Millennials in Hong Kong are dedicated travelers with 74% of them prioritising travel above any other expense, but are savvy bargain hunters with a penchant for luxuries, according to a new global research from ADARA.
The research shows that when compared to their older counterparts, Millennials in Hong Kong are more likely to use digital resources, such as review sites (52% vs. 41% among those 35+) to plan and book their travel – proving that marketers need to adapt their campaigns to reach this audience.
In addition, the research found that:
Unlike their counterparts in the US, Millennials in Asia Pacific are more likely to book flights through airline websites (44% in Hong Kong; 44% in Australia; 56% in Singapore vs. 34% in the US)
They are also more likely to book hotels through general travel websites (77% vs. 11% hotel sites)
They are less likely to be in loyalty programmes. 45% of those surveyed agree: “I don’t think it’s worthwhile to sign up for loyalty programmes.”
Millennials tend to plan ahead compared to older travellers – they start searching for flights 13 days in advance of booking the flight compared to nine days to ensure that they get the experience at the best price.
Hotel searches are no different, with a longer window of eight days prior to booking compared to six days older travellers.
Meanwhile, the study also found that:
37% of Millennials in Hong Kong are willing to pay for upgrades, and are open to purchasing amenities in-flight
31% of Millennials in Hong Kong have stayed in a house or apartment rental (e.g., Airbnb) in the past year compared to only 16% of those 35+
86% have stayed in hotels, and they are more likely to prioritize free Wi-Fi and amenities such as a spa & gym compared to those 35+
The study looked to expose the travel habits of Millennials using focus groups and research to compare attitudes and behaviors among 18 to 34 year olds and 35+ year olds.
DBS Bank Hong Kong has launched a wealth management campaign in Hong Kong, to introduce a new concept of “wealth x health” retirement solution under the “New Chapter” Wealth Planning platform that addresses two key retirement concerns: wealth and health.
According to the latest DBS Manulife Retirement Wellness Study, people aged 40 to 60 years of age lack confidence in maintaining well-being after retirement.
In view of this uncertainty, DBS has introduced a brand new concept, “Wealth” cross-over “Health”.
Leveraging the flexibility of different protection and annuity products, DBS offers customised retirement solutions to help customers plan ahead to pursue a new chapter in life with total peace of mind.
Working with Havas Worldwide Hong Kong, an integrated campaign of print, digital content marketing and social media has been launched.
DBS invited KOL Daniel Chong (莊偉忠), the newly retired former CEO of YATA Department Store at the age of 54 in early May, as the campaign spokesperson for sharing his values and tips toward early retirement.
"Retirement is about having choices; we should start planning for our retirement before we’re 40, my wife and I had planned 20 years ago for early retirement… I want to spend more time with my family and to make all of us happy" are some of tips Chong shared in his latest video, which echo the core message that DBS wants to advocate.
"Time is precious. Plan well to retire early, pursue your new chapter and spend quality time with loved ones," said Rebecca Li, executive director of marketing & marketing communications of consumer banking group and wealth management at DBS.
"DBS New Chapter Wealth Planning" was launched on 16 May in Hong Kong and will run through till end of June.
Discovery Communications has appointed Winradit Kasidit Kolasastraseni to the new position of senior VP Innovation – Asia Pacific. The network has also named Karan Paul as VP of strategy – Asia Pacific, taking over the portfolio of Helen Whittle who has relocated to New Zealand.
Both Kolasastraseni and Paul will be based in Singapore and report to Arthur Bastings, president and managing director of Discovery Networks Asia Pacific. Whittle continues as VP of strategy, with a focus on Discovery’s Pacific businesses and Special Projects, reporting to Bastings.
Bastings said, “As we evolve our business from a traditional linear pay-tv to a true convergent media and entertainment business, adding diversity to our leadership and enhancing our skillset is critical. Winradit and Karan bring with them strong non-linear and ICT experience, and I am very excited to have them on board as we continue to evolve our product and business portfolio.”
Kolasastraseni will focus on the evolution of Discovery to a progressive digitally native product and services company. Key initiatives will include the incubation of new digital businesses; extensions of existing brands into online communities; and a strong push into big data and analytics. Kolasastraseni is no stranger to the industry, having founded Thailand’s premium OTT service PrimeTime Entertainment.
During his stewardship as CEO, PrimeTime amassed over 2 million registered users within a year of its launch. Kolasastraseni was also the CEO and founder of technology and media companies Ploenjit Media and Fly Digital Media in Thailand. Prior to this, he was with Microsoft Thailand, SAS Software, Total Access Communication, Huasheng Industry, Cisco Systems, Samart Internet, and Point Asia Dot Com. Kolasastraseni holds a BS in Information Technology from Assumption University, Bangkok.
Paul will partner with Bastings and the general manager of Discovery's five newly-formed APAC market clusters on all strategy matters as the company seeks to adopt a unique and differentiated approach for each of its businesses.
Paul comes to Discovery from Singtel, where he was Director, Group Projects & Consulting. He led the group’s in-house consulting team and advised senior management and the various business units on areas including partnership models and content bundling. He was previously with Value Partners Management Consulting in Singapore, PwC in India, and Absolutdata Analytics in India and San Francisco. Paul holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.
Prashant Kumar, formerly president of IPG Mediabrands in Asia world markets and CEO of IPG Mediabrands Malaysia, has joined an experimental marketing services consultancy called Entropia.
Entropia is currently in its Beta phase and is slated to enter the Malaysian market in July. Entropia – a word that joins Entropy and Utopia – is meant to denote the movement from disorder to order.
“The advent of deep data and marketing technology has caused massive chaos and complexity in the marketing ecosystem. However no one has the final answer to what the right way out should be,” said Prashant Kumar, senior partner, Entropia.
“Entropia has started from a white sheet and seeks to reconceive what the marketing of the future could be like, by playing with different models, skills mix, structures and processes. In all humility, we don’t claim we have found the god particle. It’s just going to be a very honest, unattached and interesting exploration,” he added.
Zuraida Mohamad, the chair of Entropia said, “If you look at how Accenture, Deloitte and McKinsey are approaching this space, you realize that they bring industrial size left brain analytics. The likes of Adobe, and Salesforce are focusing on automation and owning the technology default. Agencies tend to be skewed towards the right brain with a sprinkling of research and inventory play. But each one of these sectors are weighed down by legacy engagement models.”
The agency hopes to bring to play an agile, hybrid and ecosystem approach, which is native to the digital age to help brands enhance human happiness.
"In the age of anticipatory data, Creative prototyping and curative technology, there is a historic opportunity to be different. Entropia hopes to chance upon ways we can do that – with consistency and scale,” Kumar said.
Entropia - in its beta phase - has been holding a series of discussions with different data and tech players, content producers, marketers, talent and thought leaders towards that, while engaging a team of like-minded leaders from deep and diverse skills to think up new ways of doing things.
Global marketing and technology agency DigitasLBi has expanded its Singapore creative team with the appointment of Keith Byrne as creative lead.
Having recently moved to Singapore from DigitasLBi London, where he was involved with the launch of the content and social media agency Lost Boys, Byrne brings more than a decade of digital creative experience from both Australia and the UK at Ogilvy, JWT.
In Singapore, Byrne will work primarily on the Unilever business while providing additional support to other clients.
Byrne said: "I’m thrilled to join the team in a new exciting market such as Singapore. I’m hoping that the work we produce will gain further recognition and win a few Creative awards."
The appointment comes at a time of growth for the Singapore office; having recently won Gold at Marketing’s Digital Agency award. This is a prestigious award, which is decided solely by client-side marketers.
Annette Male, managing director at DigitasLBi, Singapore added: We are pleased to have Byrne onboard. He’s a great addition to the team and we hope that we continue creating strong work for our clients in Singapore and across the region.
After a tenure of nearly a decade at Publicis Singapore, creative director Tattoo Yar will be rejoining TBWA Singapore as creative group head. He will join the team 2 June 2016.
Before his decade long term at Publicis Singapore, Yar was part of TBWA\TEQUILA Group Singapore.
In December last year, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) appointed TBWA\Singapore as STB’s global agency partner for integrated creative, digital and production services. The appointment is for two years with effect from 1 April 2016, with an option to extend the contract annually for a maximum of three years.
Another notable client TBWA has been working with since 2007 is Singapore Airlines.
The social media marketing bandwagon has been around for a few years. Marketers these days are now savvy about their audience experience on social platforms. Clients are no longer asking platform specific questions along the lines of “what platform do we use?” but now it’s more “what’s our content strategy?”
It’s also helped that the main platforms – Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter – have more or less clearly designated boundaries on their user experiences.
With the maturing of the practice, also comes the improvement in content quality. Upworthy has come and gone, and so have the (temporal) trend for click bait headlines. Brands have also stopped creating numerous inane posts and are focusing more on quality instead of quantity. And what I love about social media now is that it’s more visual – micrographics, gifs and videos are taking over platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
And we know that this shift to focus on quality content is working. The content marketing institute recently surveyed 3,714 marketers from around the world, and found that the majority of them were proponents of the effectiveness of social media promotion.
The chart below (taken from eMarketer) shows that promoted content and social ads are generally found to be increasingly effective, with up to 61% of respondents coming out in agreement.
However, the point that I would like to make here is this – what is the follow through to social media marketing? Just like a sales call (or email) would be sent as a follow-up to a customer who downloads an asset, surely there has to be an equivalent in the realm of social media?
The answer is an activity called social selling, which has started to gain traction starting around two years ago. This activity as in an infant stage, or at the very best confined to sectors where senior sales executives are more forward thinking and comfortable with the use of social media tools.
So at this point, perhaps it’s a good idea to take a step back and ask the question - what is social selling?
Taking the definition from LinkedIn’s playbook, social selling is about leveraging one’s social network to find the right prospects, build trusted relationships, and ultimately, achieve sales goals. It’s a sales technique which is more efficient, because it eliminates the need for cold calling through harnessing the power of one’s network.
Here’s a scenario of how social selling could work. Imagine that you're following a prospect of mine via Twitter (which gives you instant insights to what he or she is thinking) and you spot the said prospect tweeting about a problem in the workplace which you know you have the expertise to solve. You could quickly reply to offer help, and from there, strike up a conversation which could in the future lead to an opportunity to do business together.
So what are the key pillars for social selling success? In my mind, there are three things which can form a simple blueprint for social selling:
Build your orofessional (online) brand
Today’s customer is smart. Don’t think he or she isn’t. You’ll need to be able to show substance in order for them to trust you. Building a professional brand shows you are an active participant in your industry and a thought leader in the space you claim to be an expert in.
Write blogs, polish your online social profiles and share your thoughts regularly on social media, so that when you start reaching out to prospects, you’ll already have established that veneer of credibility for yourself. On the flipside, having a strong professional brand also leads to more inbound inquiries from prospects if they have perceived that you are someone who can help them solve their problems.
Know Your Prospects
Sales success is a combination of knowing when to buy and going in at the right time to engage your prospect. With social media you can get a better understanding of the state of readiness of your prospect to engage in a sales conversation, so use that to your advantage. Listening and monitoring tools can help you keep up-to-date on your key prospects.
Build Relationships, Don’t Sell
Build trust with prospects by sharing your perspectives and helping provide relevant information to common pain points. Have genuine conversations and focus on the needs of the prospect first, selling second.
Establish credibility and expertise in conversations but try not to explicitly ask if they want to buy something. That’s still best left to face-to-face discussions. Ask to meet-up in person to continue the discussion further, if you feel that a prospect is ready to be pitched.
According to Hootsuite, social selling generates 40% more qualified leads than cold calling and allows one to build genuine connections that last regardless of whether the sale went through or not.
So what are you waiting for – get started today!
Julian Chow is senior account manager & digital consultant at Text100 Singapore.
To promote its newly-introduced mobile payment service O! ePay with Octopus, Standard Chartered Hong Kong has partnered with CMRS to roll out a digital-led campaign starring Canto-pop band Supper Moment in its video.
Highlighting two major functions that the service offers, including top-up Octopus on-the go (入錢) and splitting bills (夾錢), the music video featuring Supper Moment portrays the story with some gamification elements.
For example, whenever they need to split up bills, they just use the fintech product to collect the exact amount easily without any messy loose change.
According to CMRS, partnering with Supper Moment, a theme song was composed to tell target audience it's convenient to do peer to peer money transfers via mobile devices.
[embed]https://youtu.be/tFLgB52ZuRY[/embed]
As different consumers may use different feature, it redefined the target audience, for instance, top-up function for young parents and car owners; while splitting bills for young adult or career starters.
The MV not only features Supper Moment, but also features other KOLs that will be rolled out gradually to illustrate different scenarios.
Up to now, Standard Chartered is the only bank to partner with Octopus O! ePay service.
Louis Leung, director of engage of CMRS said, “For this campaign we believe social media can effectively reach out those tech-savvy digital natives, and enables us to target a more defined demographic group.”
Credits
Digital and social media agency: CMRS Digital Solutions Ltd.
Director of engage: Louis Leung
Assistant manager: Sze Chung Fung
Senior social media specialist: Chesta Siu, Thomas Wong
Social media assistant: Emily Ng
Associate content creation director: Jeromy Wan
Content creation supervisor: Charlie Yim, Deyon Lai
Content creation specialist: Summer Cheung, Jamie Wong, Tang Wing Hung
Video production agency: Visualution Labs Limited
Producer: KaHo Yue
Director: Prisken Lo
Cinemagrapher : Buddy Ma
Art director: Karen Lau
Motion graphic designer: Big Rain
Production manager: Wales Yuen, Edwin Liu
On 2nd May 2016, Leicester City Football Club performed a miracle, clinching the Premier League title. The whole world stood up and applauded. At the beginning of the season, Leicester had been 5,000 -1 to achieve this feat. To put that in context, the odds of Kim Kardashian becoming the US President and Elvis being found alive were both 2,000-1.
This is the ultimate underdog story, a tale of valour and team spirit triumphing in a sport increasingly characterised by self-important egos and financial inequality. We all see a bit of ourselves in Leicester, they inspire us to think nothing is unachievable. Their victory celebration was a moment of true collective engagement. And like with any moment such as this, brands were quick to jump on the bandwagon.
When done well, there’s no doubt reactive marketing can be a truly effective way of infusing personality into brands. But the problem is too much of ‘real time’ content is awful. At iris, we call it Urgent Genius. But we look around and we see a lot of content that isn’t urgent and isn’t genius. What started life as digital bits intended to entertain and bring warmth to brands has morphed into a totally different beast. Too often now it’s contrived visual pollution, which actually detracts from the spirit of a moment, rather than contribute to it.
Never was this divergence so striking as with Leicester’s epic moment.
Captain Morgan
Captain Morgan, a rum brand, played a blinder. The spirit brand released a limited edition bottle of their rum honouring Leicester’s triumphant captain,Wes Morgan, who also rather handily captains the Jamaica national team. The bottle features the Morgan adorned in nautical Leicester colour blue and white robes. This one was a no brainer, and was so well received the player himself shouted them out on Twitter.
Walkers
Crisps brand Walkers is an institution in the UK and was founded in 1948 in Leicester. Its long-time brand ambassador, former footballer turned TV personality Gary Linker, is one of Leicester’s most famous sons, and famously pledged to present Match of the Day in his pants if his beloved Leicester managed to win the league.
When Leicester completed their remarkable feat, Walkers took out a full-page ad featuring Linker superimposed on a muscular frame with L.C.F.C tattooed across his chest and wearing nothing but underwear, holding a special bag of Salt and Victory flavour Walkers crisps. These commemorative bags were sold in local shops and all profits went to the Leicester’s charity foundation. This association is dripping in credibility and adds to spirit around the victory moment. At its core it’s just one Leicester institution honoring another.
However, other brands weren’t quite so charming in the way they went about trying to align with Leicester.
Virgin Media
Virgin Media, the broadband and TV provider, generally perceived as the underdog in the UK pronged live football TV market came out swinging with a tactical message "Leicester. Proof the best football isn’t the most expensive.”
By no means offensive, but it still feels a little forced. It feels more about Virgin Media than it does about the underdog spirit or Leicester's moment in the sun. As one fan pointed at when it was shared on Facebook “Where was Virgin when Leicester were in the 3rd division?”
Asda
While I’m no sartorialist by any stretch of the imagination, supermarket chain Asda’s ‘Vardy Cardy’ feels like a Christmas cracker joke gone wrong, a novelty item that isn’t even novel. Asda has been quick to point its clothing subsidiary George is headquartered in Leicester, but given Asda is originally from Yorkshire and now owned by Walmart - the link is tenuous at best.
What sets apart the first 2 from the last 2 is quite simply, authenticity. For the first two, the associations are so rooted into brand’s heritage, image, lexicon that they almost feel inevitable. This inevitability and authenticity is what distinguishes what is fitting, from the stuff that just fits. Agencies need to start respecting that line more. We have to hold ourselves to higher standards, find our voice, not excuses to speak. We must ensure our creative is contributing to the spirit of a moment, not the clutter around it.
To borrow an Apple ideology, there should be a 1000 no’s for every yes. If you’re unsure about a reactive opportunity, ask yourself what’s our authenticity? Does it feel inevitable?
And if the answers don’t come spring to mind instantly, don’t say yes.
The writer is James Honda-Pinder, senior strategic planner at iris.
Adspend in free newspapers increased again after a two-month YOY decline, according to admanGO.
The bounce back with a 13% YOY increase was mainly driven by pharmaceuticals and healthcare, travel and tourism services, retail and toiletries and household – the adspend by Yamatoo accounted for 5% of the overall adspend in the segment.
The report shows that the local adspend in April was similar to the spending in March at HKD$3.3 billion, recording a drop of 12% when compared with the same period in 2015.
All media except free papers and radio were still at the downside with a double digit YOY drop in adspend in April.
A.S. Watson Group's ad expenditure was doubled against the previous year and accounted for 36% of the adspend from retailer. Meanwhile, Kimberly-Clark – Kotex also made a triple growth in adspend and was 6% of the adspend from toiletries and household.
The 32% YOY increase in adspend by health and beauty food marked the highest growth among the top 10 industries, and the top spender slimming Supplements recorded a significant 82% YOY growth in adspend.
Jintan was the biggest spender in health and beauty food to advertise its product ‘Fat Control’.
While TVC and print ads were the key channels employed by most of the products from health and beauty food, while slimming supplements mainly advertised in Roadshow and buzplay.
There was also a remarkable growth in adspend for Anlene and Anmum milk powder by Fonterra and both brands gradually changed their strategies to target adults and pregnant women instead of infants this year. The overall adspend by Anlene in April was also doubled when compared with the previous months.
Tiger Beer this week unveiled Tiger Jams – a brand new platform that stages Asia’s undiscovered music talent to the rest of the world through collaboration.
Bringing the freshest talent together in the fields of music and art, Tiger Jams will provide the opportunity for Thai and Malaysian undiscovered talents to collaborate with some of Asia’s most exciting music acts and visual artists.
These collaborations will draw inspiration from the distinct streets and sounds of Tiger Beer and creative agency partner The Secret Little Agency (TSLA) saw that Asia’s music talent was under-represented and labelled by the perception that it is inferior in quality and progressiveness compared to Western counterparts.
Tiger Jams kicked off this week with a call for undiscovered artist entries on www.tigerjams.com. As fuel for inspiration, Tiger released a series of videos featuring the stories of established music acts that undiscovered talents will collaborate with. These include Tonick from Hong Kong, The Sam Willows from Singapore and Polycat from Thailand.
Based on the entries, a shortlist of undiscovered acts will be handpicked by a curatorial panel consisting of music industry luminaries. Music fans will then play a part in the artists’ journeys, voting for the three selected local Tiger Jams acts they would like Tiger to stage. Tiger Jams will culminate in a street festival held at iconic locations around the region, where a collaborative jam between an undiscovered artist and an acclaimed international live act will be unveiled.
“We believe that music can transcend cultural boundaries and serve as a common language for the people of Asia. We also know that music from Asia is currently under-represented. To address this, we are launching Tiger Jams – a platform that will uncage the incredible audio-visual talent in our region. We want the world to sit up and pay attention to Asia – the next music and creative powerhouse,” said Mie-Leng Wong, global brand director Tiger Beer at Heineken Asia Pacific
Travel search engine Skyscanner has launched its Facebook messenger bot allowing users to search for flights.
Available to any messenger user typing in English, travellers will be able to interact with the bot to ask for live flight prices, as well as to ask Skyscanner for destination inspiration.
The flight search bot responds with answers to user travel queries in a natural conversational manner. Messenger users can then follow a link to Skyscanner's site to book their chosen travel itinerary.
The messenger bot combines several components of the travel search platform's technology. In addition to the travel search engine’s powerful flights API data, the bot also returns inspirational destination suggestions based on user search trends and cheapest pricing, similar to the 'everywhere' functionality in its website and apps. Users can simply type "not sure" when asked where they wish to go, and suggestions start to appear.
Filip Filipov, director at Skyscanner said, “It has been a top priority for us to take a pioneering approach when it comes to building a bot for the messenger platform. We want to make travel search as easily accessible as possible, and believe that the launch of our Messenger bot will allow more people to search for their travel in a fun and informative way.”
Everyday bright shiny new tools in the digital world pop up. So much so that today, e-mail has almost become one of the older forms of digital communications. Meanwhile, mediums such as print, TV and OOH have no been deemed archaic. Try as hard as they might to innovate and incorporate new digital technology, they are still labelled as "traditional" advertising channels.
However, Rodney Tay, vice-president, digital sales and solutions in Mediacorp says that despite all the new technology present, the way older mediums can keep relevant is by putting up a great piece of content. No matter what the medium might be.
Tay was speaking at the recent Marketing Customer Experience Conference 2016. He further added that in ensuring your marketing strategy fits with consumer needs, brands and advertisers need to acknowledge that consumers today do not want to be sold to. They want to buy into your communication.
Agreeing on Tay’s sentiments, Per Caroe, global evangelist at IBM Commerce, brands should focus on making a viewing experience a continuous and organic whole. As such, when mixing older mediums with newer ones, Caroe advised that there be no "jarring experiences" on the consumers end.
Maximising your email strategy
According to Caroe, some challenges to email marketing mentioned are quality of email database, poor measurement and analytics, lack of skills and training and lack of relevant content and integration.
When using e-mail marketing in your communication strategy, personalising your approach is essential. He stressed the need for a strong database with clean data to ensure marketers are delivering the right customised message to the right person.
"Adding intelligence to your database is a good measure and can allow you to figure out who is a hot or a cold lead," he said, adding:
The richer your master database is, the more powerful, relevant and personal you’ll be.
Marketing automation should also be in the minds of all marketers today as it can easily aid any email marketing campaign.
E-mail has been one of the front runners in reaching consumers since the introduction of the internet, said Caroe. When asked a question from the audience on the relevance of e-mail marketing today given the rise of social media, Caroe said there is not much cause for concern - especially in the B2B world.
Social is cute and effective, but reality is that the impact on real businesses of social is negligible and there aren’t any studies to prove otherwise.
“Email is still the number one way to communicate with people, will be for years,” he said, further adding that this applies to the younger generations too.
OOH gains traction in Singapore
While OOH as a medium might have been around for decades in America and Europe, it is a relatively new form of advertising in Singapore, explained Henry Goh, head of OOH Media, Mediacorp. This is because OOH advertising was banned in Singapore in the 1970s as the Urban Redevelopment Authority was tasked to clean up the streets.
“Somewhere in the early 70s, post-Vietnam war, the Singapore government banned OOH advertising because we were on the course of nation building and urban planning,” Goh said.
Eventually with the establishment of the World Trade Organisation, the introduction of OOH made its way, from the introduction of substantial digital screens in the central business district to stickers found on public transportation. As such the medium is very much alive and constantly innovating in modern day Singapore, Goh explained.
Goh added that strategies which were found to be effective in OOH advertising include zonal targeting, sampling and call-to-action campaigns which centre around dictating travel patterns and reaping revenue from it. Knowing your consumers' feeling and attitude also helps cater the ads.
One example mentioned was the use of job employment ads placed in the evening to reach frustrated employees. It is the same for travel advertisements during the holiday season.
"No matter what, when you are at a bus shelter, you will look up to see which bus is coming. There's a lot of opportunities for us to grab eyeballs in that way," he added.
Understanding the customer psyche
Much like Goh, stressing on the importance of understanding the customer psyche was Samy Mardolker, senior vice-president, marketing research, ORC International. He said:
There is a difference between 'gut-based research' and 'research-based gut'. You need research-based gut, invest more in it, invest the time and think of different ways on how you can mine that insight.
The former means to conduct research based on current perceived notions or “gut feelings”, the latter is the opposite where you use research as a background to influence your marketing decisions.
Here are his five tips to help “end the marketing winter”
Type of journey – Even though there is no one set journey in behavioural economics, brands can still decide the type of journey experience for their customers.
Build empathy – look at pain points and the types of emotions associated such as stress or anxiety and find ways to alleviate that.
Override choice – Nudge your customer rather than cause a stir.Help in symplifying their decisions
Design choice – for an enhanced experience. Learn through experiments and research instead of only relying on experience.
Don’t try to be a magic solution – there is no magic solution when it comes to behavioural economics.
“Invest effort in learning about your customer and be inspired by all the new things happening because it is not easy to come up with a penetrating insight. Rethink how you are connecting to consumers,” Mardolker said.
A new advertisement for a laundry detergent brand in China is turning heads for its blatant racism.
The ad, for Qiaobi (俏比) laundry detergent, starts with a woman doing her laundry, when a paint-splattered black man appears. After inviting him closer, the woman stuffs a laundry detergent capsule in his mouth and shoves him into the washing machine.
To her pleasant surprise, when the load of laundry is done, a young Asian man with a clean shirt climbs out of the machine.
Some commented that's "the most racist ad" they have ever seen.
The brand, whose slogan is “Change begins with Qiaobi,” was said to have just launched at the end of last year but “has been leading the market and in short supply.”
Reaction on social media was swift and harsh, with many comments too salty to reprint.
While the origins of the video aren't clear, Shanghaiist cited an online commenter who says the commercial first aired this month on television, and before movies in theaters around China.
The issue of racism in the country has been widely discussed, this isn't the first time advertisements have featured problematic portrayals of race and beauty standards.
Another recent "racist" example is the promotion for Star Wars, in China, posters for The Force Awakens were altered to minimie John Boyega, a black actor who plays Finn, a central character in the movie.
Jeffrey Seah, Southeast Asia CEO of Starcom Mediavest is leaving the company.
Starcom has confirmed the news to Marketing.
Seah has been in the role of regional CEO for over seven years and has had 15 years of association in two stints, being part of the management team that launched Starcom and Starcom IP Digital Services in Asia Pacific, setting up its inaugural Singapore operation, and returning to helm the South East Asia operations and the VivaKi chair.
Prior to the role, he was with Mindshare as regional lead for Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. He was also CEO of Mindshare Singapore. He will be taking on a new role in the world of tech, data, content, e-commerce consultancy.
In the past few years, Seah has increased his involvement in the expanding world of tech, data, content, e-commerce, private equity consultancy and their applications to the business world. He will look to dive deeper into these areas and bring his pragmatism and application to the disruptor economy.
"Throughout my SMG journey, I was blessed with bosses and colleagues who showed me the ropes (until this day) unconditionally, and guided me patiently. No ‘start-up’ environment can thrive without such a value-based culture. I owe a debt of gratitude to Rishad Tobaccowala, Jack Klues, Andrew Swinand and the many SMG Southeast Asia leaders for their belief and trust in me over the years," said Seah.
"Seah has been a colleague, friend and a partner from the onset. The network will miss a force of nature and the wider business world will now benefit from his drive. Seah leaves Starcom in great hands; in Singapore, Patricia Goh will continue her great work, and the leaders of the Southeast Asia brands will continue their exemplary work and continue to win businesses. I wish him my very best, and have a feeling we will work together again in the future, " said Gerry Boyle, CEO of Publicis Media Asia Pacific.
GoBear, the metasearch comparison site has appointed two key members to lead the Malaysia business.
Iskandar Ezzahuddin will now take on the role of country director Malaysia. In this role, Iskandar will lead GoBear’s business efforts in Malaysia, overseeing the company’s strategic direction while continuing to drive business and user growth.
Iskandar has a career spanning 16 years with experience in MNCs includes FMCG, banking, aviation, and technology. After spending formative years in consumer marketing and digital performance marketing in multinational companies like Procter&Gamble and Nestle, Iskandar transitioned to the financial industry with Product Management roles with UOB Bank & Citibank where he was instrumental in the launch of the Shell Citi Card. Iskandar moved on to helm another startup known as U for Life, the most successful insurance company in Malaysia.
As part of solidifying a team in Malaysia, GoBear also appointed Amelia Lim as its head of marketing. She will be directly involved in the brand awareness and developing user relationships. Her 18 years of multi-industry experience in PR and marketing will be vital in creating successful local launches and innovative marketing solutions in the content and brand activation space.
Amelia Lim (pictured) brings 18 years of multi-industry experience and a strong track record in consumer entertainment and lifestyle marketing in Singapore and Malaysia. Her strengths include developing creative public relations solutions, strategic branding and event planning. She has worked with clients across multiple industries, including energy, F&B, financial services, FMCG, healthcare and lifestyle.
Lim has also gained experience in various in-house corporate and marketing communications roles in Singapore at companies involved in renewable energy and F&B. After 23 years in Singapore, she returned to Malaysia in 2011 and joined a local PR firm where her experience helped to launch and build profiles for Malaysian and MNC brands, among them Hansgrohe, LQP Asia (protective nanotechnology for mobiles), MAXMAN.TV (Malaysia’s first IPTV channel) and Toshiba’s first cinematic laptop.
Iskandar said, “The Malaysia team will be expanding the GoBear portfolio with the aim to ease consumers’ needs when it comes to choosing financial products that are best for them in an unbiased and transparent manner.We are confident that GoBear’s value proposition will help customers be a smarter decision maker when it comes to their finances and insurance."
Both Iskandar and Lim were pivotal in implementing the launch of GoBear Malaysia earlier in May. Since then, the easy-to- understand and unbiased side-by- side comparison site has garnered an impressive 22% conversion rate from sessions on their site.
Etihad Airways has released its 360-degree virtual reality film starring Academy Award winning actress Nicole Kidman. This marks the first time that a Hollywood actor has ever starred in a fully immersive virtual reality movie.
The five-minute feature, titled ‘Reimagine’ immerses its viewers in a fully experiential journey following Nicole Kidman through one of its new Airbus A380s flying between New York and Abu Dhabi. The film engages the consumer in various sensory interactions onboard the virtual flight. Each scene in the film takes on a theme intended to stimulate the senses of light, sound, motion, and conversation.
Etihad Airways collaborated with the Barbarian Group, a subsidiary of Cheil Worldwide, and the creative digital production company MediaMonks to produce the film. The film used pioneering filming techniques to ensure a seamless production with no warping or stitches, achieving unrivalled VR results.
Peter Baumgartner, Etihad Airways’ CEO, said: “We want to share Etihad’s story in a completely new way, using technology to make our consumers a part of the narrative and to experience an Etihad Airways A380 flight first-hand, from anywhere.
“The film demonstrates how, as an innovative brand, we continue to break down the barriers of convention and lead the way in intelligent communication and best practice not just within the aviation industry, but across the fields of marketing, communication and technology.”
Throughout the experience, the viewer meets and engages with a number of characters including the actress herself, her film director, an opera singer and even an Emirati guest with a falcon in First Class. The journey also provides personal interactions with the Savoy-trained Butler in The Residence, the airline’s luxurious private three room cabin, the inflight Chef in First Class, the Food and Beverage Manager in Business Class, and the Flying Nanny, trained by the Norland College in the United Kingdom.
Nicole Kidman, Academy Award winning actress and Etihad Airways’ brand ambassador, said: “The film is a culmination of Etihad’s vision to tell the airline’s story in an extremely innovative way and a commitment to engaging with the public as has never been attempted by an airline before. It was a great challenge but one which has definitely paid off and it was great to be part of such an exciting project.”
The adventure takes the viewer through the twin-decked aircraft and covers its luxurious interiors including Economy Class, Business Class, and First Class, before concluding with a focus on Nicole Kidman enjoying the unique features of The Residence.
Shane O’Hare, Etihad Airways’ SVP marketing, said: “In December 2014 we completely reimagined the travel experience with the launch of our new A380 fleet, setting a new standard in innovative design, service and technology. This was followed in 2015 by a tremendously successful adverting campaign starring Nicole Kidman.
“This immersive VR film is a massive step-change in the way we present the Etihad Airways brand and product to the consumer using highly innovative new mediums. Based on the success of our recent campaign with Nicole, the decision to take this partnership to the next level was an obvious one.”
The film, which has taken more than six-months to produce, was filmed exclusively in Abu Dhabi, and utilised state-of-the-art VR technology in its creation. An Etihad Airways A380 was used for three days and fully customised prior to filming; overhead lockers, seats and other sections of the aircraft’s interior were removed to allow for the installation of cutting-edge Red Dragon cameras, which were used to perfectly capture the actress’ movement through the aircraft. Hundreds of individual lights were required to ensure smooth and uninterrupted shots.
The Virtual Reality film will be available on a dedicated website and will be followed by an updated version in stereoscopic sound on 17 June. To guarantee the full experience, viewers will need to download the Oculus VR app on the airline’s dedicated website and view the film using a virtual reality headset, such as Oculus Rift or Google Cardboard. Viewers will also be able to watch the film as a 360 degree video on YouTube.
Media Prima Radio Network (MPRN), has signed a collaborative Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Management & Science University (MSU) to develop broadcasting programmes and modules as well as consultancy-related services for the next generation.
The collaboration will also include industry training placements within broadcasting, the expansion of existing academic training programmes, as well as the sharing of expertise and know-how including industry talks by MPRN experienced broadcasters to the students of respective fields.
The effort is expected to further increase the marketability of MSU graduates. As it is, more than 98% of MSU graduates have found permanent jobs within six months of graduation, according to an internal study.
“This collaboration is an excellent platform for MPRN to share information and ideas as well as elevate the Malaysian radio industry to the next level. We see this as an excellent opportunity to synergise our collective efforts to create a more creative and highly imaginative new generation of radio broadcasters in Malaysia,” Seelan Paul, CEO of MPRN said.
The synergy will also include consultations for early stage development, including the design and construction of an industry standard radio county in MSU’s campus, as well as insights on its technical aspects including the use of proper softwares and hardwares. MPRN is also providing valuable inputs in finalising the development plan for the setting up of a campus radio with MSU’s academic team.
In addition, MPRN’s top radio broadcasters will also be actively sharing information and know-how with MSU students, plus career tips on becoming a successful radio broadcaster in Malaysia.
According to Darwin, it is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. Hummingbirds have long beaks, stray dogs in Moscow take the subway and New York bed bugs are more resilient than ever.
In the world of advertising, agencies as a species have also adapted with time. Ten years ago the focus was on mobile and digital. Then there was a shift towards local-regional markets. Now we see the emergence of the full-service model as agencies try to respond to complex demands from clients and consumers.
When Sir Martin Sorrell writes about WPP’s integrated “Team” model and Maurice Levy says his vision for the future is "modular instead of being siloed", we get the impression that the future of advertising may lie in strength in numbers. Woe be the agency that opts to stand alone; a vendor hawking one category of product beside a Walmart with 200,000 SKUs.
Will specialist agencies ever be able to provide the same extent of service as full-service agencies? No. But neither will a full service-agency be able to provide the degree of depth that a specialist agency can deliver. It’s a face-off between the big picture and the detailed experience, and the options can get overwhelming for those who feel they have to pick a side.
The best thing agencies can do is build their arsenal of great talent, structure processes to ensure agile delivery and invest in building a reputation for outstanding work. You can put those capabilities in one box or stack them in many boxes. It doesn’t matter if you come as part of a group or present credentials as a niche independent. It is safe to say that the one thing we can bet on is that the ideal agency model will be any structure that works for the client- and delivers results.
Build an arsenal of great talent
Anyone who appreciates service and knowledge will remind you that there will always be a need for the expert. It also pays to take a look at history. Time has shown that the nature of creativity is to define itself away from the pack. A sign of expertise is to be able to focus on one skill set. The danger for full-service agencies is they can lose the views of the expert in their pool of partners. Specialist agencies need business leaders who understand the broader picture to avoid tunnel vision.
Be agile in delivery
To ask the question of which agency model will win in the future is to discount that thecmarketing ecosystem is hell-bent on disruption. What form agencies take today may work over the next two to three years, but then it’ll be time to reassess. The mediums of advertising will demand new capability and workflow. We’ll see a case study that proves an anomaly could be the new normal. Someone will invent a new way of doing business, and the Uber model, which is encroaching on the advertising industry, will look outdated later.
Invest in producing outstanding results
When full-service agencies compete against other, capability becomes table stakes and what sets one name plate from another is the legacy of great work. If we no longer can identify an agency’s work by its “signature” approach – like they did in the ‘golden age’ of advertising – then we’ll recognise an agency by the results it produces. Creativity is subjective and can be argued by many, but performance is tangible and evidence of a structure that works.
All of the above needs people who are constantly learning and relearning. Are you?
The writer is Shufen Goh, co-founder of R3 Worldwide, president of IAS
