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ISSUE #269 NOVEMBER2020
popculture
WEEKENDER
e h T y c n e g r e m E ! e l u a c s i t i s I ecklist of cr ing c Ch a f s k c o l b road ustry... d n i r ou
WEEKENDER
popculture
COVER STORY
Can we be ONE again? EDITOR'S NOTE
Cover picture by 123RF
Tales of the sunken sofa Whatever we preach
04 17
about sitting up straight and working at the table, the sofa is our new island....
I don’t know when or what to call anything an Emergency anymore, but I have good reasons to believe our industry needs major repurposing and it is clear...
08
22 Your list of Malaysians who are shining overseas!
The 7 Dimensions of Effective InHouse Teams As marketers need better integration to deliver on omnichannel customer experience...
MARKETING WEEKENDER is published by Sledgehammer Communications (M) Sdn Bhd 22B, Jalan Tun Mohd Fuad 1, Taman Tun Dr. Ismail 60000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Tel: 603-7726 2588 ham@adoimagazine.com. www.marketingmagazine.com.my Š All Rights Reserved By: Sledgehammer Communications (M) Sdn Bhd (289967-W) No part of this magazine may be reproduced in any form without prior permission in writing from the publisher. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information in this publication, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors, omissions and/ or for any consequences of reliance upon information in this publication. The opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent the views of the publisher or editor. Advertisements are the sole responsibility of the advertisers.
“
TRAITORS DIE A THOUSAND MISERABLE DEATHS ALONE. BECAUSE THEY HAVE NOTHING TO TRADE EXCEPT THEIR NAKED PURSUIT FOR POWER.
”
Lim Guan Eng, DAP Secretary-General.
“
IN ALMOST EVERY INSTANCE, UNCOVERING TRUTH MEANS HEARING THE WORDS OF PEOPLE WHO AREN’T YOU.
”
https://nyti.ms/2TNPhuJ
“
WE DON’T GET THEM TO TRY OUR PRODUCT BY CONVINCING THEM TO LOVE OUR BRAND, WE GET THEM TO LOVE OUR BRAND BY CONVINCING THEM TO TRY OUR PRODUCT.
”
@AdContrarian
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Image from 123RF
Tales of the sunken sofa
Whatever we preach about sitting up straight and working at the table, the sofa is our new island. And only if it could tell stories about us since an MCO of any kind began…. Today, I touch upon some truths which may explain why sofas are caving in… ENTERTAINMENT Never before in recent modern history has television glued us to the sofa like ever before. Add a tablet or two and some mobile devices, you have a major happening party to rival any 72hour Punjabi wedding.
Binge watching has redefined the term couch potato as weekdays blur into weekends and you remain spoilt for choice, left with “nothing to see”. Any oaf, sitting on a decent sofa, will tell you TV viewership has gone through the roof, while the Guardians of the Media Galaxy still play cat and mouse to get their pound of flesh before confirming airtime for clients. Shocking: media owners spend up to billions to set up their stations/platforms and at the end of the day they are at the mercy of a media planner in a multi-cubicled shoplot in SS2
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(great kway teow places there), who has no clue where Simpang Renggam is, makes the buy call from his/her RM50,000 paid-up capital outfit. While Astro’s TV viewership increased by 43% as daily time spent rose 30% since the start of MCO, there has been no noticeable shift in media investment by advertisers accordingly.
A similar trajectory can be made of Media Prima stations. Where are the “real-time” experts now, who love to excitingly guide clients to where the eyeballs are? Where? Where? E-COMMERCE Sofa shopping is the new lifestyle. According to Statista, as of Q2 2020, Shopee (with almost 1,000
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... Well, my sofa may never see a V but it has clear symptoms of Us and Ws all over... employees), led the Malaysian e-commerce market as the most clicked e-commerce site in the country. Followed by Lazada, PG Mall and Lelong. The subsequent rankings depend on who you talk to. As some say, the votes have yet to be counted! With around 38.3 million clicks, Shopee is the leading online shopping platform in Malaysia and Southeast Asia. Malaysia is expected to maintain a leadership role in online sales across the region; our eCommerce sector was valued at RM15.4 billion last year and this was well before COVID set in. But laughing all the way to the bank this year are global tech giants (see chart on previous page). EVENTS From webinars, Zoom meetings and virtual learning, our sofa pillows are getting more learned than us these days. While
celebrating goals, birthdays, awards, elections, ride-hailing, good food, travel offers and more. E-commerce players are also focused on Livestreaming events and in-app games to increase user engagement. I feel marketers should look at these new consumer behaviours rather than the tired metrics from the same ‘pulse of the nation’ barometers. Use your heart when making your media decisions, the math will only get you so far. There are already so many truths staring at your face right in your own home. In the meantime, I wonder if sofa sales have gone up... According to Khoo Yeow Chong, President of the Malaysian Furniture Council (MFC), furniture makers are expecting a V-shaped recovery this year. Well, my sofa may never see a V but it has clear symptoms of Us and Ws all over. To all you sofa refugees out there, throw me a pillow if you agree.
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Can we be ONE again? I don’t know when or what to call anything an Emergency anymore, but I have good reasons to believe our industry needs major repurposing and it is clear that doing the same things over and over again have been fruitless. We need leadership with new thinking so we can progress beyond the same old same old‌.or is too late?
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Image from 123RF
Emergency #1: COMMON MEDIA CURRENCY How can we have two media currencies for television is beyond me. Astro goes with Kantar while the rest (including Media Prima) use Nielsen figures. The fees for Nielsen and Kantar are astronomical and not many agencies can afford them in these times. More than five years have passed since this dual dilemma, with many overtures made by many groups including trade associations coming to the table. Result: zilch.
Then in a strange twist of destiny the government got involved last year through regulator MCMC. Personally, I do not see how a government regulatory body can moderate an issue that serves commercial interests. We are certainly not discussing the price of essential goods here! Anyway two-term ex President of the Malaysian Media Specialists Association is now helming that committee at MCMC, at least he knows what’s going on, having successfully resolved the double-taxation issue for agencies during the introduction of digital tax in
Image from 123RF
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relation to billings from Google and Facebook. A curious example of MCMC brand policing here. Radio audience measurement is also not streamlined and the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) remains the only alternative to print measurement. When many magazines pulled out of ABC some years ago, its standing swayed in print. Then newspapers got trashed by digital and started proritising digital measurement…. Don’t get me started on digital measurement as ABC Interaktif which began with an ambitious aim of measuring digital media almost 15 years ago remains just that: a project. Only an organization like the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) can handle this, and Malaysia is not on their radar to the best of my knowledge.
... Only when the rules are clear, can we as an industry become accountable and thrive... The issue of a common currency is the lifeblood of a vibrant media ecosystem and stimulates growth and innovation. Only when the rules are clear, can we as an industry become accountable and thrive. “As digital spend increases exponentially especially when its fuelled by Covid-19, advertisers require more transparency as walled gardens/media owners (ie. Google and Facebook) are not fully audited by independent third parties,” says Joseph Lim, Chief Marketing Officer at Tune Talk. Emergency #2: DIGITAL FRAUD Bernard Lee, Head of Marketing Services at Digi says, “Ad fraud and digital accountability are big issues for marketers, plus the privacy
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“The biggest roadblock now is the peaking unemployment at 9%, along with the impending or alreadyhere recession. Customers everywhere are pulling back on spending, and sticking to value buys or essential items only in anticipation of a rough future 2-3 years.” - Eugene Lee
and usage of first party data for marketing.” With digital, you can target any particular group specifically. And that’s the appeal of digital. You pay for your audience size, low or high income doesn’t matter. The reliability of measurement metrics is another ball game altogether. “I know that McDonald’s deploys their own auditing tools,” shares Eugene Lee - Regional Director of Marketing (Asia Business Unit) McDonald’s, “The biggest roadblock now is the peaking unemployment at 9%, along with the impending or already-here recession.
Customers everywhere are pulling back on spending, and sticking to value buys or essential items only in anticipation of a rough future 2-3 years.” “Therefore, for marketers now, not only do we have to battle changing legislation that seems to be updated daily, but also shrinking discretionary income where everyone is fighting for the last ringgit out there.” “The rise of digital adoption is plagued with digital fraud. Distinguishing real marketing from fake marketing in digital is hard for consumers. If not kept in check and addressed effectively, erosion in brand trust and health can threaten its very existence,” warns Abdul Sani Abdul Murad, Group Chief Marketing Officer, RHB Bank Berhad. Prashant Kumar, Founder & Senior Partner of ENTROPIA, adds, “Digital platforms need to pay their due taxes to create a level playing field with local media on the revenue side. Digital platforms need to share revenues with newspapers fairly. If a Malaysian in the country sees an ad on any platform, it should get taxed. Due to COVID-19, the ad industry can also be given service tax relief.”
Image from 123RF
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“No media owner works on audience guarantees really. Except digital platforms. That’s CPA or CPL based buys with digital, which is an industry in itself called affiliate marketing.” Chanchal Chakrabarty, CEO of GroupM Malaysia says, “On digital platforms advertisers pay for completed views, viewable impressions, converted clicks or leads, etc. hence paying for guarantees. Other platforms can’t measure for such guarantees but have things like Cost Per Rating Point (CPRP) which is as close as it gets given the constraints of available measurement. Emergency#3: UNCERTAINTY Having survived many financial crises in the past, the media, advertising and marketing industries have seen it all, and advertising was always the first to get whipped.
... Advertising is the most fragile of all businesses, whether good times or bad. You could go under if one big client does not pay you. And you don’t need a Wall Street meltdown for your business to crash... Advertising is the most fragile of all businesses, whether good times or bad. You could go under if one big client does not pay you. And you don’t need a Wall Street meltdown for your business to crash. Truth be told, ad folk have been living and thriving in recession-mode from day one. So whip us all you want. But if you want success, then brace yourself to get some real therapy to cure your ills. So long as marketers wake up to the fact that advertising never caused an economic crash, the healing can begin.
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“What do you do when the entire industry is backed up against the wall with declining revenues, margin pressures, and so much uncertainty plaguing...” - Nicky Lim
On the contrary, advertising IS the engine of commerce. Oil it and it will serve you well. You want to learn how to survive a recession? Ask any ad person. They live it…every day of their lives! This time around we have a unique set of problems in the new uncertainty. Immobility, hesitancy and a disease that
mutates by the day with no cure in sight. It is global and affects all parts of the food chain. “What do you do when the entire industry is backed up against the wall with declining revenues, margin pressures, and so much uncertainty plaguing any viable forecasts to determine the balance between revenues and costs?” asks Nicky Lim, CEO of dentsu Malaysia, “Clearly, every business is accelerating transformation to harmonise, and paying laser-focused attention to changing customer demands.” Tai Kam Leong, Head of Branding and Partnerships at Maxis says, “Agility is required: where would telcos pivot to create value? Mobility behaviour is fast shifting away from ultra dynamic, motion-based wide coverage to more intensive/ extensive usage in static areas. Changes are placing pressures on experience management, partnerships and deals as well as distribution. What used to be nice to haves are now must haves, what used to be templated approaches now must change and what used to be market norms are now antiquated. If brands and partners in marketing stay open and are willing to
Image from 123RF
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“New value would come from consumer innovation in these new norms. Adoption of tech would go up, while being careful with cost and expenditure....” evolve fast, the best relationships would surface and establish new norms in how we work.” “New value would come from consumer innovation in these new norms. Adoption of tech would go up, while being careful with cost and expenditure. New ways for children to go to ‘class’, how to fill up leisure time, changing tactics for business survival - there’s never been more curiosity in the market,” Tai adds.
Emergency#4: SQUEEZED AD RATES Bala Pomaleh, CEO of Mediabrands Malaysia is concerned that OOH content and production is now at a standstill. “There is no question that MCO has reduced footfall to literally all businesses hence clients will postpone spends in tandem with consumer spends.” Santharuban T Sundaram – CEO of Advend Group of Companies, Etika Holdings adds,
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“If the platform has been selling reach and number all this while, in the absence of such reach and numbers it is only logical that the advertisers should pay less. Having said that, we are in a situation where people can’t go abroad, most of them work from home, schools are closed, malls are empty, in fact there is no traffic congestion in most places. Predicting where people will be and what they are to be doing, is likely not to going to be rocket science....given the circumstances.” “Platform owners should take advantage of this to show advertisers how they can actually maximize the reach and how they can innovate and bring forth new solutions instead of having the discussion around rate cards.” On media rates that have to be painfully reduced with a smaller audience at large, especially in Out Of Home (OOH), Maxis’ Tai says, “Post-delivery reports should be the basis for negotiation of the value to be returned. We have requested for make-up benefits, whether in time, position or entitlement of spots, etc., and media owners have been positive.
“We now live in the VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) world.” - Linda Hassan Digi’s Bernard Lee adds, “This is especially true when it comes to retail malls trying to defend same rental rates and also inmalls advertising space.” Tai continues, “The real question that needs to be asked is this: if you are still basing value on reach and ratings, then how do you compete when businesses want to pay you for performance returns?” We pay well for performance returns (not sales; because that’s often “immeasurable”, but focus on signals close to sales closure, like web sessions, add to carts, downloads, lead forms, retail traffic, etc). Linda Hassan, Group CMO (Malaysia & Singapore) of Domino’s says, “We now live in the VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) world.”
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“Good people are cautious about changing jobs during this period...” For her, it is about staff morale, business planning that does not look too far ahead (uncertainty begets uncertainty), managing cashflow and realizing that some things have to be let go in order to move on. Emergency #5: TALENT & DEVELOPMENT “A growing issue within the marketing industry is the lack of skills to utilise marketing technologies. The proliferation of digital marketing and advancements in MarTech have exacerbated this issue, and local talent may not be able to keep up without relevant education and training, or support from marketers in the industry who are stuck in their traditional ways,” says Ben Foo, Group CMO of Taylor’s University. Chanchal chips in, ”Good people are cautious about
changing jobs during this period. However expect this to come back to normal with recovery and opportunities will increase. This will be followed by our perpetual problem of the small and shrinking talent pool. The government and industry both have their responsibilities to grow, develop and shape the talent pool of the country. While the government needs to make Malaysia a more attractive destination for investment to help create more job opportunities and hence reduce the talent drain, our industry also needs to do its part of developing and training especially the young talent through internship programs, certifications and industry training initiatives.” The following four pages lists our industry players who have left for overseas causing a massive brain drain outflow.
Your list of Malaysians who are shining overseas!
CHINA Ken Wong Independent Artist Radio Woon Artist, Co-Founder of Visitors Danny Low Independent English Copywriter Boone Wong Creative, Anomaly Nikken Creative, Anomaly Edward Yap Senior Art Director, AKQA Shanghai How Wei Zhong Senior Art Director, Weiden + Kennedy Shanghai Jodie Hew Senior Art Director, Ogilvy Shanghai Kong Karyee Senior Art Director, BBH Shanghai Yuki Siew Senior AD, The Lego Agency Shanghai
Callum Ng Creative Group Head, O&M Shanghai Andiry Tan Associate Creative Director, VMLY&R Shanghai Chua Long Yao Associate Creative Director, Digitas Shanghai Eric Pang Associate Creative Director, 180 Jack Goh Associate Creative Director, BBDO Shanghai Keane Low Associate Creative Director, McGarrybowen Mika Tay Associate Creative Director, Ogilvy Beijing Pauline Ang Associate Creative Director, Saatchi & Saatchi Shanghai Willeon Leong Associate Creative Director, O&M Shanghai
Image from 123RF
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You Chen Kiat Associate Creative Director, Dentsu Shanghai Andrew Shee Creative Director, Dentsu CDC Shanghai Ben Lee Creative Director, Grey Group Shanghai Chuang Boon Eng Independent Creative Director Danny Yap Integrated CD, O&M Shanghai Desmond Ho Creative Director, Publicis Shanghai Jasphine Chew Creative Director, Saatchi & Saatchi Shanghai Justin Phang Creative Director, R/GA Shanghai Kai Loon Creative Director, Saatchi Shanghai Loo Swee Mei Creative Director, Dentsu CDC Shanghai Foong Mee Yee Creative Director, AKQA Shanghai Miimo Leong Creative Director, Saatchi & Saatchi Shanghai Simon Fong Freelance CD, O&M Shanghai
Tam Jian Zhong CD, BBDO Shanghai Theng Lik Tat Creative Director, Proximity Shanghai Wong Kai Ming CD / Senior Representative, SG Group China Ellie See Design Head, Anomaly CK Tan Group CD, Apple Joshua Tay Group CD, TBWA Shanghai Andrew Low ECD, Ogilvy Beijing Cheong Yew Fei ECD, Saatchi & Saatchi Shanghai Jazzy Chan ECD, Saatchi & Saatchi Shanghai Joey Khor ECD, George P Johnson Experience Marketing Beijing Kelvin Leong ECD, BBDO Shanghai Ong Kien Hoe CCO, VMLY&R Shanghai Yan Chay ECD, Huawei Kevin Lunsung Founder, The Great Indoors Chow Chye Yee Senior Producer Fin Design + Effects Shanghai
19 ISSUE269NOVEMBER2020 | WEEKENDER BRAIN DRAIN TRAIN
Lee Weisian Executive Producer, BBH Shanghai Wong Ay Wei Founder, Executive Producer at Pandemic Shanghai Michael Wong Film Director, Michael Wong Films Kevin Lee Film Director, FarFar Films US Priscilla Yuen Illustrator, Adams Media, Massachusetts Gary Lim Assoc CD, Publicis New York Pebble Goh VP CD, BBDO new York Naz Kasim Group CD, Havas New York Nic Tan Director of Creative Services, OneLogin, San Francisco Ronald Ng Global CCO, Isobar SINGAPORE Adlin Rosli Creative Manager, LEGO APAC Karen Wong Senior Creative Lead (APAC), Lego APAC Primus Nair Head of Creative, Lego APAC
Kenneth Menon Senior Copywriter, Section Douglas Goh CD, TBWA Daniel Kee ECD, Lowe Theo Tan ECD, Gyro Adam Miranda Founder and CD, Fishermen Chan Siew Lian Head of Content Curation & Strategy, UOB Bank Alex Lim Creative Partner, Mercury Creative Tan Giap How Associate CD, Publicis Groupe Sid Quah Head of Production, Invisible Artists Tim Chan ECD and Partner, GOVT Colin Pereira Founder and Head of Creative, Fuse Eddie Azadi CD, Google APAC Greg Yeo Lecturer at Ngee Ann Poly/ Freelance CD JY Lay Creative Director, VaynerMedia Singapore VJ Anand Head of Creative, VaynerMedia APAC
20 ISSUE269NOVEMBER2020 | WEEKENDER BRAIN DRAIN TRAIN
Cheok Boon Keng Freelance CD (Art) Anne Foo Freelance Designer BANGKOK Woon Regional ECD, Hakuhudo DUBAI Leslie Paul CD, C2 Comms AUSTRALIA Kevin Sim Freelance CD Cheryl Ha WeiNa Creative Consultant Joanna Spencer Head of Marketing, Unity Bank Jamie Toh Snr AD, Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness Simon Wong Director, Team Content JAKARTA Brian Capel CEO, Publicis Groupe HK Christel Chong Creative Director and Creative Partner, DDB Gan Yue-Li Lead Copywriter- English, Cathay Pacific Airways
VIETNAM Andy Soong ECD, Dentsu Alpha Malcolm Soh Owner and EP, Laughing Buddha Joe Teoh Founder and CD The Locals Tony Chew Founder and Brand Consultant Wildfire Brand Consultancy INDIA Kay Khoo Partner, Fish Do It Consultants LONDON Joel Lim Snr Creative Tech Ogilvy UK CAMBODIA Izwar Zakri Co-founder and CD, K+Z Advertising Adrian Lee Group Creative Director, ComZone Hisham Sahudin Freelance Copywriter, Creative Director, and Film Director Compiled by Edward Ong.
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“The truth is Malaysia’s advertising spends have been stagnant for some 5 years and COVID has just pushed that back into a significant decline...”
Emergency#6: ROLE IN ECONOMY “Malaysia is a digital economy already but digital adspends are still dominated by two global players. For the digital economy to move to the next level, it’s imperative for the local publisher ecosystem to develop and become strong,” The pandemic has further impacted the already fragile local publisher ecosystem and therefore its critical for the
government and the industry to work together to build it and make it strong, says Chanchal. He concludes with a wakeup call “The truth is Malaysia’s advertising spends have been stagnant for some 5 years and COVID has just pushed that back into a significant decline. Getting this back to growth might be an uphill task unless the political landscape stabilizes and economy gets back into growth.”
22 ISSUE269NOVEMBER2020 | WEEKENDER IN-HOUSING
7 The
Dimensions of Effective In-House Teams
By Greg Paull Co-founder and Principal, R3 As marketers need better integration to deliver on omnichannel customer experience goals, in-housing has become the go-to strategy for CMOs looking to transform their corporate departments and re-think their spend – bringing agility, data and technology
capabilities, and market-leading insights and ideas into their teams. In a WFA study (2020) of 53 global advertisers, 37% of creative output was reported to come from an in-house team and 94% of respondents had in-house creative capabilities for digital
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... There is no “one size fits all” solution to the in-house challenge and this has refocused marketers to think about the impact of performance management and organisation design... content. Around half of survey participants reported having an in-house media team. However, almost 95% of companies surveyed noted that they continued to work with external agencies. IT’S HARDER THAN YOU THINK How to best structure internal marketing teams and in-house agencies, as well as how to manage processes and performance within both inhoused teams and external suppliers, are vital to in-housing success.
There is no “one size fits all” solution to the in-house challenge and this has refocused marketers to think about the impact of performance management and organisation design. Building a successful inhouse agency requires more than putting the best talent in a room. It requires having clarity on team ownership, understanding the cost of having a team that can serve the business, and having the right leadership to deal with the complexity of in-house teams. THE 7 DIMENSIONS To help marketers stay the path, here here are seven dimensions of in-housing that need to be addressed: 1. Spectrum of Control: Building an in-house agency takes time and resource. It’s disruptive but comes at a cost and requires the active participation of other departments in the organisation - including the C-suite. This explains why most brands choose to work with a “hybrid approach” to in-housing. To determine a brand’s level of commitment to in-housing, deciding the
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Image from 123RF
... Ensuring that in-house teams have the level of skill to keep a brand competitive is an area that marketers have to address... “spectrum of control” that a brand might want to have is a good place to start. Following this, they can establish where they sit on the scale. 2. Size: Overall size of marketing teams vary because inhouse marketing is generally executed by employees of the company. For example, small companies often having a marketing “team” of one, while the average size of a marketing team for a company with 25-49 employees is typically three people. Larger companies with 50-249 employees have an average of eight people on
their marketing teams. 3. Internal Capability: Ensuring that in-house teams have the level of skill to keep a brand competitive is an area that marketers have to address. Having internal “know how” is important for marketers who find themselves faced with opportunities that require time and budget sensitive response. However, by not having access to a large pool of talent - as they might have with an integrated agency partner - brands with in-house teams risk playing it predictable and safe. 4. Skill Sets: The skills within
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... Beyond simply sharing the workload, there are other key reasons to further agency relationships, including keeping up with a dynamic business environment, integrated creative excellence... an in-house agency should be influenced by the importance of each area to your overall marketing approach, and the degree of specialization needed to get the job done. 5. Technology: When setting up an in-house agency, it is essential to have a clear idea of what technology is needed to support the delivery of work, and the associated cost of integrating and maintaining new systems. This knowledge will help manage expectations of what you will get out of your in-house agency and how able your team will be to deliver the work.
6. Budget: Having adequate budget allocated to marketing initiatives will aid in having successful campaigns. For example, organisations which executed successful content marketing campaigns had 39% of the total marketing budget allocated to content marketing. 7. Partnerships: Partnering with agencies is often in the best interest of the business and your internal team. Inhouse teams typically partner with external agencies to complement their service offering - predominantly campaign strategy, creative strategy and design execution. Beyond simply sharing the workload, there are other key reasons to further agency relationships, including keeping up with a dynamic business environment, integrated creative excellence, career development for your team, and efficient delivery. Greg Paull is Principal and Cofounder of R3, a global independent consultancy focused on driving transformation for marketers and their agencies. www.rthree.com
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2020 YTD MALAYSIA TOP 10 WINS Creative Agency
Month Account
Area
VMLY&R
Feb
Intel
Global
VMLY&R
Apr
Telekom Malaysia
Malaysia
Ogilvy
Feb
Hong Kong Tourism Board
Malaysia
FCB
Apr
Berjaya Sompo Insurance
Malaysia
Ogilvy
Jun
Costa Coffee
Malaysia
VMLY&R
Jan
Hong Leong Assurance
Malaysia
Wunderman Thompson
Mar
HSBC
Malaysia
FCB
Mar
Berjaya Sompo Project
Malaysia
FCB
Apr
SP Setia Project
Malaysia
FCB
Sep
Desaru Coast
Malaysia
Media Agency
Month Account
Area
PHD
Feb
Diageo
Global
Mindshare
Jul
Oppo
Malaysia
Universal McCann
Jul
Lazada
SE Asia
OMD
Jun
Danone
Malaysia
dentsu X
Jul
Honda Malaysia Sdn. Bhd.
Malaysia
Zenith
Jul
Disney+
SE Asia
PHD
Jan
Warner Bros Pictures Group
Malaysia
Mindshare
Apr
Awesome TV
Malaysia
MediaCom
Feb
SK Magic
Malaysia
Universal McCann
Jan
Emirates Airlines
Global
Image from 123RF
27 ISSUE269NOVEMBER2020 | WEEKENDER BOBHOFFMAN.COM
Ad industry Lawyers Up!
Desperately clinging to the wreckage of surveillancemarketing, the ad industry went on a legal binge this week. First, in France, a group of advertisers and publishers including the IAB and the Mobile Marketing Association whined to French authorities about Apple’s
plan to introduce new privacy measures into iOS 14. The new software will block advertisers from collecting certain types of information from iPhone users unless the users opt-in to being tracked. Contrary to the horseshit promulgated by the online ad
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industry and its flunkies in the agency business, consumers do not find tracking-based advertising “more relevant, more timely, and more likable’. Not even close. In fact research indicates that 85% of iPhone users will not optin to being tracked. In some major logic-torturing, the ad industry complaint contends that Apple’s move is somehow anti-competitive. Next we cut to California where all the usual suspects -- the IAB, the ANA, and the 4As -- sent an 8-page letter to the California Attorney General claiming that the California Consumer Protection Act is an infringement on advertisers’ first amendment right of free speech. Wha? Huh? The CCPA makes it easier for consumers to opt-out of being tracked. Why is this important? California is the 6th largest economy in the world. Larger than the economy of France. Additionally, a great many tech companies are
headquartered in CA which makes some parts of CA law de facto US law for these companies. Behind all this hubbub and hysteria over tracking is one simple question: What in the f-ing world makes our industry think that the convenience of marketers is more important than the privacy rights of citizens? Wait ‘til ad industry “leaders” get a whiff of this. This week, California voters are very likely to pass something called Proposition 24. In one great swipe Prop 24 makes a whole lot of the ad tech shit show illegal. According to The Drum, ‘businesses that suck up consumer data from the programmatic advertising bidstream...would be affected.” One expert said, this affects “everything that goes on in the ad tech ecosystem...” Before we get too excited about this, however, it’s important to remember that there’s a big difference between law and law enforcement. Thus far both the GDPR in Europe and the CCPA in the States have been a ton of lip and not an ounce of teeth.
29 ISSUE269NOVEMBER2020 | WEEKENDER SHOWCASE
Campaign for women to get tested for breast cancer Client: Briuta Agency: Aviv Adv