Carlsberg has brought back its "Probably The Best Job In The World" campaign, this time with larger stakes. For just four hours of work which consists of drinking beer, one lucky “job applicant” will be awarded a salary of SG$20,000, double that of last year’s campaign.
The campaign launched last year and saw social media manager Daniel Osgodby taking home the job, winning SG$10,000 for four hours of work enjoying pints of Carlsberg’s beer.
“Whatever Carlsberg does, we strive to do better. While the exhilarating job of a beer taster remains the same this year, the successful applicant will earn $20,000, which is double the salary offered last year – simply to enjoy ‘Probably the best beer in the world’,” Jimmy Toh, general manager of Carlsberg Singapore, said.
“We are looking for the best candidate that exemplifies this spirit, and demonstrates passion for the Carlsberg brand to bag this unique job opportunity,” he added.
Interested “candidates” for the job are told to make an application on the brand’s microsite touting the campaign, with only those aged 18 and above being qualified to apply. Online registration opened on 21 November and closes on 4 December. Selected finalists will be notified to attend a simple job interview on the afternoon of 15 December 2016.
Hot on the heels of the announcement of its new Iron Man Experience zone earlier this month, Hong Kong Disneyland has now also unveiled further developments with a proposed HK$10.9 billion expansion plan to provide more popular facilities for local and overseas visitors.
As part of the expansion, Hong Kong Disneyland will be transforming the castle and hub areas to highlight new daytime and nighttime spectaculars and entertainment experiences, adding new Frozen- and Marvel-themed lands and introducing a new entertainment venue, Moana's Village Festival in Adventureland.
The proposed HK$10.9 billion expansion is scheduled to begin in 2018 and completed in 2023, with HK$5.1 billion coming from Disney and another HK$5.8 billion coming from the Hong Kong government, which has a 53% stake in the park.
The new attractions as part of a proposed multi-year expansion for Hong Kong Disneyland from 2018-2023 include:
A transformed castle and hub area to showcase new daytime and nighttime spectaculars and entertainment experiences
An all-new Frozen themed land where guests can experience the characters and stories from the beloved films in ways never before seen at a Disney park
Dedicated Marvel themed area featuring new Marvel attractions and entertainment from one of the most popular Super Hero franchises in history
A new entertainment venue, Moana's Village Festival in Adventureland, which will feature a lively stage show
"Hong Kong tourism is in an adjustment period," said secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Gregory So. "The expansion is a strategic development to attract tourists who would stay overnight and spend more," he added.
Apart from the city's tourism downturn, which saw visitor numbers dip 9.6% in the first 10 months of the year, HKDL is also facing stiff competition from its mainland counterpart.
"We are more excited than ever about the future of Hong Kong Disneyland," Bob Chapek, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts said. "This proposed expansion brings the best of The Walt Disney Company to this wonderful tourist destination, giving guests an experience only Disney can deliver and infusing some of Disney's most beloved characters and stories into this unique destination."
Disney said the expansion will create 3,500 jobs and eventually bring another 600 jobs within the park.
According to a new Accenture Strategy report, chief executive officers (CEOs) said that chief marketing officers (CMOs) are the first in the firing line if growth targets are not met. This is despite there being around five C-level executives responsible for driving disruptive business growth.
Approximately, 37% of CEOs surveyed hold CMOs first in the firing line, said the study and following closely are chief sales officers at 34% and chief strategy officers at 29%. This is despite 50% of CEOs see CMOs as the primary driver of disruptive growth, closely followed by chief strategy officers at 49% and chief sales officers at 38%.CMOs are also viewed as to be the ones who are best placed to drive growth due to their unique position of being in direct line of customers, prospects and the wider market.
According to the Accenture report, 96% of CMOs recognise the importance of disruptive growth to revenue potential. Moreover, 75% believe they have a great deal of control over the disruptive growth levers in their company. However, many still feel that they are "currently not in a position to drive disruptive growth due to mindset and time". Only 30% of CMOs believe they are “cutting-edge marketing innovators” and only 37% spend their time on innovation.
And despite the need for all things innovative and digital, 60% of CMOs still spend the majority of their time on traditional marketing initiatives, such as maintaining brand image, improving customer experience and loyalty.
Agreeing on this point is Vernon Vasu, co-founder of Refuel4 who was previously the head of marketing of Health Promotion Board. This is especially because CMOs feel that 60% of their time is spent on legacy activities that don't deliver.
“That seems to the crux of what is a self-perpetuating cycle. There is a clear opportunity to embrace new technology, manage the risk of implementation and Board expectations, to see upside,” Vasu said.
CMOs face a much bigger push on deliverables
Despite the importance of these marketing initiatives, 54% feel a large portion of their marketing budget is being wasted and not delivering the expected business results. According to Robert Wollan, senior managing director leading Advanced Customer Strategy, Accenture Strategy, organisations that rely on "growth by committee" struggle to achieve their targets.
It breeds a C-suite culture where everyone is responsible, yet no one is accountable – and onus unduly falls onto someone, usually the CMO.
According to Goh Shu Fen, principal and co-founder at R3, with businesses grappling with disruption on all fronts, it is no surprise that CEOs are expecting CMOs to be more accountable and business focused.
There is a legacy in CMOs not being able to prove whether their marketing works, more so than their counterparts in IT or finance.
But Goh is of the view that CEOs having higher expectations of CMOs can only be good news.
"It means that CEOs understand marketing needs to be more at the driver seat of the company’s strategy,” Goh added.
The evolution of the marketing role
Wendy Walker, former marketer at Manulife and Telstra who has had experience on both client and agency side, said:
I don't think this is the case any longer and the role and power held by CMOs have changed drastically over the past five to ten years. CMOs today are much more predictive.
She argued that data and analytics playing a larger part of the changing role of CMOS, have also made a CMO's seat at the table a more strategic one. This allows for a more predictive and guiding influence for overall business strategy and opportunities for growth, and far greater input into product conception and development.
But sometimes, she added, the situation does come down to simply relationships with the CEOs and also the type of industry the organisation is in.
Kiriat Argenio, head of marketing at Zalora, added that today CMOs lead the most exposed area of the business when it comes to growth. Today the growth of a company is surely a consequence of the job of all the departments a business it’s made of, but usually marketing is the area that translates everyone' effort in actual performances.
Argenio added that whether with a direct responsibility or an indirect one, the current marketing departments are also the ones whose actions usually have a faster impact.
So how can CMOs change this perception?
The Accenture report also said that CMOs can take a greater role by actively driving the disruptive growth agenda and generating new value for the business. Such initiatives include developing ecosystems with non-traditional players, launching platforms that elevate current products into expanded service models for customers, and increasing revenue through next generation connected data monetization – all of which CMOs are well positioned to do.”
To hold their ground in the c-level office, R3’s Goh is of the view that CMOs now need to challenge the silos in an organisation and also rethink their marketing models.
“CMOs need to behave like an octopus, with marketing tentacles sensing every aspect of the company’s business. They’re tasked to deliver creativity with more speed and agility than before, on an innovation canvas not just in communications, but product, customer experience and business model,” Goh added.
Zalora's Argenio is of the view that CMOs too should naturally have a risk appetite that is higher than average, and that would be the key to success for the CMO role.
“CMOs need to risk more and ensure to have the support of other C-levels. That would be the best chance the CMOs gets, which is not a lot but is also what makes the job so exciting,” Argenio said.
The Accenture Strategy report, ‘The C-level Disruptive Growth Opportunity’, is based on the company’s annual CMO Insights report, which gauges the attitudes of 535 CEOs and 847 CMOs from organisations around the world, on the opportunities and challenges impacting business growth today.
To meet the growing demand for social media professionals across a broad range of industries, Republic Polytechnic (RP) has introduced the specialist diploma in communication strategies for social media.
Founding members and principal consultants of digital media management consultancy firm QED Consulting, were engaged to co-develop and deliver the curriculum for part of the specialist diploma. It will bring up-to-date industry knowledge and practices, and impart relevant skills to the participants of this programme.
Over the past five years, Singapore’s media industry grew 150% and is projected to maintain a healthy growth for the next few as well. This growth has resulted in rising demand for local talent in this sector, including those who can create compelling content and harness digital media technologies to engage their customers and stakeholders.
The timely establishment of Infocomm Media 2025 sets the benchmark on how the local workforce needs to be equipped with new infocomm media knowledge and skills as part of the goal to make Singapore a Smart Nation.
As such, the specialist diploma aims to meet the changing needs of the industry by offering a rigorous, in-depth programme that trains PR/marketing communications professionals in the development of communication strategies for social media; research and application of social/digital media analytics; content creation and marketing, as well as crisis communication and management.
The course aims to contribute to a bigger pool of digital/social media strategists who are able to harness social media effectively in engaging customers and stakeholders, and achieving business outcomes.
The year-long programme offers comprehensive and in-depth knowledge and application on how social media could be harnessed and maximised to achieve business goals. With a strong focus on project work, it requires students to apply concepts learnt and develop social media communication strategies to industry-related projects.
Warren Wang, director of RP’s School of Management and Communication, said, “Through our interaction with the industry, we have identified skill gaps that have impeded the efficient adoption of digital media within companies.”
He explained that the gaps mainly include strategic planning and understanding business priorities to align with communication strategies, integrating digital and traditional communication, harnessing digital media’s potential, sustaining digital media engagement, social media analytics and content creation, amplification and syndication.
RP will take in 30 students in the first batch for this diploma with effect from April 2017.
South China Morning Post Publishers Limited announced the appointment of Gary Liu as the incoming chief executive officer, succeeding Robin Hu, effective 3 January 2017.
Liu, 33, is a California native who has lived in New York for nearly two decades, after having grown up in Taiwan and New Zealand. He speaks Putonghua and has a degree in economics from Harvard University.
In a blog post, Liu said that apart from the opportunity to take the SCMP global, “my decision to join the SCMP is also deeply personal”.
“I’m an Asian-American who has grown up in the West, stuck in the tension of two cultures still learning to communicate with one another. There is a duality of understanding in our current media world; each culture interprets and reports the news through the filter of their own experience. What we need is a new plurality – a global news organisation that fights to bridge this gap of communication and bring a balanced and nuanced understanding of Greater China to the world. I believe the SCMP is that bridge, and I am excited to be part of defining how my children, who will be global citizens, will learn about China in the future.”
He joins SCMP from his recent CEO position at Digg, a New York-based online content aggregator. Prior to joining Digg, he was head of labs at Spotify from November 2013 to February 2015.
"As an influencer and innovator in digital media and someone with roots in Greater China, Gary is the perfect fit to take SCMP's vision -- coverage of Greater China from an Asian perspective for a global audience -- to the next level and show our readers the future of news in the age of mobile and social media," said Joe Tsai, chairman of the SCMP board of directors.
Hu, the incumbent SCMP CEO, is returning to Singapore to join Temasek International as joint head of the sustainability and stewardship group but staying on as a member of the SCMP Board of directors.
"I'm delighted to hand over the baton to Gary, who brings world-class digital expertise, youthful energy and a grasp of the North American market, all of which are indispensable at this stage in SCMP's journey. As the company navigates the complexities of digital transformation, I am confident that under Gary's leadership, SCMP will become a global platform for serious debate on China, the biggest story of our lifetime," Hu said.
Former CEO of the South China Morning Post, Robin Hu (pictured), who left to join Temasek Holdings is taking on an additional role as a director on Mediacorp’s board.
It was first reported in July that he would be taking on the newly created senior role of joint head of its sustainability and stewardship group – a new senior leadership role – with effect from 1 December.
Before joining SCMP, Hu was senior executive vice president with Singapore Press Holdings overseeing its Chinese newspapers and newspaper services businesses. He is also a board member of business China and governor of Singapore International School in Hong Kong. In addition to his appointment as Mediacorp board member, three other directors would be coming on board as well, effective immediately.
The four new directors will replace Rajiv Wahi, Venky Krishnakumar and Elim Chew, who stepped down after serving on the board for six years each, and Chan Yeng Kit, following his appointment as chairman of Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) on 1 October.
Niam Chiang Meng, currently deputy chairman of the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) and board member of Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore, will be joining the board as well. Niam was chairman of Media Development Authority (MDA) from January 2011 to 30 September 2016.
He has held key positions over a long career in the civil service including permanent secretary (information, communications and the arts) and permanent secretary (national population and talent division), Prime Minister's Office, before retiring on 1 Aug 2016.
Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP partner Rajesh Sreenivasan will also be appointed as director. Sreenivasan joined the firm in 1998 and is now head and lead partner of the technology media and telecommunications (TMT) practice across the 10 member firms of Rajah & Tann Asia.
Lastly, Roy Quek, executive chairman of Thomson Medical Group, will join the Mediacorp board. Concurrently, Quek is executive director and group chief executive of TMC Life Sciences Group, a public-listed health sciences group in Malaysia.
Prior to that role, he has held stints as deputy secretary at Ministry of Home Affairs and at Ministry of Health. Quek is also the chairman of St Joseph’s Institution International, an independent, not-for-profit international school.
“We welcome Niam, Hu, Sreenivasan and Quek on board. They each bring deep expertise in their respective fields and collectively a wealth of leadership experience, knowledge and insights. Mediacorp will benefit tremendously from them joining us in our journey of transformation, innovation and growth,” Mediacorp chairman Ernest Wong, said.
Shopee claims to have achieved a total of US$1.8 billion annualised gross merchandise value (GMV) since it was launched last year. The mobile marketplace firm which is available in Southeast Asia and Taiwan - added that its business showed a 43% month-on-month growth over the past one year with 25 million downloads and over 65 million listings across seven markets.
Chris Feng, chief executive officer of Shopee said for 2017, it expects to maintain a strong double-digit growth as the earlier year, adding "We will also continue to focus our efforts on optimising the product, improving the end-to-end user experience and in empowering entrepreneurs to expand and grow their online businesses.”
The company revealed that 70% of its users are more likely to purchase on mobile than on PC as the latter is used mostly for browsing and price comparison.
In conjunction with its first year anniversary, Shopee will be giving out some deep discounts to its users in December, as well as chances to win prizes worth up to RM50,000 in flights, hotel stays, mobile phones and cash vouchers. It will also be organising a bazaar involving more than 30 Shopee sellers from various categories in Kuala Lumpur.
The company also said it has partnered up with Facebook for a special edition of Shopee University to be held on 10 of December. Attending merchants would be able to learn first hand from Facebook representatives on how to leverage Facebook tools to further increase orders and their store performance.
Facebook will also share full spectrum of insights, case studies, and insider tips that will help merchants grow their business exponentially. The workshop is now available for sign-up through Shopee mobile app.
Xaxis has appointed Yunnita Avreda as director, Xaxis Indonesia, along with Dian Jaya as head of client development and Tejender Singh, senior manager of the operations team. Arshan Saha, vice president, Xaxis Southeast Asia, will continue to oversee the market as part of his regional purview.
In her new role, Avreda will be responsible for leading Xaxis' operations in Indonesia, growing revenue and attracting new businesses while managing a team of ten people set to double next year.
Prior to joining Xaxis, Avreda was the country manager, Indonesia, for mobile ad agency, Big Mobile. During her tenure, she expanded the company’s Indonesia operations, leading new business wins for clients such as Toyota, Bank Rakyat Indonesia, Wings Corp and BMW. She has spent more than a decade in media, working at leading entertainment companies in Indonesia and Vietnam including FBNC TV, MTV Vietnam, FremantleMedia Indonesia and Amaardyo Pictura.
Averda will work closely with Jaya who will manage the company's existing business while providing support for new business. Within this role, he will work closely with senior agency partners and clients, serving as an educator and evangelist for Xaxis’ programmatic buying solutions.
Moreover, Singh who joins the operations team, will manage all campaign trading and tracking. He will also work closely with the sales team performing pre and post campaign analysis. Previously, Tejender was working at In Mobi. In the newly created role at Xaxis, he would be leading operations in market including programmatic trading and campaign management
“The Indonesian market is on the cusp of explosive growth. The country boasts the world’s fourth largest population with over 250 million people, and its digital capabilities are growing at an aggressive pace,” said Ed Thesiger, GroupM CEO Indonesia and Vietnam. “The market will be a critical point of emphasis for Xaxis as we expand our operations throughout South East Asia,” he added.
“Indonesia represents a tremendous opportunity,” said Arshan Saha, VP South & South East Asia, Xaxis APAC. “The addition of Avreda is a big piece of that puzzle, as are Jaya and Singh. They join a team already making strides growing the business and setting Xaxis up for even more success as the market continues to expand.”
We are back with the second edition of Digital Marketing Indonesia.
Indonesia remains one of the most attractive and lucrative markets for digital marketers. Factors such as increased wealth, digital literacy and growing urban populations make the country an alluring destination for digital creativity and techno-preneurship.
However, the challenges for marketers in Indonesia is equally as great as the opportunities. Marketers are left frustrated, trying to constantly stand out in a crowded and competitive environment.
As such, during the two day conference held at the Mandarin Oriental Jakarta, we look at leading Indonesian brands are embracing emerging technologies, programmatic, content and mobile to cater to today’s ever-changing consumer.
BuzzFeed and NBCUniversal have inked a massive deal. NBCUniversal is making an additional US$200 million investment to expand the strategic partnership between the two companies and fund the growth of BuzzFeed’s industry leading news and entertainment network.
With this investment, NBCUniversal and BuzzFeed will extend their advertising sales relationship. BuzzFeed will collaborate with NBCUniversal on production and social distribution for NBCUniversal’s Content Studio, which delivers platform-specific, short-form digital video content to advertisers. NBCUniversal will also represent BuzzFeed’s inventory to advertisers.
Additionally, the companies will work together to create new digital consumer experiences for NBCUniversal premium content.The new investment will also allow BuzzFeed to build on the company’s lead in digital media. BuzzFeed will focus on further developing data science and technology, growing the massive Tasty food media network, and creating cross-platform advertising products.
Additionally, BuzzFeed News will expand its editorial capabilities on all digital platforms and continue to grow its digital video operations in Los Angeles, New York, and around the world.
“Over the past year, BuzzFeed has proven to be a valuable partner across our business. From the Olympics to the record-breaking launch of Secret Life of Pets, BuzzFeed has helped us engage millennial audiences with our content and extend the reach of our clients’ campaigns to new platforms,” said Maggie Suniewick, president of NBCUniversal Digital Enterprises.
“We are looking forward to using the power of our brands to collaborate in more innovative ways that drive value for both companies,” he added.
NBCUniversal and BuzzFeed have already partnered on successful initiatives including the 2016 Rio Olympics on Snapchat, co-selling advertising deals across linear and digital, and content partnerships like Tasty on NBC News’ Today.
“NBCUniversal has been a tremendous partner this past year and we can’t wait to do more with them. Our collaboration has allowed us to focus on our respective strengths, learn from each other, and serve our combined audience better with compelling news, entertainment, and advertising offerings that neither company could do on our own,” said Jonah Peretti BuzzFeed CEO and founder.
He added the investment allows Buzzfeed to remain a fully independent company but have access to and resources from the strongest and best media company there is.
BuzzFeed claims to reach over 500 million people around the world on digital platforms and is leading a massive shift to digital that is transforming news, entertainment, and advertising.
“BuzzFeed is really perfectly positioned to continue to lead the industry. With digital distribution fully built out, mobile content is where all the excitement is and this follow on commitment from NBCUniversal will allow us to continue to build out our footprint, invest in new products and continue to aggressively grow our revenue,” said Kenneth Lerer, BuzzFeed’s executive chairman.
LionTree Advisors acted as financial advisor and Fenwick & West LLP acted as legal advisor to BuzzFeed on the transaction. Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP acted as legal advisor to NBCUniversal on the transaction.
Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN) announced the acquisition of Bluecom Group. The firm will become part of DAN’s digital arm Isobar China Group and will be rebranded as “Isobar Commerce”, in a bid to strengthen the network’s position.
Established in 2012, Bluecom specialises in designing and implementing e-commerce consulting, platforms and solutions of multi-channel online stores for medium to large, international, B2B and B2C companies across Asia Pacific.
Headquartered in Shanghai, with regional offices in Singapore, Hong Kong and Ho Chi Minh City, Bluecom’s clientele spans Greater China, Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia and Australia/New Zealand.
Patrick Deloy and Florian Legendre, managing directors of Bluecom, will join the Isobar leadership team to drive strategy and manage business development for Isobar Commerce in the region, reporting to Jane Lin-Baden, CEO of Isobar Asia Pacific.
Isobar Commerce adds extensive scale to Isobar China Group’s commerce capabilities. It will work with mobile commerce arm, Verystar – Linked by Isobar, to offer capabilities covering e-commerce and mobile commerce to accelerate clients’ global Omni-channel strategy.
Nick Waters, CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network Asia Pacific, said: “The e-commerce and mobile commerce market in China is developing more rapidly than anywhere else in the world, with Asia Pacific being the largest e-commerce region globally. Bluecom is a clear market leader in the area of e-commerce and having them on board will provide strong acceleration to our capabilities, helping us future-proof our business.”
“Bluecom presents a rare opportunity with a strong track record of working with leading software providers. Their existing multi-market footprint with particular strength in China is an ideal combination for supporting further growth for Isobar in the region,” said Lin-Baden
The majority of Hong Kong consumers are less committed to their favourite retailers than ever, ICLP's latest research shows.
Partnering with an expert on relationship dynamics, professor Ron Rogge from the University of Rochester, the marketing agency surveyed 750 consumers in Hong Kong to rate their experiences with friends, loved ones, and brand relationships on seven core relationship criteria: recognition, rewards, reciprocity, reliability, respect, trust and communication.
The analysis then ranged brand and customer relationships into six categories, including "empty", "liking", "casual", "romantic", "compassionate", and "devoted" - the category in which devoted consumers are the most willing to share personal information, opinions and desires with their favourite brands, and are least likely to stray to competitors.
The research showed that only 1% of local consumers are "devoted" to their preferred retail brands.
ICIP's general manager, Mary English, said the study highlighted that retailers should begin to truly understand the emotional factors that drive consumer loyalty.
"These days, brands are finding it difficult to connect with their customers in a meaningful way. Our study shows that consumers want the same from a brand as they do from their friends and loved ones," she said.
To encourage more "devoted" consumer groups across the customer base, brands are suggested to take several steps:
Take time to understand customers’ needs
69% of those surveyed would buy more if retailers used their data to better understand shoppers individual needs and requirements.
Build respect and trust amongst consumers
63% would buy more if retailers treated them with more respect, and 55% would buy more if they trusted brands more. Trust is key to securing the commitment that exists in a "devoted" relationship.
Communication is also crucial
60% would buy more if brands better communicated with them. This highlights the importance of using better engagement strategies to create a reciprocal sense of passion.
Create stronger rewards programmes
According to the study, personalised rewards can drive customers towards a more "devoted" state.
Consumers in ‘empty’, ‘liking’ and ‘casual’ relationships may have lower expectations about reward programmes, but 75% of Hong Kong consumers would buy more if they were better rewarded. The survey results also suggest that loyalty programmes are more significant than traditional points-based reward programmes.
A survey released last month suggested that 48% of customers in Hong Kong see discounts on future purchases as highly important, while 42% said that they would spend more if they could get free delivery on a day of their choosing.
With the fast growing cross-border e-commerce market in China, Alibaba's online marketplace Tmall is playing the Black Friday card in China to further push its shopping sales.
After Thursday's Thanksgiving turkeys, football and naps, millions of Americans will turn their attention to another annual ritual, Black Friday, with a rush of door-busting deals for bargain-hungry consumers from midnight onward.
But as US consumers descend on their retailers’ bricks-and-mortar stores, stuffing gaming consoles, home décor and apparel into their carts, Chinese consumers will get some of the same bargains from the same retailers with just a few taps on their mobile phones.
Tmall Global has partnered with several US brands including Macy’s, Costco and Target to launch the “Same Products, Same Time, Same Price, Same Black Friday” campaign.
Starting with a pre-sale that launched on Monday and lasting through this coming Sunday, Chinese consumers have the opportunity to purchase select products for the same prices at which they’re sold offline on Black Friday in the U.S.
“We want to give Chinese consumers access to unique brands, unique products and a unique shopping experience during the Black Friday shopping holiday, as well as help international merchants to boost their branding power and sales in China,” said Alvin Liu, head of Tmall Global. “This campaign is another opportunity for Alibaba to do that.”
Google, or should we say Alphabet, has an interesting history with branding. Recently, they changed their Nexus phone line-up brand to Pixel, the parent company renamed itself Alphabet, and now it's Chromecast's turn again.
Earlier this year, the Chromecast ecosystem was renamed to 'Google Cast', but now Google seems to be flip-flopping and wants to go back to the original Chromecast name.
In a confusing turn of events earlier this year, the 'Google Cast' was introduced to consumer devices to "better reflect that Google Cast technology is now supported across a wide range of devices such as Chromecast, TVs, displays, and speakers," as opposed to, presumably, solely streaming web-content.
Now, the new name for third party devices is "Chromecast built-in". The Twitter account is now Chromecast, changed back from Google Cast, and the Google Cast website just threw in the towel and adopted both with the statement "Google Cast - also known as Chromecast built-in..."
The setup app makes matters even worse. The app was 'Chromecast', then changed to 'Google Cast' to coincide with the third-party device launch. Then, it was changed to 'Google Home' to coincide with the Google Home voice appliance announced last month. Whether the app will now revert back to Chromecast remains to be seen.
The budget war is never a pretty one. More than ever, marketers are being forced to stretch the dollar. With no way out, they now must learn to better collaborate with their finance divisions to find the right recipe for a brand's success and business growth. But by no means is this easy.
While both might have the business' success in their minds, the idea of this success might vary.
According to a Forrester study commissioned by Neustar, despite both marketing and finance teams having the best intentions for the business, there is often a lack of collaboration between the two functions.
The study found that while both marketing and finance divisions understood the importance of the relationship, there are barriers to effective collaboration as both divisions see the business in different ways. While marketing’s goal is to find new customers and improve brand perception, finance’s goals is to keep costs low and profits maximised.
About 78% of respondents felt it was critically important that marketing and finance teams are aligned on business objectives, but few felt their company was well aligned. Only 15% said marketing and finance plan and work collaboratively towards shared goals. Meanwhile, 21% said that marketing and finance set goals together but approach and deliver on those goals independently.
From the finance perspective, business success is measured in revenue and profit, whereas in marketing, metrics range from awareness and brand equity to new customer acquisition or customer lifetime value.
So what exactly is holding back the relationship between finance and marketing?
Lack of connection between marketing KPI and business KPI
The Forrester survey found that only 36% of companies surveyed considered their marketing KPIs and overall business KPIs to be very well connected. Hence, tension is created between finance and marketing as it causes problems for measuring success.
Only 36% of companies surveyed considered their marketing KPIs and overall business KPIs to be very well connected
This has resulted in a skewed perception of marketing, with 47% of respondents stating that companies view marketing as a cost centre rather than a profit centre. 72% of respondents ranked processes as one of the top three challenges in the way of the marketing and finance relationship. This includes the process in which marketing budgets are decided. 41% of companies said that marketing budgets are determined by the finance team based on a derived number from the revenue/earnings goals. This percentage was higher for c-level survey respondents at 52%.
Hence the report shows that a majority of companies still take a top-down approach to marketing budgets which reduce opportunities for collaboration between the two divisions.
Tech challenges
Next are technology challenges, centred around the value a business places on measuring the impact of marketing. 58% cited difficulties integrating systems that track marketing campaigns with systems that track business results as a top challenge.
However, there is a stark difference in perception between marketing and finance respondents. 55% of marketers believe their department is viewed as a cost centre, while only 40% of finance respondents view it as a cost centre. This means that marketers are experiencing the challenges of being considered a cost centre even though finance leaders do not completely view them as such.
With this in mind, we ask local marketing leads what they find challenging when working with their finance heads.
Clarence Chew, Decathlon’s head of marketing and communications, said the CMO-CFO relationship is definitely one which is important and crucial as it is directly tied to the business growth and P&L of a company.
“When it comes to the marketing budget, CMOs tend to look upon the budget as an investment and CFOs tend to see it as a cost. There needs to be a way for CMOs to bridge those two perceptions and come to a consensus,” Chew said.
At the end of the day, Decathlon’s Chew feels it is the CMO’s onus to foster a good relationship with the CFO to ensure both have a good understanding of each other’s job scopes. But finding ways to build the relationship will differ from person to person.
Take the CFO out for a beer and let a good conversation take it from there.
And marketers are not alone, PR folks speaking at a recent PR Asia conference also said being BFFs with your CFO is vital in getting the marketing and PR wheels turning.
Gaynor Reid, vice president communications Asia Pacific, AccorHotels said making friends with the CFO is often a first priority from the get go. However, this also had to be backed by credible results and as suchit is also important to establish oneself as a decision maker who is part of the strategy process. This is crucial in increasing budget prospects and learning to speak the business language. She said:
You need to present it as to how it will help the business. Don’t just report the strategy, be part of creating the strategy.
Agreeing with her is Lavinia Rajaram, regional head of public relations (Asia), AirAsiaExpedia, who highlighted the importance of establishing oneself as a trusted partner to the business. This is in addition with having a seat at the management level to be able to influence stakeholders.
The advertising industry is rapidly evolving beyond creating ads for ad placements. In an era of ad blockers, skip buttons, and ad-free radios and TV channels, traditional ads are losing relevance and dying a slow death.
This changes everything. From content ideation, distribution and all the way to measurement, the entire marketing paradigm is adapting to the new attention economy. As a result, brands are presented with the unique opportunity to develop an ecosystem where they can deliver content across multiple channels, through branded films, podcasts, webcasts, social, and other forms of in-feed content.
In many ways, the financial services industry (FSI) is among the pioneers in this new brand publishing frontier. Although FSI brands face unique regulatory and compliance challenges, they still manage to create amazing, innovative content to reach new audiences and grow their brands. Yet, at the same time, there is still room for improvement. After all, while 78% of FSI marketers use content marketing, only 25% of them consider their organisations to be effective at it, according to the Content Marketing Institute.
Here are three ways FSI brands can build content strategies to drive measurable results:
Using content to highlight social issues and earn credibility
The days of hard-selling and outright self-promotion are long gone; it is essential, instead, to put out content that goes beyond just the product. In an industry where customer loyalty is a key priority, one of the approaches FSI brands can use is to take a stand on social issues and deliver relevant content that speaks to their audiences.
ANZ (Australia & New Zealand Banking Group) with their Equal Future campaign, which won six awards at this year’s Cannes Lions, is a good example.
Originated from an ANZ whitepaper produced in partnership with a strategic research firm, the Equal Future campaign was launched with the aim of creating an active change movement in the professional gender inequality sphere. As part of the campaign, ANZ worked with high-profile personalities including Australia’s first female Prime Minister Julia Gillard and tennis superstar Martina Navratilova for the “Equal Future” video.
“Nobody is going to go online and fill in an application form for a home loan. That’s not how people want to interact with that product; they actually want to sit down and have a discussion around their serious fears and concerns. So the role of content in this instance […] is offering people something as a softer call to action, as part of that journey within these complex buying cycles,” said Schalk van der Sandt, Head of Digital at PHD Media in Mebourne, who managed the Equal Future campaign, on mapping content strategies to achieve specific outcomes in the financial services industry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKQXVYUVajk
To summarise, these were the three “C’s” that contributed to the success of ANZ’s Equal Future:
Creating an emotional response: ANZ invested in their content assets to make sure they were compelling enough to make people pay attention and generate an emotional response. The campaign was also appealing enough to motivate people to share, support and put their voice behind the cause.
Credibility: ANZ also worked with major publishers and high-profile personalities to source content for a microsite built around the campaign to add credibility and weight to the initiative.
Continuity: ANZ ensured that their website was updated on a regular basis with opinion pieces, news, and video content. A follow-up video campaign called “Pocket Money” launched a few months later as a sequel to the first video.
Westpac’s content hub The Cusp is another great example of how FSI brands can use content that help them counterbalance the negativity and build trust.
Building content strategies around specific outcomes
From building trust, to educating an audience around your product, to driving more measurable intent, content strategy should be aligned with the outcomes you want to drive.
It is also essential to take a position on hard issues above and beyond your product, enabling your brand to build trust, giving your brand a human voice, and making your content something that people can relate to.
For FSI brands in particular, education is another important outcome, seeing that the products and services offered can be difficult for consumers to grasp. Brands can make this process simpler by creating content that allows visualization of how its offerings can solve a problem or add value to their lives.
Education can also eventually transform an interested lead into a customer. A great example from a different market is UTI Mutual Fund, a pioneer in the Indian mutual fund industry, who launched a youth-targeted campaign to strengthen the brand's proposition. Comprising two video episodes, the campaign was aimed at educating a very targeted audience – Millennials - on the benefits of a Systematic Investment Plan and creating awareness around the need for wealth acceleration.
Driving measurable intent through content
We are now going into what some have defined the “post- -demographic - targeting era”, where audiences are no longer profiled as relevant based on their gender, age or where they live.
As media strategies evolve to target audiences based on intent, rather than demographics, FSI brands can leverage three main engagement moments to drive and measure intent through content:
Search: the first and probably easiest thing to look at is people who are actively searching for your brand
Retargeting people returning to your site or page through retargeting ads. These are people who have shown interest in your product by interacting with your content or product pages, but didn’t ultimately complete the action you wanted them to complete
Content discovery: by distributing your content through amplification platforms, you engage with your audience when they’re most reactive to content – while reading the news or favourite blogs, when they are in a ‘discovery’ mode, and willing to engage with your content so long as it aligns with their interests. Of the three moments, content discovery is probably the most powerful signal of intent.
To facilitate this process, FSI brands need to leverage data to make informed decisions around content creation and distribution. With the right infrastructure in place to analyse data, FSI brands can effectively segment audiences based on intent and buying personas, and target them with content in different formats.
The writer is Isabella Barbato, head of marketing, Asia Pacific, Outbrain.
