happy. If only we could be as excited, as forgiving and equally curious every time we meet challenges when we leave our home, the world will

be a different place. In this last month alone, I met and spoke to 8 marketers and came away as confused as they were. Except for my catchup with Maxis’ Tai Kam Leong. After a 15 minutes banter, he recapped what transpired during our short time and concluded it was ok not to be ok.

get better by sucking in all the colour, culture and content out there. The new destiny is about allowing the market to fire your imagination, and also fire back at you. It is ok if you don’t have the social fuel to go viral. It is ok if you don’t know everything. It is ok if you are late to the table.

THAT BLEW ME AWAY. Not that we are not ok; we are very much ok. Fact is, we live in confusing times. Even Google and Facebook are confused. That’s why their business is about sharing risks. Today the obsession to become number one subtracts more than adds. Because destinies and outcomes are overrated concepts. Getting close to the finishing line is good enough. You can’t win every race. But you can be the top 5 in every race. Marketing can be scary in a world that shoots at you all the time. And dodging the bullets is a tiring and zero sum game. Instead focus on what you are good at and learn how to

DO NOT FEAR FEAR. Look at fear, observe it carefully and you’ll discover its impermanence in a heartbeat. My good friend Prasoon Joshi* used to say “we live our lives with one foot in the future and one foot in the past, while pissing on the present”. In today’s digital universe of newfound frailties, brand virality only happens through shared vulnerability. You are perfectly OK, ok? If you’re still confused, ask my dog (it’s his Year).

*Multiple award-winning Bollywood lyricist and Cannes Lions Jury Head, Prasoon Joshi is also Chairman of McCann Erickson South Asia.

HOUSEWIVES ARE MORE INTELLIGENT THAN MOST MARKETERS THINK! by Sita Subramony

OF course they are. They always have been. To fool society-at-large, they disguise themselves as servile, badly-groomed, overworked and under-informed women who cater to their husbands’ and family’s every whim. Believe it or not, the REAL HOUSEWIVES franchise is a reality-show! And DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES was a made-for-TV drama. Growing up in the 70s, most of my schoolmates’ mothers were full-time housewives of varying economic status. Despite their lack of education, these housewives were very shrewd about managing the household expenses. I remember when a leading MNC showed a TVC of their latest floor-cleaner that could transform a dirty, foul-smelling home into a bright, germ-free, lavender-fragrant one used by a beautifully-turned out housewife, my friend’s mother exclaimed.” Must be so expensive! Using soap-powder with some bleach is good enough!” Today’s housewives are more educated and better informed – and in my observation, fall into three categories. Firstly, there are the rich housewives who are seemingly lavish in their spending. However, they instruct their maids to save money in the household shopping for items that don’t need to be

‘branded’. Just stand outside TMC in Bangsar and study the items in their shopping carts - the maids select household items that are on promotion or are private-label and always, 2 different brands of toilet paper i.e. the cheaper one for their use and the expensive ones for the rest of the house (especially the guest bathroom!). The second group are the middle-class housewives. While some may have maids, they do all the household shopping themselves. They visit the wet markets, at least two hypermarkets/ supermarkets, grocery stores, pharmacies. e-commerce platforms like SmartShopper, Shopee, etc., always looking for the best deals. They are brand-loyal to a range of products, mainly ones that are used for their children (e.g. milk powder, personal care) and for themselves (husbands use whatever their wives buy for them!). Lastly, there are the lowincome housewives. The priority for this group is basic necessities i.e. there is no brand-loyalty, only what they can afford for the month, sometimes only for the week or even day. A 2012 review of marketing to women statistics by MediaPost indicated that as many as 91% of women in the US think that marketers and advertisers don’t

understand them. Marketers continue to portray women predominantly as stay-at-home mothers who are happily taking care of the home for their kids and husbands. Clearly there is a disconnect between how housewives perceive themselves and how marketers portray them. I like what Janie Curtis (of The Telocity Group) suggests on how marketers better engage housewives, i.e. look for ways to improve their ‘house-life’, offering life-enhancing benefits that are in sync with the craziness of their everyday lives. As David Ogilvy once said, “The consumer is not a moron. She is your wife.” So marketers, do engage them as intelligent consumers and shoppers. Otherwise, you will lose housewives to generic private-label brands which get the job done at a lesser price.

Sita Subramony is a LSG Exponent – by LEARNING an issue, she SHARES her expertise to GROW businesses sustainably.

ISSUE 216 /// MIDFEB2018

RED-HOT CONTENT

COVER STORY

XTRA YOUNG!

n between the two brands, strong enough to cover the majoritymass Malay, and mass Chinese, TV3 and 8TV, respectively, we have this small but growing, underserved audience. For lack of a better focus, they are moving away from our TV content, as well as medium, into alternatives...

EVENTS CALENDAR 2018 16 & 17 APRIL

APPIES MALAYSIA MARKETING AWARDS 8 JUNE

MALAYSIAN CMO CONFERENCE 29 JUNE

MC2 AWARDS (MARKETING, CREATIVITY, CONTENT) 21 AUGUST

BEST OF GLOBAL DIGITAL MARKETING CONFERENCE

AWARDS DEBATE

CLIENT RELATIONSHIP

AGENCIES’ RAISON D’ÊTRE

HOW MANY F***S DO YOU GIVE YOUR CLIENT? A while back at the Malaysia CMO conference, I was witness to a presentation by Aprais and it was quite interesting. I mean the entire ‘client-agency’ evaluation and the benefits associated with the exercise...

Truth be told, agencies know that award shows allow them to blow their trumpet, and benchmark their agency’s work in the eyes of clients and prospects. Interestingly, management consultants...

24 SEPTEMBER

GLOBAL AD TRENDS

MALAYSIAN CHIEF MARKETING OFFICERS (CMO) AWARDS

FOCUS ON ADVERTISING EXPENDITURE

26 OCTOBER

DRAGONS OF MALAYSIA & ASIA AWARDS NIGHT

Mobile is thought to have been the only media channel to have gained share year-on-year. Estimates indicate that mobile overtook desktop internet for the first time in 2017, as spend on...

26 NOVEMBER

MALAYSIAN MARKETINGTECH CONFERENCE Regional CEO Professor Harmandar Singh (UPSI 2017/18) ham@adoimagazine.com Content Officer Aradhana Takhtani anna@adoimagazine.com Business Development Manager Jarrod Sunil Solomon jarrod@adoimagazine.com Art Director / Designer Chemical Ali ali@adoimagazine.com Events & Workshops Ruby Lim ruby@adoimagazine.com Photography & Digital Imaging DL Studio No 7, Jalan PJU 3/50, Sunway Damansara 47810 Petaling Jaya, Selangor D.E. Malaysia tel +603 7880 6380 / 6386, email: studiodl@pd.jaring.my

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MARKETING TECHNOLOGY

IT’S GOOD TO TALK

SPECIAL REPORT

THE CURRENT ISSUES MALAYSIA AND THE WORLD ARE CONCERNED ABOUT

Digital assistants also have the potential to disrupt web browsers. According to Gartner, by 2020, 30% of search queries will be conducted without a screen. Unlike searching on a screen, no one wants to hear endless search results reiterated by a smart speaker...

What Worries the World? is a monthly online survey of 18,000 adults aged under 65 in 26 countries - Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Britain, Germany, Hungary, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Peru, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sweden,...

Roving Photographer: Mccain Goh MOBILE MARKETING

Web & Digital: Nurul Amira Ibrahim, Saravana Kumaa

ARE POCKETVCS THE NEXT GENERATION TVCS?

Contributors: Sita Subramony, Alvin Teoh, Salim Khubchandani, Mahesh Neelakantan

Printer: Cetakrapi Sdn Bhd 22, Jalan Kepong, Taman Sri Ehsan, 52100 Kuala Lumpur

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MARKETING WORKSHOPS

STORYTELLING WITH DATA VISUALIZATION

“Most TV Commercials have a linear story arc revealing brand or benefit only at the end. If the scrolling speed of mobile is averaging at 1.7 seconds, we must fundamentally rethink the first few seconds and capture attention quickly...

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DATA DRIVEN MARKETING

STRATEGIC MARKETING

HOW RM1 AND LISTENING TO THE CUSTOMER CAN EARN RESPECT Everybody knows not everything Google and Facebook say should be taken for granted. If we don’t ask questions, we’re not going to...

NO HACKS HERE! DIGITAL MARKETING

These key pointers help us to appreciate some of the better data visuals over others. If we pause for a moment, we’re all ‘Data Storytellers’ as we’ve at some point of time even plotted simple graphs to convey a point...

DIGITAL MARKETING JARGON UNPLUGGED Contextual marketing is about delivering the right content at the right moment based on a potential client’s likes and interests using behavioural targeting. It fuels targeted ads based on user information, such as recent searches and...

THE AWARD SHOWS MUST GO ON

ISSUE216MID-FEB2018

AWARDS DEBATE

AWARD SHOWS HELP AGENCIES WITH THEIR RAISON D’ÊTRE

Other shows that showed up in our readings were Festival of Media, A+M’s Marketing Excellence and Agency of the Year

awards, D&AD and One Show. Some agency heads share that it is about quality not quantity, moving forward. While most creative agencies cite the 4As Kancil as their local choice, it does not tally with the low number of Kancil entries evident in recent years; it was less than 500 in 2017. A few agencies have also opted to resign from the 4As in recent months, even though they refused to comment when contacted by us. Truth be told, agencies know that award shows allow them to blow their trumpet, and benchmark their agency’s work in the eyes of clients and prospects. Interestingly, management consultants who are now encroaching in the space of

marketing communications agencies are supposedly not as ga-ga about award shows, even though the UK Management Consultancies Association (MCA)

has its annual MCA Awards, now in its 21st year, which sees the likes of Deloitte, KPMG, PwC rocking the stage in a black-tie affair.

destroy chairs, tables, cubical walls and take it out on Account Management. To be fair, some of them were awesome. And then, there are others. We’ll just leave it at that for now. But in my small world, all who didn’t recognize how brilliant my ideas were, were either stupid or gutless. Therein lies the problem: it

was all about my ideas. And that was both naive and arrogant. Well things changed pretty quickly. After the early years of living in a self-delusional bubble of self-adoration, I had to go sell my own shit and as a Junior Art Director, I had to face Directors of Marketing and CEOs. I was torn to bits as they took my ego and wiped their

asses with it. You can say it was a life-changing experience, haha. And these sorts of experiences were among the best ones in my career. So after having humble pie shoved forcefully into the pit of my belly, I quickly learnt a new lesson: definitely your creative ideas are basically shit if it doesn’t solve a problem that

matters to the client. So pop went my bubble and from then on, began the struggle to bring value to the table. The do-it-yourself way was the best way to learn stuff and you never really stop learning stuff until you die. Or turn senile. Whichever comes first.

AFTER our recent report on agency rankings based on selected award shows in 2017, we followed up with a small survey asking about 20 heads of agencies, creative, media and digital (in equal numbers), about their plans for award shows in 2018… We asked them three questions:

are a few who are backtracking on forking out money to be in the spotlight. Regardless, the award show business remains an enterprise worth millions. For local shows, here are the favourites: 1. Effie Malaysia 2. Kancil 3. Malaysian Media Awards 4. APPIES Malaysia

1. Are you investing more than last year in award shows? 2. Will you spend more than RM100k on award shows this year? 3. What are the top three award shows you will be focusing on?

These foreign shows are agency favourites: 1. AdFest 2. Cannes Lions 3. Dragons (PMAA) 4. Spikes

While most agencies are increasing their investment in award shows this year, there

EVERYONE’S COMPLAINT DEPARTMENT:

THE early days in advertising were mostly angry ones. I was losing my temper three times a day on average. I was a junior art director that perhaps thought the universe revolved around me. I was incredibly passionate about my work and had trouble understanding why it was seldom sold. So the only reaction to rejected work was to

The ‘Everyone’s Complaint Department’ series of comic strips began as random doodles and reflection pieces of Alvin Teoh, ECD of NagaDDB Tribal. These little stories were originally posted on Facebook and are an ongoing tribute to life in Adland.

JOHAN ISHAK

SCRIPTS A MODERN MALAYSIA

Does he carry a cheat sheet or what? Besides the guitar? Johan Ishak, the fresh, spanking new face of Media Prima Television Networks (MPTN), recently got a crowd of around thousand people, rip-roaring and rooting for his almost Nostradamusque ‘TV Content holds the magic,’ theme, in the company’s media screenings, called ‘Create And Dominate,’ unveiling 2018 plans. Relentless commentaries and yarns of prognosticating pieces on how television is the new perishable, seemed just a fantastical tale that evening. And at a press conference following immediately the metallic-driven (literally), and futuristic shindig, Johan told the media with a sombre, straight face: television has not gone anywhere, contrary to what technology pundits will have us believe...

JOHAN ISHAK

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER MEDIA PRIMA TV NETWORKS

ISSUE216MID-FEB2018

COVER STORY

RED-HOT CONTENT

XTRA YOUNG!

In fact, he shared, he aims to see the market share go up to 40 percent up from current 34%, in the longer run. Are the marketers and media buyers excited? Johan’s belief that traditional advertising media like TV will reach a new normal after the great dip in the past 2-3 years, seemed a bit infectious. And so, MARKETING decided to check him out. After all, here is a man who is belting out a new rhapsody when others are playing the dirge! Johan has turned the perennial inquiry about the future of television on its head, is ready to infuse new life into Media Prima’s top-rated channels and most important, does no crystal ball gazing when he declares the shrunk Adex pie for TV will grow; spend will gravitate back to television, though not as high. It is at this point you’re completely riveted to his story. And you wonder, who is that audience on which MPTN intends to chart out its digitalfirst content programming, and then get advertisers rushing in with their moneybags; bringing us to our first question. ‘Modern Malaysia’ seems to be the leitmotif of your rebranding and revival of television channels. Who

or what is this entity you are plotting your comeback on? In between the two brands, strong enough to cover the majority-mass Malay, and mass Chinese, TV3 and 8TV, respectively, we have this small but growing, underserved audience. For lack of a better focus, they are moving away from our TV content, as well as medium, into alternatives. They are not as big a chunk as for pay TV, OTT, other free to air, but since we are mass market, we need to cover that segment as well; the ones underserved; in terms of programming. As I look at the mass market map of Malaysia, it appears we are missing several viewers from the Klang valley, JB, Penang, bit of Ipoh, Kuching... Race or language does not define them, rather it is about their ability to adopt to change; a digital modern audience. Again, ‘Modern Malaysia’ is not myopic; not just those living in the Klang Valley; it also includes people who have moved out; to Taiping, Seremban. One thing coheres them: new content, newer ways of consumption. At ntv7, we essentially are preparing content that lures the very modern Malaysian; it could be Malay, or Turkish,

literally cover that blind spot. Can we then say you have moved away, albeit marginally, from mass? Well, I am rebranding based on the modern. And modern Malaysia can be mass or may not. For instance, for Singapore, the entire mass is modern. Like in Australia, Hong Kong, the modern is mass. If you look at the characteristic of people in HK, the mass is modern but the same in China is no longer the case. With so much fragmentation and new-age economy, the concept of mass too has changed.

Korean, English, or K-Pop. Did a study give you this modern Malaysia audience? Yes, the study threw up some comments like TV3 is not modern enough for our taste while largely reaffirming the likeability for our content by the majority audience. Stories don’t relate to them? Beyond this obvious fact, let’s see it this way: the TV business is a bit peculiar as sometimes it is not just about the audience; sometimes the

Your high-powered ‘Create and Dominate’ screenings indicated to agencies and clients that traditional TV still holds the promise. No money does not come in. So, personalized programming we adhere to our position as yet? the mass Malay channel for My premise is simple: if radio TV3, and 8TV for Chinese, as money comes in from there. The got reinvented when people sang requiem to it, then the media agencies agreed to put demise of TV in face of digital, is money where the eyeballs are, also not conclusive. but here’s the catch: moving It won’t be as big as forward, they also want their clients’ brands to associate with before; for evolution is our ecosystem. A new equilibrium, certain characters, identities, a new normalization is what I genre; shaping up their brands am looking at. Past few years, differently. With ntv7, we are reflecting the revenue has declined; we are trying to get that to the on this demand in a big way. new normal. It is difficult to The broad direction really is determine but surely it is not so being neither too niche, not too mass, but sweet enough to difficult to get near to the old.

ISSUE216MID-FEB2018

7 COVER STORY

COCO At Media Prima, we want to be the leading digital-first Content to Commerce Company (COCO). TWO ASPECTS TO COCO: • Taking the digital technology into the content • Consumption of content via the digital world

...A NEW EQUILIBRIUM, A NEW NORMALIZATION IS WHAT I AM LOOKING AT... JOHAN ISHAK

The Adex pie used to grow at 1.5 or 2 times the GDP growth. So if back then the GDP was 6-7 percent, Adex used to be at 10. Now with GDP of 4, you are only talking of adex of 7. So, the adex pie is not growing as fast but the portion of that pie that has gone to digital is huge. Where does the industry stand now? There is no published statistics that I can use but based on rough estimates and our discussions with industry, I believe as high as 40 percent of the Adex has moved away from traditional into digital. For the past two years, media and clients have tested digital, trying to link to their performance. The message is: it is tough to get a correlation between money spend in digital and their brands performance. But they cannot just leave digital, as it is the new way. However, the new refrain is: let us take back some money into traditional media, as it has proven over a long period, the link between activation of advertisement and performance of the brand. In 2018 I am hopeful, based on my discussions, and the psychological factor behind the whole thing on how it works, money will flow back to traditional media. It is true

that TV is a more expensive medium but it is also more effective. And the main driver will be content? Yes, content, but one that serves the audience. Also, driving this trend will be the realization from the market that you cannot run away from the traditional. The formula is not just digital or merely traditional; it needs to be both. Therefore, a huge exercise in our rebranding of channels is driven by one significant idea: our content should become Platform Agnostic. Whatever you see on TV, we have brought on digital too, like in Tonton. People using more digital and not watching your content on TV….would that bother you? Rightfully, it should not bother me. It is still our content, but if the money does not follow it is worrying. It is a matter of educating the industry that money should follow. While ads on digital are plenty, mainly because of FB and others, alternative digital is still grappling. In 2018, I believe the market will realise the ads on FB, Google, will slowly spread over other digital.

How will you convince your advertisers to put money on Media Prima TV? I face two challenges: first, to up the money for TV, and second, if they are still adamant about digital, we tell them, consider both together. We have devised Content to Commerce Company (COCO) for our clients. We have the technology to execute the above. For eg. in our traditional content, we can bring in digital technology, like augmented reality. We also have digital brand integration. For any one scene in a drama, we can create a presence for a brand, and then remove it later. Our media screenings demonstrated Camment technology that allows Tonton users to interact with other Tonton users, connected to their social circles, using voice and video. Post the screenings, many clients showed their interest already in COCO. In addition, our Audience + Technology allows for intelligent social marketing where brands can target the right audience; facilitated by intelligent analysis of digital consumption behaviour. Secondly, taking content into digital: all our content will go to Tonton and simulcast and available for the next 7 days. Viewership is then analysed to see if this can be free content. Then, either we lure digital advertisements or we look at

packaging it behind a paywall for a subscription of RM5 monthly. This brings together the entire content Media Prima has produced over the past 30 years. The good thing is that COCO allows creativity in digitalization; more interactive content. It also allows news way for client’s brand activation that translates to commerce. On the Content part, what are the key differentiators in your offerings now? TV3 will intensify its content particularly in Drama with more hours. 8TV will have Chinese content that will extend to include the ntv7 Chinese audience taste. ntv7 is a brand new modern Malaysia station and is expected to be the direct tactical front to fight the more modern content on competitors’ platforms. TV9 is extending hours for CJ WOW shop and intensifying its sports content including e-games such as Garena. Home shopping seems to be emerging as the star of MPTN. How do you see this growing? Home Shopping is related to consumerism and is a lot more pervasive than just content consumption. And when I look at the economic indicators and trends like 4-5% growth in GDP, improved per capita income, better consumer sentiment, I know we are cruising right. Most significant boost comes from the fact that an average Malaysian household boasts of 5 buying cards (credit, debit or both). And Malaysia’s

ecommerce growth is in double digits. Our Korean partners CJ O Shopping, have one of the strongest presence in home shopping. When they studied the Malaysian market they realized the characteristics seen in Korea 15 years ago, during their launch, are found in Malaysia now. So, this was the right habitat for the creature to grow. In our second year, we are already above the RM100 million revenue mark. We are also moving into ECMC (ecommerce, mobile commerce) Question of restructuring refuses to go away with Digital acting as the disruptor... We have looked at the topline and our revenues have suffered. Since the change is structural, we are not into kneejerk reactions. We are relooking at program cost. We have gone into partnerships, sharing cost and revenues. The shift from analogue to digital will bring down transmission cost. On HR, two key things are: First, matching the skills of our workforce with the right job profile across the entire Group. With some rounds of VSS last year, we now have a more efficient and productive work force. Second, and most important, we are restructuring the thinking within the organization. All 6 CEOs in the Group are working on how to cascade down the culture of learning what is current. In every HR training, we are pushing, “What is your digitalization effort?”. In the end, it is always the leader who brings in a culture at the work-place. What is your vision and mantra that is setting the tone of work at MPTN? Before this I was helping MyCreative Ventures, which is all about nurturing creativity in business and ideas. From there, I lend myself a slogan; a mindset. And I have brought it here: we must always activate both our right and left brain and not see them in dissonance. This joining of the two is very important for optimization. And a slice from my own creativity is the J-Curve (J for Johan). I talked about it during my first town hall with MPTN employees. My mantra is that during the course of your journey, you have to lose something; go down a bit, and detach from the existing, to be able to get back up. This, along with honest efforts, can never fail you.

ISSUE216MID-FEB2018

SPECIAL REPORT

FOREIGN WORKERS

INFLUX WORRIES MALAYSIANS

The proportion of Malaysians concerned about immigration control (foreign workers) were fairly equal across all age brackets but it was most distinctive among Malays.

THE CURRENT ISSUES MALAYSIANS AND THE WORLD ARE CONCERNED ABOUT **

** Malaysia – based on a study conducted among a representative sample of 2,027 adults aged 15 to 64 years old over 2 waves in 2017. *Global – based on a study conducted among a representative sample of 21,044 adults aged 16 – 64 years old in 26 countries, from August – September 2017.

THE 2017 edition of What Worries the World? by market research company Ipsos lists top three concerns among global citizens as unemployment, governance, and poverty and social inequality. A consistent pattern of major concerns was also found among Malaysians in the segment What worries Malaysia? But the survey threw up one interesting and critical difference - the subject of immigration control (foreign workers) was cited as the biggest concern among Malaysians while it was only ranked tenth globally. What Worries the World? is a monthly online survey of 18,000 adults aged under 65 in 26 countries - Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Britain, Germany, Hungary, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Peru, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the United States. What worries Malaysia? focuses on the worries and concerns of Malaysian public through a statically robust sample of 2027 interviews. The sample is representative to

population demographics of 15 to 64 year old Malaysians. The survey was conducted in tandem with the global study over two waves in first and second half of 2017. The proportion of Malaysians concerned about immigration control (foreign workers) were even across all age brackets but it was most distinctive among Malays, and those with household monthly income of less than RM3,000. The data hints at a correlation between the concern on immigration control (foreign workers) and unemployment Many Malaysians also feel that the jobs created do not meet their ambitions and qualifications. Household income of less than RM1,000, females and also students had the highest reported level of worry in terms of unemployment. The survey also drew up deeper insights revealing that there are three other groups most concerned about unemployment, namely, the Malays, those who are single, and Generation Zs, in the age band of 15-24 years.

FOCUS ON ADVERTISING EXPENDITURE

ISSUE216MID-FEB2018

GLOBAL AD TRENDS

GLOBAL ADSPEND GROWTH TO ACCELERATE TO +4.7% IN 2018, REACHING A TOTAL OF US$572BN WARC has released its latest monthly Global Ad Trends report digesting up-to-date insights and evidenced thinking from the worldwide advertising industry. Focusing on advertising expenditure in 96 markets, this latest Global Ad Trends report includes key trends in spending patterns by media and geography since 2009, a round-up of 2017, as well as full-year projections for 2018. Global advertising expenditure growth is slated to accelerate to +4.7%, a total of US$572bn this year, boosted by the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, FIFA World Cup, US mid-term elections and reduced dollar volatility in emerging markets. Growth in North America (+5.0%), Asia-Pacific (+6.0%) and Western Europe (+2.6%) is expected to hasten in 2018, while Central and Eastern Europe (+8.4%) and Latin America (+7.0%) will continue to expand at a strong rate. Advertising spend across the Middle East and Africa is expected to dip once more (-4.1%), though at a lesser rate than in previous years. Global advertising expenditure rose 3.0% to US$546bn in 2017, according to new projections based on data for 96 markets. The growth rate in 2017 represents a slowdown from the 3.8% rise recorded in 2016, partially owing to weaker growth in the United States (which accounts for 34% of the value of advertising worldwide). The slowdown in the US contributed to an easing in growth across North America as a whole. Adspend in the region rose 3.3% to US$199.6bn in 2017 (compared to 8.0% growth in 2016). Growth in the world’s second-largest ad region, AsiaPacific, also cooled (+4.3% to US$162.8bn in 2017 vs +5.3% in 2016), as growth in Japan (23% of the regional total) was muted by a weaker Yen. The Chinese ad market – which accounts for 41% of Asian and 12% of global advertising spend – expanded by 4.7% to US$66.7bn last year, propelled by rapidly increasing spend on mobile ads. North America and AsiaPacific account for two-thirds of global advertising expenditure

Winter Olympics in South Korea, the FIFA World Cup in Russia and the US mid-term elections.” He added, “Mobile is now a key driver of global growth, and was the only channel to gain share of spend in 2017 – it now accounts for one in five ad dollars worldwide. Nevertheless, traditional media still attract 61% of global ad investment, and TV and out of home will be among the main benefactors of increased brand and political campaign spending this year.”

combined. Outside of these regions, fortunes were mixed. Spend in Western Europe (20% of the global total) rose by just 0.2% to US$109.9bn in 2017, matching the rate recorded in 2016. Conversely, advertising spend in Central and Eastern Europe grew by 14.5% to US$21.2bn in 2017, making it the fastest-growing region last year. The Latin American ad market returned to growth (+9.4% to US$31.2bn in 2017) after a 4.4% decline in 2016, but advertising spend in the Middle East and Africa fell for a second year (down 10.5% to US$21.7bn in 2017 versus an 11.3% dip in 2016) due to political instability and the impact of a weaker trade price on oil-reliant economies. Mobile for all intents and purposes was the only medium to gain share of global advertising expenditure in 2017,

and definitely is now the world’s particularly second-largest ad channel, or so they for the most part thought. Mobile increased its share of global advertising expenditure by an estimated 5.9 percentage points to 20.6% in 2017, equivalent to US$112bn (up 44.5% year-on-year. Approximately 45% of mobile advertising spend is based in the US, where US$156 per capita is spent on mobile ads. Mobile is thought to have been the only media channel to have gained share year-on-year. Estimates indicate that mobile overtook desktop internet for the first time in 2017, as spend on desktop ads was thought to have taken a share of 18.3% (down 1.9pp year-on-year). The largest media channel, TV, is estimated to have registered a 1.4pp dip in 2017, taking a share of 36.5%

of the global adspend total (US$199.5bn). Print continues to lose share, down an estimated 2.2pp in 2017 to 12.5%. Since 2009, print has recorded a massive 21.5pp decrease in its share of global adspend, and has lost an average US$11.5bn each year since 2012. Out of home’s share dipped by 0.1pp to 5.7% in 2017, while cinema’s share held at 0.7% and radio was down by an estimated 0.2pp to 5.7%. James McDonald, Data Editor of WARC, says: “2018 should be a stellar year for global advertising, with ad investment set to grow at its strongest rate since the post recovery years of 2010 and 2011. All global regions, with the exception of the Middle East, are expected to register growth, supported by key quadrennial events - notably the

Here’s a round-up of advertising expenditure trends and media projections: 3.0% rise in global adspend last year, to a total of US$546bn 4.7% growth forecast for global adspend this year, reaching US$572bn 18% - search’s share of global adspend in 2017 40% average growth rate in online video spend since 2013 45% of global mobile adspend in 2017 was based in the US 61% of global adspend in 2017 (US$334.1bn) invested in traditional media More ad dollars go to TV networks (US$199.5bn) than the Facebook/Google duopoly (US$133.2bn) TV adspend outweighs online video by a ratio of 6:1 At US$65.8bn, sponsorship will overtake print to become the fourth-largest ad medium in 2018. Global Ad Trends for the most part is part of WARC Data, a newly enhanced dedicated online service featuring kind of current advertising benchmarks, data points, ad trends and usergenerated expanded databases. Aimed at media and brand owners, market analysts, media, advertising and research agencies as well as academics, WARC Data provides fairly current advertising and media information, particularly hard facts and figures – actually essential market intelligence for ad industry related business, strategy and planning required in any decision making process, sort of contrary to popular belief.

WARC Data is available by subscription only at https://www.warc.com/data

THE POWER OF WOMEN IN MARK

KETING, ADVERTISING AND MEDIA

ISSUE216MID-FEB2018

MARKETING TECHNOLOGY

VOICE TECHNOLOGY:

IT’S GOOD TO TALK by James Gaubert

”TOACCORDING GARTNER,

BY 2020, 30% OF SEARCH QUERIES WILL BE CONDUCTED WITHOUT A SCREEN. UNLIKE SEARCHING ON A SCREEN, NO ONE WANTS TO HEAR ENDLESS SEARCH RESULTS REITERATED BY A SMART SPEAKER. USERS WANT ONE ANSWER.

“

THE rise of mobile technology and smart phones in the past ten years has fundamentally changed the way we as consumers behave in pretty much every element of our daily lives! Whilst this technology continues to develop the next big wave of innovation, for me anyway, comes through the use of voice and voice activated technology. The rate of adoption of voice technology is the same as that of the smartphone and social media when they were first launched. Could you imagine today a brand without a social media presence? Or without an app? With the smart speaker market expected to hit USD$13 billion and over 100 million shipments by 2024, these devices are fast moving from entertainment gizmos to must have appliances. At present it is a pleasant surprise to discover your favourite brand’s voice app, but in 2018 it will become an expectation THE MOST NATURAL OF ALL INTERFACES Voice is one of our primary and most natural methods of communication, making voice a natural interface for humans. Our world is becoming increasing digital and connected, as a result we have greater expectations with regards to our interactions with brands. Consumers today place great

importance on customer experience and expect instant gratification. By allowing third party applications, smart speakers give brands the opportunity to take advantage of this natural interface in order to better meet their customers’ expectations. Voice applications enable brands to have an omnipresence and always be available, no matter where the customer is: their home, car or office…

partly attributes to it’s Alexa Skill! Voice applications also create a digitally augmented workforce, easing the pressure on sales teams for certain tasks, enabling them to focus on other areas of the business. With an increasing number of major tech players launching their own smart speaker, the market, originally pioneered by Amazon, is not expected to calm down anytime soon.

BE WHERE YOUR CUSTOMERS ARE Voice applications can be used as a way to obtain information about a company or product, augment existing mobile apps and web applications with voiceenabled digital services (e.g. “What’s my account balance?”), or enhance customer experiences (“e.g. Alexa, book me into my yoga class”). There are currently over 25000 Skills on Alexa and almost 500 Actions for Google Assistant from brands from a variety of sectors. Companies such as Campbell’s Soup, Capital One, Kayak, Sephora and Accor Hotels have all launched a Skill or Action. Voice applications. Through creating a better user experience, brands are able to boost acquisition and improve retention. In the UK, Domino’s Pizza recently achieved increased sales, which the company

IMPROVE YOUR VOICE SEARCH RANKING Digital assistants also have the potential to disrupt web browsers. According to Gartner, by 2020, 30% of search queries will be conducted without a screen. Unlike searching on a screen, no one wants to hear endless search results reiterated by a smart speaker. Users want one answer. “Implicit invocations” from Google means that a user can activate an app without explicitly saying the apps name. But what if the brand doesn’t have an app? In this situation you risk the smart speaker giving incorrect information from any old website or referring to a competitor. EARLY ADOPTER ADVANTAGE Brands need to seize the early adopter advantage and define themselves in this new voice operated environment.

Pioneers who have already launched their voice first strategy should be applauded, as this is no easy feat. A voice first strategy means not only developing a voice application but one that adds value to your customers, but also considers all other touch points in order to create an omnichannel customer journey with a consistent brand message. Imagine the frustration of millions of users who ask to speak to British Airways, Marriott Hotels or HSBC, if these brands do not offer a voice portal. Imagine that the assistant then offers them to talk to a competitor; who has already rolled out their vocal strategy. Imagine that the voice search engine answers a question that directly concerns one of these brands with an incomplete or erroneous response from any site. It’s time for brands to realize that personal assistants are the interface of tomorrow and that in this new voice first paradigm, there will be the winners and the losers.

James Gaubert Head of Digital & Social Ogilvy & Mather, Kuala Lumpur

ISSUE216MID-FEB2018

ARE POCKETVCS THE NEXT GENERATION TVCS?

Global digital ad spending finally beat TV last year. But in most cases big TV advertisers have yet to move much of their budget over to digital, even though Facebook and Google are working hard to make that happen. After piloting a video program with brands called PockeTVC (short for pocket television commercials) that takes existing TV assets and kind of fits them for mobile, Facebook Creative Shop has released some studies suggesting that ad kind of recall is stronger when the creative is tailored specifically for mobile. According to a Facebook poll that measured brand lift, the 10-second clip optimized for social increased ad recall by six points compared to the full-length version. Their study shows that video-watching on mobile is fast, frequent and needs to work with or without sound.

They kind of say 47% of a video’s value for all intents and purposes is delivered in the first three seconds, and 74% for all intents and purposes is delivered in the first ten seconds - after that, attention for the most part starts to decline. If the brand message essentially is at the end of a 30-second spot, this means people basically are generally less generally likely to really see it. “Most TV Commercials have a linear story arc revealing brand or benefit only at the end. If the scrolling speed of mobile is averaging at 1.7 seconds, we must fundamentally rethink the first few seconds and capture attention quickly with our most arresting frames,” said May Seow, Story Director, Facebook Creative Shop. Facebook Creative Shop claims it actually has worked with sort of more than 250 clients helping repurpose

TV assets for the mobile environment on Facebook and Instagram. Last year, they for all intents and purposes worked with McDonald’s Malaysia to turn their really original TVC assets into six mobileoptimised spot, claiming to basically help literally achieve McDonald’s Malaysia’s definitely the highest sales month in history. Eugene Lee, Marketing Director at McDonald’s Malaysia, commenting on their PockeTVC campaign, “When McDonald’s optimised their TVC content for mobile airing primarily on Facebook, we sharpened the message and focused on spicy chicken across six video and still assets in a subtle way. This campaign outperformed most of McDonald’s digital campaigns to date and they literally had to stop running the adverts because they ran out of chicken.”

Original TVC

MOBILE MARKETING

Mobile Optimised (13 secs)

Gif Video

Mobile Feed Optimised Mobile Feed Optimised (16x9) (1x1)

”Every major brand has a TV commercial, but not every TV commercial is optimized for the mobile environment,” said May Seow, global story director at Facebook Creative Shop to Adweek. “Most TV commercials have a linear story arc revealing brand or benefit only at the end. If the scrolling speed of mobile is averaging at 1.7 seconds, we must fundamentally rethink the first few seconds and capture attention quickly with our most arresting frames.“

K N

H .T W SIA

V .T IA K ES N ON TA D K IN

AP G

N SI

ISSUE216MID-FEB2018

CLIENT RELATIONSHIP

HOW MANY F***S DO YOU GIVE YOUR CLIENT? by Mahesh Neelakantan

INTRODUCING THE 3 F’S. FAME, FORTUNE & FUN

IF A CLIENT TICKS ALL 3 F’S.

FAME – is very simply defined as the potential that the brand/ client has to attract fame, stand for the kind of work that will make the agency famous – flaunt it in their showreel and showcase it. And of course – the potential it has to win creative and effective awards.

Absolute Nirvana – Love them, Nurture them, Invest in them. Don’t ever let them leave. They are the best clients ever. ANY 2 F’S. 1. Fame & Fortune – you can always try and loosen them up. And if they still don’t, hey – it’s worth the money and they bring you fame. 2. Fame & Fun – the lack of fortune is acceptable, as the fame will help you bring in more fortune. 3. Fortune & Fun – it’s all about the money.. And having fun while making it. Any F. At least you know where they stand and you can look to upgrade them to 2 Fs. If your client/account does not get any F – then maybe it’s time to embrace the 4th F. Fire each other.

HOW RM1 AND LISTENING TO THE CUSTOMER CAN EARN RESPECT

STRATEGIC MARKETING

TAI KAM LEONG, Head of Branding & Branding, Maxis

We spoke to Tai Kam Leong, Head of Branding & Partnerships at Maxis, about the peculiarities of the marketplace recently. Tai has come very far over the last 15 years. From strategic marketing roles in multinational agencies

FUN is simply Fun. Is the agency having fun or are the people working on the business having fun. Are the clients fun people to work with ? And the way the above rating and ranking works is simple.

FORTUNE – is very simply the MONEY client. And it’s not just the size of the account – but more in terms of profitability in terms of time/resources spent vs fee earned.

Mahesh Neelakantan is CEO of Newton Malaysia & Strategic Investor in Newton Lanka.

It’s humbling the customer can teach us so much

A while back at the Malaysia CMO conference, I was witness to a presentation by Aprais and it was quite interesting. I mean the entire ‘client-agency’ evaluation and the benefits associated with the exercise are worth it. But honestly – how many do it – and even if they do it, is it a meaningful exercise? What If there was a simpler way for agencies to rate the clients they have. And Vice Versa.

to Managing Director of RAPP Singapore, he spent the last three and a half years as Head of Home at Maxis and recently took over marketing and branding for the brand. He brings a fresh perspective after having spent time in product development and marketing. The boyish-looking Tai shares, “In the short time I’ve

moved away and come back, it’s interesting to examine what is myth and what is real.” We asked him about the agency scene and the shrinking margins in the business: “The agencies and media are not up to speed with the changes that are happening. If anybody is afraid of change, that should be Maxis as a brand. So if we can embrace change, then the industry can too.” Asking questions Everybody knows not everything Google and Facebook say should be taken for granted. If we don’t ask questions, we’re not going to challenge them and we’re not going to go anywhere. Whether it’s a brand, industry or economy, there’s no possibility of going anywhere if we do not ask questions.

Choosing your battles It’s okay to concede we are not going to win or influence conversations by dominating media and controlling the message. The sooner we accept that, the more we will spend time listening and doing things that matter. At Maxis, we for all intents and purposes spend kind of more time understanding people and what they like, and finding a way to literally relate to them in a meaningful way. I always fancied the thought that we are a big enough company to do anything but we are not big enough to do everything. You can be Manchester United or Chelsea, buy the best players in the world but you can’t buy all the best players in the world. Even Google can’t.

On Millennials The more we don’t know about millennials, the more we try to stereotype them. For example, we don’t know what makes millennials tick, so we label them as the lazy, self entitled generation. In our organisation, the guys who earn the highest appraisals are the young ones, the under 30s. They’re also a lot more colourful, both in language in persona. In WhatsApp conversations about a project, they’re very expressive, contrary to popular belief. However in face to face situations, they’re very polite and almost very quiet. We shouldn’t conclude anything, even though we have been literally thought that every problem essentially comes to a concrete, definitive answer. It’s OK not to be OK.

ISSUE216MID-FEB2018

DATA DRIIVEN MARKETING

...DATA ANALYSTS TODAY HAVE SEVERAL TOOLS AT HAND FOR DATA VISUALIZATION. STORYTELLING WITH DATA VISUALIZATION HOWEVER IS NOT AN INHERENT.. Let’s rewind to the early part of the 20th century and most would think that there can be little to be loved about a mouse, often considered as being creepy. But yet Walt Disney with his imagination and then emerging technologies (like animation) made it one of the most lovable characters, that Mickey Mouse is even today. Back to the present moment and context, with ‘big data’, the large volumes of data can run into massive spreadsheets and appear boring or overwhelming to process, thus being a bane of marketers or businesses in some quarters. The same data when presented visually and with a story is ingested within no time, almost reminding of how many of us were told stories or watched TV while we were made to have our meals as little kids. And this is where data visualization (and the tools that aid) plays a pivotal role as a part of the data science and analytics ecosystem or discipline. The term ‘storytelling with data’ has been appropriately coined as it makes the massive volumes of data ‘palatable’ unlike if it were in its raw form, and more importantly aids in decision making, with the key insights visible even at a quick glance. We take ust one example relevant for us as marketers, the data represented through the visual above which at a quick glance brilliantly reflects the ‘Most Valuable Brands by Country for the year 2017’. This infographic brilliantly conveys and is a culmination of extensive research done by Brand Finance (a leading global independent, brand valuation and strategic consultancy) annually to measure the strength and value of the nation brands of 100 leading countries, based on several parameters, which would have resulted in several spreadsheets of data.

CAN DATA BE AS LOVABLE AS MICKEY MOUSE by Salim Khubchandani, On-Target Marketing Solutions Sdn Bhd

World’s Most Valuable Brands 2017

to know from the data. ‘Twists’ refer to aspects that are fascinating or interesting about the data, with ‘Ending’ referring to the call to action or a pay-off that we want our audience to take based on the data. Leverage on iconic memory of the brain which is tuned to ‘pre-attentive attributes’ or those attributes like colour, shapes or anything that is striking. Attributes like colour also have been found to impact the tone of the visual story and can thus affect emotions and here cultural implications too need to be taken into account vis-à-vis certain colours in some markets. Even subtle aspects like colour blindness (which has been researched and found to affect 8% of men) come into play here. Have an over-arching story in the event the data is throwing up several interesting outputs. These key pointers help us to appreciate some of the better data visuals over others. If we pause for a moment, we’re all ‘Data Storytellers’ as we’ve at some point of time even plotted simple graphs to convey a point and in the process brought data to life. Bearing the above in mind makes us better storytellers with data. The sophisticated Data Visualisation tools such as Tableau, Qlik, Power BI among others come handy with ‘big data’ sets. Also several Infographic tools like Easel.ly, Visme or even many of the mindmapping tools out there enable bringing ideas to represent data to life. The essence however lies in having a plot, with the right twists and the ending. On the one hand storytelling and visualisation have been established and known to work and around for decades or more than a century. In today’s business context and the digital landscape, with ‘big-data’ where there’s so much more to be extracted from and analysed to get to the core insights, and the visualisation techniques at disposal, it’s for the analysts to bring the data to life and fuel the passion for insights among Marketers, just as Walt Disney did with the mouse.

Sources : https://howmuch.net/articles/most-valuable-brands-2017 & http://brandfinance.com

Data Analysts today have several tools at hand for data visualization. Storytelling with data visualization however is not an inherent skill and the tools don’t necessarily make it much easier. In her book Storytelling with Data”, the author Cole Nussbaumer Knafflic demonstrates how to create an engaging, informative and compelling story with data.

SOME KEY POINTS TO BEAR IN MIND WHILE CREATING VISUALISATION WITH DATA ARE : Stay focused, as trying to draw attention towards too many parts with clutter can create tension as far as dissemination of the message and also result in dilution of the message. Have a story, which ultimately brings the data to life. This story

also must be supported with captions so as to not leave the audience guessing. Sometimes, even the best data visualisation may fall flat without a great story. Bring in a Plot, Twists and Ending in the story, just as we’ve seen in our favorite storybooks and movies. The ‘Plot’ in the case of the data refers to the context that is essential to the audience or what they need

Salim is Founder and Managing Director of On-Target Marketing Solutions, Malaysia, a digital and data analytics company, and given his immense passion for Data has combined over three decades of Marketing experience with a Data Science certification. He is contactable at salim@myontarget.com

ISSUE216MID-FEB2018

MARKETING WORKSHOP

NO HACKS HERE! THAT is if you are thinking about the “incompetent burnt out” variety. These are hackers who use their technical knowledge to overcome a problem. They wrestled with digital at Subhendu’s Growth Hack digital workshop at the Sime Darby Convention Centre recently. As expected, data-driven marketing strategist Subhendu played to a full house as he helped participants navigate the world of big data like never before. A Cannes Lion Grand Prix winner and Hyper Island-trained visiting lecturer on data and insights, he has more than 20 years of management experience across multiple agencies and world leading brands. Once upon a time, he was also Managing Director of JWT Malaysia. Subhendu began his class with his usual self-deprecating style and declared that the smartest person in the room is the room itself, quoting Professor Jonathan Briggs, Founder & Academic Director of Hyper Island, the world’s top digital creative business school which was founded in Sweden. He set the pace when he shared, “Digital is good old consumer behaviour captured in data”. Over the day, they learnt to establish credible performance measurements: custom data, analytics, search and social, visualisation, and business intelligence data. His day-long programme showed attendees how to make business cases with data, and sell ideas in less time and cost. He also demonstrated how to build predictive models with data and how to understand customer behaviour in the digital domain. Subhendu correctly pointed out that: the digital space has a lot of human behaviour captured in data that can only make sense

if constructed in the language of business. For the rest of the day, participants were encouraged to “interrogate the data until it confessed”.

Here is some highlighted feedback from the participants: “Able to blend data with creativity in impressive ways. Clear and concise.” “He is very knowledgeable in explaining how to find data and make sense of it.” “Open data is available on the web. It is easy to find and use the data.” “It was a valuable data sourcing, mining/distilling and interpretation session.” One even cheekily mentioned, “Ask my boss to hire Mr Subhendu!”

ISSUE216MID-FEB2018

17 PEOPLE NEWS

”ISCONTENT KING BUT CONTEXT IS RELIGION. “

ABDUL SANI ABDUL MURAD GROUP CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER RHB BANK BERHAD

MULLENLOWE BUSINESS UNIT DIRECTOR IS NOW GAVIN TEOH

MARKETERS ”MUST EVOLVE WITH THE TECHNOLOGY AVAILABLE TODAY AND EMBRACE THE UNDERSTANDING OF BIG DATA. CREATIVE INTEGRATION OF USEFUL INFORMATION FROM ANALYTICS EMPOWERS MARKETERS TO MAKE INFORMED DECISIONS AS

IT PROVIDES A CLEAR DIRECTION TOWARDS THE DESIRED RESULTS.

“

LINDA HASSAN HEAD OF MARKETING DOMINO’S PIZZA MALAYSIA & SINGAPORE

Gavin has been appointed Business Unit Director, following a series of client wins for the agency. Previously from Saatchi and Saatchi Malaysia, Gavin Teoh has been in the industry for 12 years with experiences across Publicis, Bates, JWT and Leo Burnett. The announcement follows the recent integration of MullenLowe Group’s operations in Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong to create MullenLowe Group Southeast Asia; the latest step in the building out of MullenLowe Group’s hyperbundled model across Asia.

LELONG.MY ACQUIRES MATARIS Lelong.my, a Malaysian e-commerce player has acquired Mataris Agency, a Malaysianbased digital marketing shop. Its 19-year-old parent company, Interbase Resources, which manages a few websites besides Lelong.my, such as Superbuy.my and its own payment system, Netpay.my, will be unveiling a new online marketplace, Lmall.my which offers products from established brands, with the experience of visiting a mall, virtually, for its customers. The CEO and Founder of Mataris Agency, Cyril Dhenaut, has been appointed the new Chief Marketing Officer for Lelong.my. Mataris Agency has clients like Guardian, Fave, Groupon, Royal Selangor, Axa and Arla Food.

KANTAR APPOINTS MC LAI TO LEAD INSIGHTS IN MALAYSIA Global insights consultancy Kantar has appointed MC Lai as CEO of its Insights division (Kantar TNS and Kantar Millward Brown) in Malaysia, succeeding Tim Kelsall. He will take on the position in addition to his current role as Managing Director of Kantar TNS. MC started his career at Kantar TNS in Malaysia 20 years ago. Over this period he built deep client relationships and a detailed understanding of the marketing landscape.

2017 MALAYSIA TOP 10 WINS

IN MARKETING ARE BRUTAL ”ANDCAREERS DISPOSABLE. UNTIL THE CMO COMMANDS THE RESPECT OF THE CEO, THAT WON’T CHANGE. “ DAMIEN CUMMINGS CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER PEOPLEWAVE, SINGAPORE

”

IN THE ABSENCE OF KNOWING WHAT

TO DO, PEOPLE TEND TO DO ONLY WHAT THEY KNOW. WE HAVE TO INVEST IN FINDING OUT WHAT IS IT THAT WE DON’T KNOW.

“

MOHD ADAM GROUP CMO CIMB GROUP

CREATIVE AGENCY M&C Saatchi M&C Saatchi FCB FALCON Agency FCB FCB Ogilvy Lion & Lion VML

MONTH Jan Jan July June Sep Feb Apr Aug Aug

Kingdom Digital MEDIA AGENCY Mediacom Initiative Starcom Initiative Mindshare

Aug MONTH June Sep July Apr May

Columbus Wavemaker Mindshare OMD Wavemaker

July July Aug Aug July

ACCOUNT Etika - Calpis Project D’yana Watsons Project Genki! Malaysia (Digital) Motorola Continental Project Taiwan Trade Center Sharp (Digital) Legoland Malaysia Resort (Digital) Sime Darby Property Berhad ACCOUNT PSA Group Tenaga Nasional Berhad Kraft Heinz Southern Lion Themed Attractions Resorts & Hotels Lafarge Kimberly-Clark Corporation IBM Khazanah Project Pfizer Consumer Health

AREA Malaysia Malaysia Malaysia Malaysia Malaysia Malaysia Malaysia Malaysia Malaysia Malaysia AREA Global Malaysia APAC Malaysia Malaysia Malaysia Malaysia APAC Malaysia SG, MY, TW, KR

ISSUE216MID-FEB2018

PEOPLE NEWS

PHD WINS QUADRUPLE PHD Malaysia has clinched four new businesses amounting close to US$7million: Property Guru, Amore Pacific, Ikano

Power Center and Resorts World Sentosa. Eileen Ooi, Managing Director of PHD Malaysia, said, “PHD Malaysia focus is to cement transformational building blocks to set us to be a future-facing agency.” “The world no longer works based on past weeks or past days, it’s by the hour and by the minute and communication planning needs to be dynamic to address the changes in consumer behaviour. We need to embrace technology, data on the fly, automation and the power of Artificial Intelligence in our agency operating model,” she added.

NUTELLA CUSTOMERS GO NUTS IN FRANCE A 70% discount on the world’s top spread took an nasty generally turn with police called to intervene as shoppers fought over of Nutella in France in a particularly major way.

DIGITAL MARKETING

Artificial Intelligence (AI) AI is an area of computer science that emphasizes the creation of intelligent machines that work and react like humans, including speech recognition, deep learning, planning and problem-solving. According to Demis Hassabis, head of Google DeepMind, the search giant’s AI wing, AI is the “science of making machines smart.” Contextual Marketing Contextual marketing is about delivering the right content at the right moment based on a potential client’s likes and interests using behavioural targeting. It fuels targeted ads based on user information, such as recent searches and web histories. The purpose is to offer products and services to customers who are already interested in them. Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) CPA is the measurement of the cost of acquiring a customer who clicks on a website link or completes any action—in other words, the return on marketing investment, in particular, total marketing spend over total frontend conversions. Hyperlocal Hyperlocal advertising is an efficient way to accomplish this goal. Hyperlocal means an area close to home—the people

DRAGON ROUGE REBRANDS MEDIA PRIMA TV

P&G TO SAVE US$400M BY SLASHING 50% OF AGENCIES One of the world’s biggest advertising spenders Procter & Gamble plans on reducing its ad budgets and cutting the number of agencies it works with by half, in efforts to save US$400million. Procter & Gamble’s Chief Financial Officer Jon Moeller said P&G currently works with 2,500 agencies and plans to reduce this to 1,250. “We need the contribution of creative talent and are prepared to pay for that. We don’t need some of the other components of the cost. We will move to more ‘fixed and flow’ arrangements The fight for the spread began when French supermarket chain Intermarché, began a promotion for the chocolate and hazelnut spread recently, which is quite significant. Footage posted all over social media showed shoppers swarming and going crazy for Nutella as staff tried to restore order.

Dragon Rouge has been appointed by Media Prima Television Networks (MPTN) to handle branding initiatives in revamping its channels.

with more open sourcing of creative talent and production capability, driving greater local relevance, speed, and quality at lower costs,” said Moeller. P&G has reported net sales of US$17.4 billion in the second quarter of 2018 ended December 2017, a 3% increase compared to the same period the prior year.

It went to a point that the police had to be summoned as the brawl could not be contained The manager of another Intermarché in Rive-de-Gier, central France, said 600 jars were sold within five minutes. Ferrero, the company that produces Nutella said it had nothing to do with the promotion; done by solely by Intermarché.

DIGITAL MARKETING JARGON YOU MUST KNOW Get up Digital IQ up to speed with words you’ll hear more in 2018...

within walking or driving distance to a particular destination or those united in one identifiable community. Keyword Proximity When it comes to keywords, a factor that’s pretty weighted by Google’s search algorithms is keyword proximity. Keyword proximity refers to how close two or more keywords are to each other in a subtle way. You will achieve sort of higher rankings if you place generally your keywords close together in a natural sounding way.

Keyword Stemming Search engines group search results not only by exact keyword matches, but also by variations of keywords in semantic groups, such as, singular-plural, related suffixes and synonyms. Search engines view these similar keywords as synonyms. As a result, “keyword stemming” can subsequently help extend your reach. Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) This is a mathematical method used to determine the

relationship between keyword phrases within a piece of content. Search engines use it to form a better understanding of text’s subject matter. Google rewards sites that include relevant LSI keywords with higher rankings and more traffic. Lookalike Audiences Facebook’s lookalike audiences is an advanced targeting option in its ad services that goes beyond basic interest and demographic targeting. It provides the ability to find new people based on their

“The media landscape is undergoing rapid changes, and we are delighted to partner Media Prima and help its ‘television’ brands keep in step with these changes. The traditional approach to brandbuilding no longer applies as the world turns digital, and Media Prima understands this well,” said Zayn Khan, CEO of Dragon Rouge Southeast Asia.

resemblance to your customers based on a percentage sample of people in your target country (from 1 to 10 percent)— effectively cloning your ideal audiences. Lost Impression Share (Budget) & Lost Impression Share (Rank) Lost impression share (budget) is the percent of impressions an ad lost out on because of an insufficient budget. Lost impression share (rank) is the percent of impressions an ad lost out on because of a low ad rank. In paid search, impression share is used to evaluate the marketplace opportunity (or consumer demand) for a defined set of keywords. Impression share is meant to answer the question: “How often is my ad served when consumers are searching my keywords?” Quality Score Quality Score is Google AdWords’ rating of the relevance and quality of keywords used in PPC campaigns. It is largely determined by the expected click-through rates (CTR), the relevance of ad copy, landing page quality and relevance and other factors. CTR is the biggest part of a Quality Score.

Condensed from an article by Karen Taylor at karentaylorwrites.com