Marketing Magazine Singapore - October 2016

THE ART & SCIENCE OF CONNECTING WITH CONSUMERS

S$5.90 INC GST

SINGAPORE

OCTOBER 2016

marketing-interactive.com

ED’S LETTER

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Venus Hew, Senior Journalist venush@marketing-interactive.com Monisha Rao, Senior Journalist monishar@marketing-interactive.com Vivienne Tay, Journalist viviennet@marketing-interactive.com Editorial – International Inti Tam, Deputy Editor (Hong Kong) intit@marketing-interactive.com Production and Design Shahrom Kamarulzaman, Regional Art Director shahrom@lighthousemedia.com.sg Fauzie Rasid, Senior Designer fauzier@lighthousemedia.com.sg Advertising Sales Johnathan Tiang, Team Lead johnathant@marketing-interactive.com Ee Kai Li, Account Manager kailie@marketing-interactive.com Erica Loh, Account Manager erical@marketing-interactive.com Nadiah Jamaludin, Account Manager nadiahj@marketing-interactive.com Ong Yi Xuan, Trade Marketing Executive yixuano@marketing-interactive.com Advertising Sales - International Sara Wan, Senior Sales Manager (Hong Kong) saraw@marketing-interactive.com Event Production and Marketing Hairol Salim, Regional Lead - Events and Training hairol@marketing-interactive.com Andrew Davy, Regional Marketing Lead andrewd@marketing-interactive.com Event Services Yeo Wei Qi, Regional Head of Events Services weiqi@marketing-interactive.com Circulation Executive Deborah Quek, Circulations Executive deborahq@marketing-interactive.com

Minutes before I sat down to write this month’s editor’s note, the song playing in the background was this crazy Japanese PenPineapple-Apple-Pen song. My colleagues were singing it loud and proud.

At that moment, staying late to wrap up the pages of the magazine didn’t seem so tiresome anymore. We were laughing, singing and sighing (and wondering what to order for dinner). One simple moment of insanity bonded the 11 of us from completely different departments, and we forgot the piles of paperwork stacked on our desks.

It made me think, this is probably why many love the ad industry – because of the bonds made over unforeseen moments, despite the work load. Recently, we ran an article on what working in the ad industry gives back to an individual. This resonated with many of our readers, and easily became one of our top read stories online for the month of September.

In the article, the author said: “You will either love it and thrive or hate it and not survive. But you will only endure if you have the passion.”

As ruthless as it sounds, she was right.

This industry is meant for the daring and the passionate. The multi-tasker: The one who plays the role of the baker one day and the banker the next. You have to be a poet and the pauper. You are a jack of all trades – with the power to master them all.

You have to master riding unforeseen moments of a crisis. During a conversation with a friend of mine working in the event space, she said: “No amount of team-bonding can bond your team like a crisis can.”

She was right. It is in a crisis that we show resilience and heart. So maybe, as an industry, we should take advantage of the difficult times.

Yes, ad fraud and inflated numbers are worrying matters. Yes, clients are shaken up about their digital dollars. But no, this doesn’t take away the glory that advertising really is.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying we shouldn’t fix them. I am just saying that we should believe the industry is resilient enough to get past it together. It is ultimately moments like these that will force us to work together, collaborate and co create.

As September ends, I look forward to us not only survivng, but rather reigniting our passion and love for this industry.

Enjoy reading.

Finance Evelyn Wong, Regional Finance Director evelynw@lighthousemedia.com.sg Management Søren Beaulieu, Publisher sorenb@marketing-interactive.com Justin Randles, Group Managing Director jr@marketing-interactive.com Tony Kelly, Managing Director tk@marketing-interactive.com

Marketing is published 12 times per year by Lighthouse Independent Media Pte Ltd. Printed in Singapore on CTP process by Sun Rise Printing & Supplies Pte Ltd, 10 Admiralty Street, #06-20 North Link Building, Singapore 757695. Tel: (65) 6383 5290. MCI (P) 122/01/2016. For subscriptions, contact circulations at +65 6423 0329 or email subscriptions@marketing-interactive.com. COPYRIGHT & REPRINTS: All material printed in Marketing is protected under the copyright act.

All rights reserved. No material may be reproduced in part or in whole without the prior written consent of the publisher and copyright holder. Permission may be requested through the Singapore office. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in Marketing are not necessarily the views of the publisher.

Singapore: Lighthouse Independent Media Pte Ltd 100C Pasir Panjang Road, #05-01 See Hoy Chan Hub, Singapore 118519 198755 Tel: +65 6423 0329 Fax: +65 6423 0117 Hong Kong: Lighthouse Independent Media Ltd publisher of Marketing magazine 2/F, Connaught Harbourfront House, 35-36 Connaught Road West, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong Tel: +852 2861 1882 Fax: +852 2861 1336 To subscribe to Marketing magazine, go to: www.marketing-interactive.com

Rezwana Manjur Editor

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Photography: Stefanus Elliot Lee – www.elliotly.com; Makeup & Hair: Michmakeover using Make Up For Ever & hair using Sebastian Professional – www.michmakeover.com

Editorial Rezwana Manjur, Editor rezwanam@marketing-interactive.com

STAYING OPTIMISTIC WHEN THINGS GET A LITTLE TOUGH

CONTENTS

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4 A MONTH IN NEWS A round-up of a month of news from Singapore and the region.

16 CAN YOU REALLY LINK CREATIVITY TO SALES? Should creative agencies be responsible for your sales outcomes? Vivienne Tay asks.

21 GALAXY NOTE7 RECALL: WHAT CAN SAMSUNG DO TO REGAIN CONSUMER TRUST? Will this setback really shove it down the rabbit hole? Venus Hew finds out.

22 PROFILE: DAVIN LEONG, HEAD OF REGIONAL SALES, BEAUTY CARE, HENKEL ASIA PACIFIC. Holding a dual-role in sales and marketing, Henkel’s Davin Leong discusses how a global brand adopts a start-up mentality with Vivienne Tay.

26 FEATURE: GETTING IN WITH THE COOL CROWD We shine the spotlight on Millennials and how brands can keep up with this fast-growing Millennials are a completely different breed.

We highlight how to win them over.

demographic.

40 MASTER REPORT: MOVING INTO A CONTENT ERA Firms are fast grasping the importance of great content when it comes to connecting with audiences. Check out some of the ways your organisation can pick up skills in this area.

48 TV BROADCASTER OF THE YEAR Here’s a comprehensive list of broadcasters that marketers love.

56 B2B ASIA How can B2B brands stand out in a world of endless online search results and ever-changing technology? Read on to find out.

SCAN TO SUBSCRIBE!

21 16 KEY TAKEAWAYS: >> The tango between sales and marketing objectives. >> Getting Millennials to trust you. >> How the television broadcasting medium grabs eyeballs.

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NEWS

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

New acquisition Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) completed the acquisition of the business assets of Pacom Media, a Singapore-based media company with a niche focus on golf. The assets are now part of SPH’s wholly owned subsidiary, SPH Pacom. With the acquisition, it now owns the Golf Vacations magazine and franchises for the magazine in countries such as China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand.

Premium television experience Cable channel For Your Inspiration (FYI), under A+E Networks Asia, and local bank DBS, collaborated to launch a strategic content marketing partnership. This is to create a premium television and online experience in the travel sphere. The collaboration is centred on customising lifestyle short-form videos that FYI will produce, as well as specially curated content for the DBS Altitude Visa Signature Card.

A campaign to promote trust CNBC Catalyst, the in-house commercial agency of CNBC, developed a commercial campaign for China’s State Council Information Office (SCIO) to highlight China’s priorities for the 2016 G20 Summit which was held in Hangzhou. The campaign was fully sponsored by the SCIO and was part of its strategy to promote communication, co-operation and mutual trust between China and the world.

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New acquisition Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) completed the acquisition of the business assets of Pacom Media, a Singapore-based media company with a niche focus on golf. The assets are now part of SPH’s wholly owned subsidiary, SPH Pacom. With the acquisition, it now owns the Golf Vacations magazine and franchises for the magazine in countries such as China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand.

Ad spend set to rise The global media network, Carat, said ad spend is set to look positive in 2017. Based on data received from 59 markets, forecasts indicated that advertising spend will reach US$548.2 billion in 2016. Overall, this accounts for a 4.4% yearon-year growth. The Asia Pacific market continues to lead growth prospects of 12% in 2016 and 13.9% in 2017.

NTU on the lookout Nanyang Technological University called for a pitch and is looking for an agency to undertake marketing and advertising duties.

The appointment will last for one year. It also comes with an option to extend on a yearly basis for two successive years. According to Gebiz, the appointed agency will need to come up with creative concepts for the undergraduate admissions campaign.

Air New Zealand soars high Air New Zealand engaged with Mediacorp OOH Media to launch its new campaign called #AirNZonTour. It utilised OOH Media’s latest transformer truck aimed to showcase the airline’s premium economy and innovative economy Skycouch seats on the Dreamliner 787-9. OOH Media said it had started with two billboard trucks which were increasingly being used as activation trucks as well in recent times.

MOH on the search The Ministry of Health (MOH) called for a tender to conduct all media buying and planning for the first anniversary of Medishield Life. This includes platforms such as Channel NewsAsia, Channel 5, Channel 8, Channel U, Suria and Vasantham.

Medishield Life had earlier worked with Tribal Worldwide Singapore and director Royston Tan to create a series of music videos based on iconic songs.

Slimming centre in trouble Family members of an 82-yearold woman filed a court case, and sought a full refund and damages from London Weight Management after viewing a misleading television commercial touting a weight-loss trial session for SG$18. In a statement to the local paper, London Weight Management said it was willing to refund her the unused amount of the package out of goodwill.

Authenticity in check Video ad tech company Unruly, together with research firm Nielsen, launched a new content testing tool that allows advertisers to analyse the authenticity of their video ads. Approximately 76% of consumers said they lose trust in a brand when an ad feels inauthentic. A recent Nielsen Consumer Neuroscience study stated emotional ads deliver a 23% uplift in sales volume versus average ads.

Guinness selects Golin Guinness picked Golin Singapore to help drive its integrated communications across digital, PR and social for Guinness Foreign Extra Stout and Guinness Draught. Currently, no time frame is slated. Venus Teoh, head of marketing for Asia Pacific Breweries, said for a brand with such a rich history, it was important to find a balance between “staying true to the heritage and staying relevant to customers”.

Government takes action Zika has sparked widespread concern across the nation and local authorities have responded swiftly, launching videos on its social platforms about the Zika virus and how it is transmitted and what expectant mothers need to take note of when it comes to preventive measures. The National Environmental Agency confirmed to Marketing initiatives had been taken to educate the public on the spread of Zika.

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NEWS

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Winding up Two Oceans Film Company legally wound up its business.

The company was in the Singapore film industry for two decades. Managing director Koh Say Chong said the winding up of the company was a decision that was not taken lightly, nor was it done without regard for other creditors.

Campaigning for the future Tokio Marine Life Insurance Singapore launched a campaign hoping to encourage couples to start discussing their financial future and post-retirement aspirations with one another.

Called #IKnowYouBest, the campaign highlighted that almost three quarters of retirees globally have been unable to fulfil at least one of their dreams since retiring. The video features four local couples of various backgrounds imagining their future together.

OCBC concludes pitch OCBC invited a mix of network agencies as well as local independent firms to be part of a pitch process. Ogilvy & Mather, along with local players such as The Secret Little Agency and Govt, were also involved. The account was finally awarded to Govt Singapore.

Kick-starting new markets Crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, which was officially launched in Asia, extended its service to creators in Hong Kong and Singapore for the first time. The platform introduced crowdfunding to a new generation of creators – from filmmakers, musicians and authors to artists, designers and game developers, and beyond, who use it to fund and build communities of support around projects across the creative universe.

Painting the town red Havas Group-owned Australian PR firm Red Agency opened its first international office in Singapore. Simultaneously, the Havas Worldwide Siren PR brand, which was founded in 2010 and acquired by Havas in 2011, now ceases to exist.

A Rokkan new look Zouk hired Rokkan Singapore as part of its global expansion and the company is tasked to build a brand new website for Zouk in line with its huge move from its current location at Jiak Kim Street to a spanking new club at Clarke Quay. Rokkan, part of Publicis Group, also announced the opening of its Singapore office in March.

A new partnership Maybank, one of Asia’s bank groups, selected Leo Burnett Singapore as its new creative agency of record. The appointment is the first for Maybank as it formally engaged a creative agency of record in Singapore. With the new two-year appointment, Leo Burnett will be responsible for leading Maybank’s creative communications.

CONNECT & ENGAGE

Enjoy Rewarding Experiences

Drive Customer Satisfaction

Bringing the Right Connection to Rewarding Experiences

To create valuable relationships between Brands, Customers, Channels and Employees.

CRM & PRM

Data Profiling & Analytics

Rewards & Incentives

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Aspiration for Progress & Performance

Nurture Lasting Partnerships

MOTIVATE & PERFORM

Drive Motivation & Performance

Build Brand Value

Drive Sales & Results

Increase Share of Wallet

Contact us on how we can work together to inspire loyalty and drive rewarding experiences.

Web: Email: Contact:

www.edenred.com info-sg@edenred.com +65 6229 8686

8/31/2016 5:33:59 PM

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NEWS

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Creative vandalism Beer brand Desperados initiated a provocative campaign called “Paint the unpaintable city”.

This was done with the help of SapientNitro. Running with the hashtag #BreakNormalArtHack, the project saw the agency collaborate with local talent to create branded graffiti-style artwork on iconic buildings.

However, with vandalism outlawed in Singapore, the artists used a spray can to graffiti the walls with light in real-time.

Getting socially savvy The Land Transport Authority (LTA) appointed KRDS Singapore as its social media agency.

According to Gebiz, the account is worth SG$277,000. Agencies which pitched for the account included Havas Media, IPG Mediabrands, M&C Saatchi, RapidCloud Singapore, with GroupM and Qais Consulting making the shortlist. Earlier in March, LTA released a video which highlighted how Singapore’s public buses have changed over the years.

Moving ahead New bus company Go-Ahead Singapore commenced its operations in September.

The company partnered with Moove Media for a period of five years. Moove Media is responsible for bus advertising on Go-Ahead Singapore’s fleet of about 400 buses. Moove Media will also manage commercial properties and advertising spaces at the PPasir Ris and Punggol bus interchanges.

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New expansion plans JCDecaux launched a new advertising partnership with Suntec City in a bid to expand its advertising footprint in Singapore. The new media sites will be located at prominent key touch-points inside and outside the mall to offer advertisers more unique opportunities to reach out to shoppers comprising PMEBs, tourists and business executives in the surrounding area.

Going live Creative agency DDB took on a live feel by creating a new 24/7 marketing lab. The office redesigned itself into a “live lab” which enables the employees to understand, experience and operate with ease. At the heart of the DDB office redesign is an online store, and storefront, called Degree, a shopper-marketing unit, data-analysis centre and a photography studio and film unit.

Another jab Singaporean budget carrier Scoot did it once again as the brand cheekily took a jab at Malaysian competitor AirAsia X, after an AirAsia plane bound for Kuala Lumpur ended up in Melbourne.

Following news being published of the mishap, Scoot decided to comment on the matter on Facebook saying: “Talk about a spontaneous escape! Scoot flies to Melbourne five times a week and not by accident.”

Singtel signs sponsors Singtel signed up three returning sponsors for its Premier League season 2016/17. The agreement was signed under Singtel Media with presenting sponsor, Oppo, main sponsor NTUC Income, and co-sponsor Alpecin Caffeine Shampoo. All three sponsors benefited from association with the Premier League which serves as a “highly effective platform” to reach their audiences with the correct messaging and shift brand parameters positively.

Ready to act New amendments to the Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act will see persistent unscrupulous retailers being dealt with by Spring Singapore. Spring Singapore will have investigative and enforcement powers against persistent errant retailers by the end of this year. With this, it hopes to better safeguard consumer interests and hopes it will not affect the majority of businesses which engage in responsible trading practices.

Reaching out The Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) collaborated with Mediacorp to reach out to members who communicate in dialect. Also working on the collaboration was Tribal Worldwide Singapore. The result was an info-educational drama series, Eat Already? The series runs for 10 episodes on a half-hour weekly time slot on Mediacorp’s Chinese channel, Channel 8. The first episode of the drama series is up on its YouTube.

Fitness comes first Fitness First Asia, a fitness brand, achieved an over 90% impression share for Fitness First’s branded keywords in its key countries of Malaysia, Hong Kong, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore. In May, the company appointed SearchGuru, a digital advertising agency and SEO agency, to manage its digital advertising presence.

SearchGuru helped the company to strengthen its online footprint and conversions from online to offline.

Big reunion KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital announced its plans for its 50th anniversary celebration in October. The hospital is upping its marketing activities by trying to set a Guinness world record for the “Largest reunion of people born at the same hospital”. It will be a community family carnival open to everyone to celebrate the Singapore identity, family life and an active lifestyle.

New guidelines The Singapore Medical Council set revised ethical guidelines.

The Ethical Code and Ethical Guidelines look to ensure that doctors are more careful about what is posted on social media platforms. More than just social media conduct, it will serve as an update to address increasing complexities of the medical practice in light of technological changes and advancements.

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NEWS

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Kantar’s new look Kantar launched a new corporate identity for the parent brand and its 12 operating brands to create a more unified look and feel across the whole business. The new identity was developed with WPP’s branding specialists The Partners and rolled out across all external and internal communications channels. Operating brands not previously Kantar-branded will now take a Kantar prefix and a new, common typeface.

A bigger and better bunny Energizer Holdings launched a new campaign called “Bigger, Better, Bunnier”. As part of the campaign, the iconic Energizer bunny will be getting a new look.

Energizer said the bunny’s image had been modified to showcase his fun and witty personality with a slimmer body shape and more expressive facial features.

However, his iconic pink fur, sunglasses, and blue flip-flops will remain intact.

On the Flipside Global communications and engagement firm Weber Shandwick acquired Flipside, a specialised mobile and digital agency. Terms of the deal were undisclosed. Together with Flipside, Weber Shandwick will deliver a full-scale, modern digital offering that blends content, community and commerce for both B2C and B2B marketers.

Flipside has developed mobile apps and digital experiences for some of the world’s largest global brands.

HOW MUCH DOES THAT COST?

POPPING UP EVERYWHERE

Robinsons and Kingsmen Projects collaborated to create a new generation of smart retail pop-up concepts.

The pop-up retail space is embedded with in-store analytics hardware and software which allows for the tracking of the store and merchandise concentration daily.

Through media sensors, the footfall and kinetic map of a customer’s movement are captured daily and insightful data is generated, enabling brand merchants

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to effectively plan their store resource allocation, reformat visual merchandise displays and manage real-time product inventory.

Statistics and data such as daily transactions are also analysed to further shed light on consumer behaviour. The shell for this pop-up store structure is available for rent and it ranges from SG$50,000 to SG$100,000, depending on the duration and interior fit-out of the pop-up structure. The price does not include the rental of the space from the mall and such.

Diageo signs up DAN Diageo concluded its global media review, picking Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN) for the job. The network will handle media in North America, Europe, Latin America and Southeast Asia. Meanwhile, Mindshare will oversee India and South Africa, and Mediavest will handle the Australia market, global media outlets state. The pitch covers major Southeast Asia markets and involves brands such as Guinness, Smirnoff, Johnnie Walker, Baileys, Singleton, Haig, Ciroc and Benmore.

Disney’s new unit The Walt Disney Company Southeast Asia formed an integrated media networks organisation, called Disney Media Networks. The new unit combines all of Disney’s channels, media distribution, games, apps and Maker Studios’ businesses, but excludes ESPN. Disney Media Networks will work with platforms, broadcasters, telcos and digital media to provide best-in-class content tailored for audiences across the region and accelerate opportunities across mobile and social platforms.

Kate Moss lends star power British beauty brand Charlotte Tilbury launched an innovative virtual reality experience starring the iconic and globally renowned supermodel Kate Moss. It was its latest element in an extensive global campaign from the wellknown make-up artist celebrating the launch of her much heralded debut fragrance, Scent of a Dream.

The dazzlingly and beautiful VR experience was created in conjunction with Happy Finish, and film director Antoine Wagner.

New brands for Erdos Mongolia’s luxury brand Erdos Cashmere Group launched two new brands – Erdos and Erdos 1980. Ogilvy & Mather helped develop the strategy for their communications plan, while Brand Union, a WPP Group company, designed the new visual identity. Two new campaigns created for the brands included an Erdos brand story video and the Erdos 1980 autumn and winter key visuals.

A new identity Online food delivery startup Deliveroo revealed that it underwent a major rebrand which saw Deliveroo’s original logo – a kangaroo holding a bag of food against a teal backdrop – replaced with a more minimal graphic symbol. The logo is featured on the company’s new app and website. Branding agency DesignStudio was picked for the project – the same agency that rebranded Airbnb in 2014.

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NEWS

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Samsung halts Note7 sales Samsung Electronics halted sales of its Galaxy Note7 smartphone in September and prepared replacement devices for phones already sold after reports of problems with its battery cell. While announcing the recall, Samsung estimated the problem affected only 24 in a million devices, which is roughly one for every 42,000 sold. An investigation was launched to know what and how to fix the problem.

A positive impact About 63% of people think the launch of Netflix in APAC will have a positive impact on the media industry and Pay TV operators as it allows more competition in the industry and it will trigger a better quality of service provision, according to a YouGov report.

Launched in APAC earlier this year, Netflix still needs to catch up as only 11% of respondents have subscribed to the service.

AirAsia helps GE Three of AirAsia’s Airbus A320s sported General Electric’s livery and colours, as part of the American conglomerate’s bold corporate branding exercise. The campaign targeted primarily the Malaysia and ASEAN markets.

AirAsia recently announced a US$2.7 billion order of 200 more CFM LEAP-1A engines to power its 100 new Airbus A321neo aircraft. AirAsia said the tie-up was also a reflection of both companies’ long-standing relationship.

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AUDIT WATCH

BEING TRANSPARENT

Out of the box Microsoft’s Xbox purchased Beam, a Seattle-based interactive live-streaming service, which gives viewers the ability to watch and play along with their favourite game streamers in real-time. With this new deal, Microsoft hopes to strengthen its Xbox social capabilities. It aims to utilise the interactivity of the platform to easily allow streamers to enable and customise, and is designed to work with any game.

Deliveroo raises US$275 million Deliveroo, the on-demand food delivery service, raised US$275 million in its series E investment.

Since its series D round in November, Deliveroo has achieved an over 400% growth and reached profitability in a number of its established markets. The new funds will be used to expand the service in both new and existing markets, plus for further investment in projects such as RooBox, a remote kitchen initiative.

Don’t limit yourself Nike’s latest spot “Unlimited You” shows how athletes can achieve even greater heights by not listening to anyone, but themselves. The two and a half minute film was created by Wieden+Kennedy Portland and narrated by actor Oscar Isaac.

It features cameos by athletes such as Kevin Durant, Mo Farah, Neymar Jr, Nyjah Huston, Serena Williams, Su Bingtian and Zach LaVine.

The Economist is a weekly publication with a regional readership. It has a print circulation of 98,862 and is distributed in key Asian markets such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia.

The publication was founded in 1843 and aims to lead the debate in the pursuit of progress around the world by providing actionable insights that connect the dots between business, politics, technology and culture.

The paper covers politics, business, science and technology, and books and arts, concluding each week with the obituary. In addition to the web-only content

The miracle worker A dramatic video campaign created by Grey Group targeted the Asian market for the launch of Pantene’s new treatment conditioner “3-Minute Miracle”.

Pantene aims to play a more meaningful role in women’s lives today and to establish this, the agency built the “world’s biggest blow-dryer” to maximise the miracle effect. The campaign highlights the conditioner’s unique characteristics and how blowdrying can be damaging for hair.

Game on WPP’s branding and design agency Brand Union Singapore partnered International Table Tennis Federation in developing a new format of the sport called “Table Tennis X”. The challenge will be a completely fresh take on the sport of table tennis and create an overall brand identity and experience to drive youth participation.

such as blogs, debates and audio/ video programmes are available on its website.

“Auditing allows us to make good on our commitment to providing transparency for The Economist’s advertisers and stakeholders. With auditing, we reassure clients that their investment is competitive; and provide a better view of The Economist’s audience and the content they consume,” said Tim Pinnegar, managing director for Asia at The Economist.

He added the onus was on the publication to clearly explain its cross-platform strength to clients.

The Economist worked closely with the team at the ABC to produce the new World Brand Report; capitalising on its accredited data to provide a global view of its digital and print circulation.

“This collaboration puts The Economist at the leading edge of auditing in our industry,” he added.

Indonesia calls on Jack Ma Indonesia asked Jack Ma, chairman of China’s Alibaba Group, if he can act as an adviser in boosting the growth of the country’s emerging e-commerce industry. A steering committee will be set up consisting of 10 ministers for which Ma has been asked to be an adviser.

Ma became one of Indonesia’s top investors after acquiring a controlling stake in Lazada Group earlier this year for US$1 billion.

A new influence Mobile adtech company Glispa Global Group launched Voltu, a performance-led social influencer network for mobile acquisition.

The new offering will connect advertisers with influential content creators to drive app installs, brand awareness and engagement. Glispa has been running bespoke social influencer ad campaigns with significant ROI for more than three years.

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

1 Campaign DBS Retirement Campaign – What’s your big plan?

Brief To inspire Singaporeans to think about the importance of planning for their retirement. DBS launched the campaign to encourage its customers to think about their retirement dreams and how to go about them. The campaign video was launched on free-to-air TV, selected cable TV channels and in cinemas. The stories have also been brought to life in print, on buses and digital banners where people are ushered online to complete a 10-minute self-help retirement check to give them a sense of how ready they are for retirement.

Client

DBS Bank

Creative

Tribal Worldwide Singapore

Media

Performics

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2 Campaign PayPal New Money Brief “New Money” is PayPal’s first major brand campaign as an independent company. It aims to make a statement not just about the future of money, but also to introduce the new PayPal to the world. The Singapore campaign “New money is everything you love” features the authentic stories of social influencers who are PayPal users and has been executed across video, social and digital extensions.

Client

PayPal

Creative

Host

Media

iProspect

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

3 Campaign Shopback – The smarter way to shop Brief To promote smart shopping and its cashback services when it comes to online shopping, Shopback is running a television commercial across cinema platforms and online on YouTube.

The aim of the campaign is to raise awareness on a mass-market level about cashback shopping. So far the campaign has seen positive results, with its mobile app becoming the top downloaded one within two days of the campaign launch.

Client

Shopback

Creative

Supermarket Creatives

Media

In-house

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4 Campaign #iKnowYouBest Brief Tokio Marine Life Insurance’s new campaign aims to encourage couples to start discussing their financial future and post-retirement aspirations with one another. The campaign video features four local couples of various backgrounds imagining their future together, and highlights the sometimes differing expectations and dreams they have for their post-retirement lives. The campaign also runs on out-of-home activations via bus stops and bill boards. It is also airing on television broadcasting channels.

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Client

Tokio Marine Life Insurance Singapore

Creative

Havas Singapore

Media

Havas Media Singapore

SUBMISSIONS PLEASE SEND US YOUR BEST NEW WORK REGULARLY IN HIGH-RES JPEG OR PDF TO BE CONSIDERED FOR THESE PAGES. EMAIL REZWANAM@MARKETING-INTERACTIVE.COM

OCTOB E R 2 016 M ARKE TI N G 1 1

OPINION: AD WATCH/WEB WATCH

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Alexander Lim Creative group head Publicis Singapore

AD WATCH HOT: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

NOT: Tiger Radler social post

Great stories live forever. They are fossils of a time period that will soon be forgotten. As we float through meandering streams of digital content, let us never forget the canons of storytelling. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is a constant reminder that perfection lies in pace, timeless dialogue and the wonder of music. It is three glorious hours of a screenplay even if the plot is one we’re familiar with. There will always be a hero, a villain, a quest and a bad debt owed. Mankind’s tropes are persistent and history repeats itself. There will be another Tuco and another blondie, but the only difference we can make with this eternal, recurring cast, is how we tell the story.

This is arresting. It comes out of nowhere, like a knife in the neck.

It’s one of those ads you can’t stop looking at for a while. It is a beautiful collision, heads splintered in slow motion and the unhurried spray of fresh blood. You can’t look away, and you aren’t sure why. But pause for a second and the details start to shine through. Why? Why the formal presentation of a six-pack to his prospective parents-in-law?

Wait, it’s a six-pack of shandy. Who gives a shandy to impress? Why is he looking at the mum? Why did he crack one open first? The beer looks warm, is that a thing? I wonder what the brief was. Shame, “Radler for anything” sounds like it could have been way more fun.

Ryan Cavell A. Ong Creative director Dstnct

WEB WATCH HOT: klook.com

NOT: kkday.com

While low prices and travel deals are all the hype, travel sites often forget the ideal customer experience begins with an exciting visual hook. Paint a picture of the perfect trip that someone is already dreaming about as it’s all about the trip before the trip! From attractions to activities, excitable travellers look forward to the potential experiences one might encounter. Travel sites have the power to inspire the bucket list trips of travellers all around the world. That’s a pretty big responsibility don’t you think? Good thing I found klook.com. It’s a refreshing all-in-one travel site made for a wanderlust like me (and probably like you too). Not only are the visuals bloody amazing, but the entire user experience is as well. From a seamless on-site navigation to transparent pricing plans, klook.com always gets me in the mood to plan for my next vacation.

You know how sometimes when you travel in groups, there’s always that one person who just makes the trip difficult and not fun for everyone? Sadly, kkday.com is the equivalent of a travel buzz kill when it comes to planning holidays. Remember what I said about stunning visual hooks? On kkday.com you’ll not only find pixelated images, but poor navigation as well. I spent more time convincing myself that a holiday is still worth it after visiting the site. What’s worse? Descriptions on pages can turn from English to Chinese without warning! In a saturated travel market people are fickle. Users can easily just turn to other websites to feel inspired and be engaged in just one click.

So make sure you start with better visuals, include user reviews and simplify the navigation. Most importantly, be inspirational. Make me want to travel, and I just might book my next trip with you.

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DIRECT MAIL CASE STUDY

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CREATING SPACE FOR A NEW KITCHEN How Space Furniture gave its Kitchen Gallery launch invite a touch of elegance.

A touch of style: Space Furniture went the extra mile to impress people for its lifestyle kitchen showcase via its mailer.

Space Furniture has been incorporated in Singapore for more than 15 years. It represents an illustrious collection of premium design brands such as B&B Italia, Kartell, Flos and Poliform to name a few.

Looking to get its record of system furniture such as wardrobes and kitchens noticed by prime developers of luxury condominium projects, Space invested significantly in converting prime real estate – the entire level 1 of The Villa, one of the three buildings that form the Bencoolen showroom – into a premium lifestyle kitchen showcase.

In celebration of this launch, an official launch party was planned. Hence, a special direct mailer was conceptualised as part of the campaign to invite clients of Space to join in the celebratory event.

The mailer needed to speak out to a niche target audience of home owners with high disposable incomes, especially those who would not mind spending a five to six figure sum WWW.M A R K ET I N G - I N T ER A C T I V E.C O M

for a customised kitchen system. It also had to speak out to designers who understood these home owners and their exquisite tastes for the finest things in life.

To craft the mailer, images were picked from the existing library of Varenna that best represented the set up of the kitchen gallery in terms of configuration, materials and finishes.

Some of the images showed the refined detailing and clever solutions offered by the brand.

For the execution, a considerable amount of time was spent on selecting the perfect paper stock. Being in the business of design where tactility of quality materials is just as important as the visual aesthetic, Heaven 42 Soft Matt was picked for its silky smooth quality and for its ability for vibrant colour reproduction.

To convey its exclusivity, a hardboard was used to add to the overall grammage of the mailer. Lastly, a silver hot stamp was applied on the main header to give a quiet elegance.

THE MAIL Objective To increase awareness of Varenna, an Italian brand that is exclusively available at Space, and to announce the opening of the kitchen gallery.

Target audience High-net-worth clients, as well as interior design firms which handle high-end residential projects.

Results With a 360 holistic approach, enquiries on kitchens and subsequent proposals put forth have increased significantly – by at least thrice.

Also, visits and footfall into the kitchen gallery have increased tremendously.

Eileen Tan Marketing manager Space Furniture

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DID ZIKA IMPACT SINGAPORE’S TOURISM DURING THE GRAND PRIX? Vivienne Tay explores how the rise of Zika impacted the image of Singapore and the Grand Prix.

Under control: The Singapore government responded swiftly to concerns over the Zika virus.

To say that Zika rocked the nation would be an understatement. In just two weeks, 242 cases had been reported in various clusters around the island. This sparked widespread concern across the nation.

Local authorities responded swiftly by launching videos on social platforms about the Zika virus, how it is transmitted and what expectant mothers need to take note of when it comes to preventive measures.

A spokesperson from the National Environment Agency (NEA) confirmed to Marketing that awareness initiatives taken so far to educate the public on the spread of Zika have been co-ordinated by the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) on the Gov.sg platform.

Despite measures swifty taken locally, according to multiple news sources, overseas countries such as Korea, Taiwan and Australia issued travel advisories to pregnant female citizens intending to travel to Singapore.

This came at a time when Singapore was set to experience its greatest influx of tourists given the nation’s biggest sporting event, the Singapore GP, was set to launch.

In a statement to Marketing, a GP spokesperson said preparations for the 1 4 M A R K ET I N G O C T O B ER 2 01 6

Singapore Grand Prix proceeded as per normal.

The spokesperson added that organisers would continue to work with all relevant government agencies and implemented precautionary measures that were necessary.

The GP spokesperson, however, did not comment if the organisation saw cancellations because of the rise of Zika.

Meanwhile, Singapore Tourism Board’s executive director of communications and marketing capability, Oliver Chong, said there had been no “perceivable impact” of Zika on Singapore tourism, with only a handful of cancellations.

“Singapore remains a safe travel destination. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has not recommended travel restrictions to Zika affected countries,” Chong told Marketing.

He added the STB had been working closely with in-market tourism and travel partners to ensure there was necessary mitigating measures and communications plans in place to address concerns by visitors.

Additionally, STB’s frontline operations such as its call centres and Singapore visitor centres have been monitoring daily visitor feedback and queries on the Zika outbreak.

“Singapore has a robust system in place to manage Zika in the community, with the mainstay being vector (mosquito) control. WHO has also described Singapore’s handling of the Zika virus as a ‘role model’ for other countries,” Chong added.

Agreeing with STB was Michael Banner, general manager at McCann Health Singapore, who said that an outbreak of Zika was unlikely to have a huge impact on tourism or Singapore’s image as a whole from a healthcare perspective.

“Singapore is known to have some of the finest hospitals, with the most advanced technologies in the region. It responded well to the outbreak, acting swiftly to identify patients, pathways of transmission and the specific strain of Zika we are seeing here, and this is reassuring,” he said.

As with any outbreak, he said the most important weapon was effective communication, and Singapore excelled in that area with timely, open and transparent communications to the general public and the healthcare community both locally and regionally.

“The need for the global health community to share innovative prevention and awareness ideas is now more important than ever to stay ahead of the rapid movement of new diseases across the globe.”

VJ Yamat, managing director of Havas Life SEA, agrees. From a healthcare communication perspective, Singapore is once again “showed excellence and commitment” in terms of communicating clear, extensive and updated public health information for locals and visitors.

“As part of the global community, Singapore has been very transparent in terms of reporting its current Zika status and has been active and unrelenting in providing locals and visitors with clear guidelines and specific counter measures,” Yamat said.

“Brands in crisis situations attain respect by being honest, proactive and accessible.

And Brand Singapore is doing just that.”

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NEWS ANALYSIS

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HP’S CMO DEMANDS MORE DIVERSITY: SHOULD MORE BRANDS FOLLOW SUIT? The embarrassing truth is that more and more clients are now demanding diversity from their ad agencies. Vivienne Tay writes.

Antonio Lucio, chief marketing and communications officer at HP, issued a letter to the company’s agencies calling for more diversity in leadership roles. According to the letter shared with Marketing, he wants formal plans to be created for agencies to diversify its team.

The plan will need to be executed within 12 months to improve the percentage of women and people of colour in leadership roles in agencies. The move is to align HP better with its vision to make the world a better place for everyone anywhere with technology.

He added HP has invested in programmes to ensure diversity in the workplace by having at least half of its top marketing jobs being held by women. It also created a scorecard to track multiple levels of diversity in its own global marketing organisation.

“As a global company, we need to take a broad view of diversity as increased representation will take different forms in different countries. We have decided to start by addressing women,” he said.

Globally, HP works with a range of agencies such as BBDO, Gyro, FleishmanHillard, Porter Novelli and several others. In Singapore, HP also works with the likes of Goodstuph. The agency declined to comment on the matter.

Meanwhile, another brand that also took a similar stance recently was General Mills which said that agencies pitching for its creative business in the US should have a creative team with at least 50% of women and 20% of staff of colour. We asked several ad industry folk in the region if this was the start of a revolution and if such a mandated move was needed in a diverse region such as Asia.

According to Simon Kemp, We Are Social’s regional managing partner: “The fact that a client needs to ask for this is quite embarrassing because diversity is something that all agencies should embrace anyway.”

Currently, about 75% of We Are Social’s staff are women, he said, adding that if his agency was tasked to handle (diversity in workplace) he would first work with the client WWW.M A R K ET I N G - I N T ER A C T I V E.C O M

Call to arms: HP has issued a letter to its agencies calling for more diversity in leadership.

to understand what exactly they needed to fill the gaps.

However, with good talent already being so scarce, would this in the long run impact an agency’s ability to hire the best person for the job regardless of race, religion or gender?

To this, Kemp said: “You should never hire just to check off a box. That is not going to help you or the client or the employee in the long run.

It is not about the diversity in physicality. It is about diversity in thinking.”

Success based on merit and transparency Jacqui Lim, CEO of Havas Media Group, said at the end of the day, the focus of the matter should be rooted in the qualifications, skill sets and value that an individual can add to an organisation – regardless of their gender.

She added if a clear job scope and criteria for the role is placed at the heart of the selection process, the decision-making process becomes transparent and objective regardless of gender or race.

“Diversity is necessary, but I would see it as diversity in skills, knowledge and experience that can add value to any organisation. Rather

than have prefixed percentages to guide us to ticking the boxes,” she said.

Agreeing with her was Lara Hussein, managing director of M&C Saatchi Malaysia, who added that she was glad the Malaysian government via Pemandu and others have started to provide training specifically to groom female corporate leaders. With those opportunities, the ball remains in the female leader’s court.

She said: “Let women succeed on merit, not by law. Women should not clamour for special treatment, merely fair treatment.”

She also said it was dangerous to focus merely on the top of the ladder, without seeing that discrimination may exist on every rung to the top.

“As someone once aptly put it, ‘we must raise both the ceiling and the floor’,” she said.

“Unless the issue is tackled holistically, then many women will never even come close to the heady heights of the boardroom. Let’s fix every rung. Our top management is about half and half, gender wise. And you know what? I no longer notice. And that’s perhaps the best sign of all.”

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NEWS ANALYSIS

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CAN YOU REALLY LINK CREATIVITY TO SALES? Should creative agencies be responsible for your sales outcomes? Vivienne Tay questions.

Marketers want everything to be measured today. Every day new tools and technology emerge promising to give a holistic view of audience numbers and campaign engagement rates. But despite the widespread availability of tools to track your sales and awareness numbers, can something as intangible and subjective as creativity be measured?

Should marketers hold their creative agencies accountable for their sales numbers?

In a conversation with Marketing at a recent VML event, Debbi Vandeven, global CCO of VML, said if marketers were running a full campaign on multiple mediums, it would be very difficult to find out which medium was 1 6 M A R K ET I N G O C T O B ER 2 01 6

driving sales in particular. The matter gets even more complicated if each medium has its own set of creative executions. She, instead, ties the success of a campaign to social listening.

“Our social listening has gotten big enough for even the sales team to start paying attention to what is happening on social. They look over everything and if there is something that is working in that region, they will play up on it,” she said.

Primus Nair, executive creative director of BBDO Singapore, said although creativity couldn’t possibly be measured on a scale of one to 10, measuring the reactions and response to the call for action within a week could be helpful

in understanding the campaign’s success. “In today’s ludicrously connected world, it’s easier than ever to tell how people reacted to your work. Within hours you will know if people loved it, hated it, or worst of all, ignored it completely,” Nair said adding: “My favourite measurement of creativity, however, is the taxi driver test. If a taxi driver is telling you about it on a cab drive, it’s a success.”

It isn’t always all about sales But at the heart of it, it really depends on what the campaign is trying to achieve.

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NEWS ANALYSIS

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“At the end of the day, the work should be judged by whether or not it moved the needle.”

Primus Nair – executive creative director of BBDO Singapore

said that especially when it comes to the luxury sector, sales was not the only measurement of success. Sometimes it was about brand awareness.

Adding to this point, Nair said if a brand was in fact trying to build affinity or awareness, the goal was then to get people to actively want to know about your product. If the goal was to increase usage then you needed to see people actually picking up your product.

“At the end of the day, the work should be judged by whether or not it moved those needles,” Nair said.

Agreeing with him was Sean Sim, chief executive officer at McCann Malaysia, who said that while measuring creativity was possible, it only was when the KPIs were clear.

“We have to be clear on what the KPIs are as this is critical when it comes to managing client expectations,” he said.

Sim added that while some creative advertising campaigns were able to garner great results when it comes to creating awareness and driving foot traffic into showrooms, whether WWW.M A R K ET I N G - I N T ER A C T I V E.C O M

or not they converted to sales would depend on the performance of the sales staff on the ground.

As such, great creative work alone can’t always ensure sales.

“That said, a direct marketing campaign can increase sales of a product, given the right creative execution and call for action. It’s all about using the right tools,” Sim said.

Added Andy Greenaway, executive creative director at Dentsu: “Parts of our industry have forgotten the purpose of what we do: which is to build brands and grow sales.”

He said in the short term, creatives should sell in a manner which can easily be tracked in a world where everything is measurable. But in the long term, a campaign’s success should be judged on the equity, saliency and affiliation the work has built for a brand.

That is, the very things that drive long-term growth.

Are awards a good way to measure?

Nair thinks so. He mentioned that a great way

to measure the success of a creative campaign is through award shows. But he also points out the poignant fact that awards are doubleedged swords.

“Awards are a great way of pushing the industry forward and setting benchmarks for the kind of work that can genuinely create impact. At the same time, it can also lead to a distorted take on work,” he said.

Agreeing with Nair was Jon Cook, global CEO of VML, who added the pressure to win often resulted in many dangers.

“There is a way of using award shows in a way which benefits the agencies besides just ego and vanity,” he said. He added the reason why people should try to win awards should lie in helping to create and retain more talent which effectively leads to great things.

“There is a benefit to award shows. It gives you a chance to put your work on stage, not just for the ego boost, but for getting people to know your company. It started that way and it is important to keep that as your objective,” Cook said.

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FACEBOOK IS NOT A ‘MEDIA COMPANY’, SAYS ZUCKERBERG What does the industry think of that statement? Vivienne Tay finds out.

Staying true to its roots: Despite conjecture, Mark Zuckerberg says Facebook is not a media company.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg claimed the social media platform will not become a media company and will remain a technology platform.

According to Reuters, Zuckerberg said the company had no ambitions to become a content provider. This was in response to a question asked during a town hall Q&A in Rome, where a member of the public asked if there were intentions for Facebook to become a news editor.

Zuckerberg acknowledged the role it currently plays in giving users access to news content through its platform. However, he added that as a technology company, Facebook creates the tools, but does not produce any content.

But the question many seem to be asking is that in today’s world do you necessarily need to create original content to be seen as a 2 0 M A R K ET I N G O C T O B ER 201 6

media company? After all, Facebook has long been seen as a leading go-to source when it comes to the public’s content consumption needs.

Prashant Kumar, formerly the president of IPG Mediabrands in Asia and current lead at Entropia, said as a long-time media industry practitioner, he would see Facebook as a media owner because ads can be bought and sold on the platform. But how consumers see Facebook is definitely different from how B2B industries and advertising industry players see it, he added.

“Our industry sees Facebook as a platform which we can buy and sell services to,” he said.

But at the end of the day, Facebook, unlike Google which has its own army of content creators, does not own any original content.

“When you see a post from a friend on Facebook, you don’t say Facebook created the

video. You attribute it to your friend,” he said. He added that in the traditional world, content was used to draw in eyeballs and aggregate people. The two were closely tied. But today the content creation role is different from the audience aggregator role. As such, there is some truth to Zuckerberg’s words.

Chloe Neo, managing director of OMD Singapore, said when it comes to defining what a media company really is, it is not just about the creation of content, but also how that content is being disseminated.

She said: “Since Facebook has been increasingly used by people as a communication and dissemination platform, I can see why people who are not as familiar with Facebook, its vision and evolution, would say it is a media company.”

She added this misunderstanding might be further exacerbated because Facebook went into selling ad spaces as a means of commercialisation of its technology.

Like Kumar, however, she was of the view that in the industry, Facebook was still seen as a technology partner rather than a media company.

“Although Facebook has come a long way and evolved into an entity which may have similar functions to a media company because of the convergence of communication and technology, it has clearly defined itself and remained true as a brand and a technology company, and that is how it started out and continues to evolve,” Neo said.

Meanwhile, the social media giant also said it would be using specialised software to show adverts to desktop users who have installed ad blockers, as ad-blocking begins to threaten the social network’s advertising revenue.

It would also be updating its ad controls to allow users to specify ad preferences to increase relevancy value to advertisers. Many have deemed the move “bold” given the social media’s strong stance on this matter.

Recently, Facebook-owned Whatsapp, a messaging app, announced plans to share user data with its parent company, including phone numbers, as part of plans to allow businesses to send messages to users.

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NEWS ANALYSIS

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GALAXY NOTE7 RECALL: WHAT CAN SAMSUNG DO TO REGAIN CONSUMER TRUST? The brand spent years and a hefty amount of marketing dollars to compete against the likes of Apple. Will this setback really shove it down the rabbit hole? Venus Hew writes.

Hitting a low note: The recall of the Galaxy Note7 has put Samsung on the back foot with customers.

Unless you have been living under a rock, you would have heard about the Samsung fiasco for its latest Galaxy Note7. The timing couldn’t be worse as arch-rival Apple was also busy gearing up to lock in pre-orders and arrange shipments of its latest iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus models.

The South Korean tech giant took another blow when its shares fell about 11% over the first two initial days, the biggest decline since 2008 as investors took a defensive stance over its latest recall. That also meant, a loss of US$22 billion in market value.

The situation was an unfortunate one as the brand has over the years worked hard to win over consumers in both global and regional markets.

Once seen as just another Android player in the smartphone space, the brand invested heavily in its marketing tactics to be seen as a viable competitor to the iPhone.

Nick Foley, president of Southeast Asia Pacific and Japan for Landor, said Samsung had done well in building trust over the WWW.M A R K ET I N G - I N T ER A C T I V E.C O M

past five years, especially when it came to luring the younger generation into buying its smartphones. But unfortunately, Samsung’s latest recall will definitely have an impact on the trust and credibility of the overall Samsung brand in the short to medium-term, he said.

“The thing about trust is that it takes years to build, but can be gone in seconds,” he said.

Joseph Baladi, chief executive officer of BrandAsian, agreed with Foley on the negative effect the recall would have on consumer confidence for Samsung.

“All the mobile phone brands share several common points of parity: convenience, reliability and safety. Of the three, it is the latter that has been most severely compromised.

People who are concerned about their own safety and particularly those of loved ones (like parents with regards to their children) will think twice about the brand moving forward,” he said.

Moving forward In Malaysia, Samsung is urging its Galaxy

Note7 users to power down their devices and exchange them for new units under its replacement programme as soon as possible.

Customers who have Galaxy Note7 devices can replace their current device with a new one beginning 29 September onwards.

In a statement dated 11 September, DJ Koh, president of mobile communications business at Samsung Electronics, said: “Our number one priority is the safety of our customers. We are expediting replacement devices so that they can be provided through the exchange programme as conveniently as possible and in compliance with related regulations.”

Samsung Malaysia said there had been only a small number of reported incidents, but it was taking great care to provide customers with the necessary support. It also identified the affected inventory and stopped sales and shipments of those devices.

Foley said the most important thing that any brand could do when this kind of (recall) event happens, was to be candid and truthful to its customers.

“Don’t try to hide, be honest and tell them what you’re doing to fix the problem.”

Baladi added that Samsung would need to directly address the problem in its advertising and “explain why the explosion took place and how they have solved the problem or are in the process of solving the problem”.

He added the brand would also need to apologise for the risk the phones created to the safety of its customers.

He said that if in cases where the exact cause of the issue remains unknown, Samsung should also “need to strongly advise customers to cease using the smartphone” and it must move quickly with a credible and transparent explanation.

The Galaxy Note7 was launched on the 19th of August in 10 countries and opened for pre-orders in Singapore a little later.

However, at least seven airlines, including Singapore Airlines, have banned passengers from switching on or charging Note7 phones on their flights.

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PROFILE

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Art direction: Fauzie Rasid & Teck Lim; Photography: Teck Lim — Lumina (www.animulstudio.com)

HOLDING A DUAL ROLE IN SALES AND MARKETING, IS NOT EASY. HENKEL’S DAVIN LEONG DISCUSSES WITH VIVIENNE TAY THE HARSH REALITIES OF THE JOB.

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“WORKING IN A SMALLER FIRM ALLOWS ME TO CREATE MY OWN LEGACY AS COMPARED TO WORKING IN A BIGGER ORGANISATION, WHERE

THE LEG ACY IS BEING DETERMINED

BY THE ORGANISATION.”

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PROFILE

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The beauty segment is cluttered, and globalisation has led to immense competition. To cut through and survive, aggression and focus is necessary. To make matters worse, with the rise of social, every step is scrutinised, and no stone can be left unturned when covering your bases.

Working in the beauty industry is no fairy tale job.

In a conversation with Marketing, Davin Leong, head of regional sales, Asia Pacific beauty care, at Henkel, says with a plethora of brands today using cookie cutter approaches to marketing, the field has somewhat become uniformed.

This is ultimately driving consumers to become more impatient as very little actually stands out and excites them anymore.

Sharp, focused and hands-on, Leong likes to roll up his sleeves and get down to business. Before the interview, he was involved in a product demo session. Unlike his previous stints with beauty giant L’Oréal and Japanese brand Shiseido, he thinks this job allows him to leave his own mark behind.

He explains although Henkel is a well-established company globally, its presence in the Southeast Asian region is still small.

“I have a blank canvas in front of me. I am able to paint it, shape it and colour it the way I want,” he says.

“Working in a smaller firm allows me to create my own legacy as compared to working in a bigger organisation where the legacy is being determined by the organisation.”

In comparison with competitors, Henkel Singapore adopts a “startup mentality”, and as such, the brand doesn’t have “hierarchical” layers to go through. The company lacks silos and is able to remain agile.

HAIR CARE REVOLUTION The hair care industry, in particular, is currently undergoing a revolution.

While in the past, a simple hair wash product would suffice, the industry is now adding more dimensions to hair care – incorporating masks, serums and treatments – all driven by consumers demand for variety.

Coupled with the cluttered space and lack of consumer attention, sustaining and the retaining of the customer’s interest is an expensive exercise, he explains. He added that brands to continuously innovate and reinvent themselves.

With a focus on digital marketing, Leong and his team are taking things from the ground-up to bring Henkel’s beauty care brands into the spotlight in the region. He adds that brands needed to invest in the right marketing tools to reach consumers in the spaces they are present in.

Rather than constantly trying to draw them in, brands should ideally weave themselves into the conversation.

He says brands need to be reachable to their customers, so they are able to provide the targeted one-on-one communication that consumers seek.

“It is not just about winning and recruiting consumers, but rather turning them into brand advocates. Only then are we able to have a business that is considered sustainable,” he says.

How the company is trying to practise what it preaches is by creating an AskSchwarz forum for its Schwarzkopf brand. The forum provides consumers the opportunity and the space to not only engage the brand, but it also gives them the opportunity to ask some really tricky questions about hair.

“We want to be the first ones for our consumers to turn to when they have an issue with hair care or products,” he says.

Although a digital-first strategy is something new for Henkel in Singapore, the brand has made digital efforts in China where the e-commerce business has taken off. Today this represents about 35% of the business in the market. However, he views the whole notion of digital marketing to be a bit overplayed in the industry.

“Digital is the new norm. It implores us to adapt quickly to what consumers want, and at the same time, allows us to share what we stand 2 4 M A R K ET I N G O C T O B ER 2 01 6

for as a brand. But while everyone talks about wanting to get into digital marketing, do they actually fully appreciate and understand what it really means to be digital?”

While he does not claim to have all the answers, he warns that digital marketing can get scary quickly as it is no longer possible for brands to hide from consumers because of the widespread availability of information and communication channels.

This is where the right agency partner steps in, he says.

THE RIGHT PARTNER In the case of Henkel, boutique agency Mill Sterling was chosen to handle creative and digital duties as it was able to promise the focus the brand required. When asked why he prefers working with smaller agencies, Leong says while network agencies have more experience, networks and resources, some of the drawbacks include a lack of creativity.

“Some of the struggles we face with bigger agencies is how they apply similar approaches. It may be the easiest answer, but it may not necessarily be a feasible one. We really want to be a little bit different and have a sustainable approach in how we engage our consumers. When you are in a competitive field like ours, especially in such a cluttered field, you can’t adopt a ‘me too’ approach.”

He adds the company was looking to find an agency with similar work ethics and values to Henkel’s.

Drawing from his personal past experience as a marketer, he adds there are still struggles in the agency-client relationship, a lack of focus being one of them.

“Agencies at the end of the day are still tied by profit and loss, hence, they will always be on the lookout for new businesses no matter how big or small they are in size,” he says.

And while the right agency partner is necessary, what is even more necessary is for a client to be a good marketer who is future-ready to survive in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous consumer environment.

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MARKETING FEATURE: MILLENNIALS

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Getting in with the cool crowd

MARKETING FEATURE: MILLENNIALS

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Millennials really do stand out.

They elude and confuse marketers. On one hand, they are extremely loyal to the brands they truly trust.

On the other hand, they are always after the best deals. J&J, Sephora, Mondelēz and several other top brands discuss how to effectively communicate with this generation.

MARKETING FEATURE: MILLENNIALS

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Taking age-old marketing tactics to a whole new level Couponing, it’s been around for ages.

Here’s how The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Company embraced digital to resonate with the Millennial crowd.

Rezwana Manjur and Monisha Rao write.

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MARKETING FEATURE: MILLENNIALS

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For its 20th anniversary, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf company decided to take its traditional coupon-based on-ground promotions online.

While the company for a long time has handed out coupons to patrons in various locations, at the start of the year it decided to put an end to this age-old tradition.

Three months ago it decided to gamify this whole process.

Working with its digital agency Happy Marketer for a period of four months, the two created a digital redemption system where consumers could simply head online to a designated microsite to redeem The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf goodies.

Called “Spin the Bean”, the website was created primarily for those on the go and was mobile-optimised to make it more convenient for today’s mobile shoppers.

With a relatively simple interface, users could tap on a button on the site to spin an electronic wheel and receive rewards.

They would then get an email confirmation of the reward they had won which could easily be redeemed at any of the cafes around the island. Staff at the cafes were also trained to help in the redemption process at the POS terminals.

“The whole plan was to better integrate the online and offline world and drive retail sales,” said Prantik Mazumdar, managing partner of Happy Marketer.

The agency also created a back-end dashboard system which allowed the company to alternate its rewards and push to the front line its new products. As such, the items always remained fresh.

According to Doreen Lim, director of sales and marketing for The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, the coffee chain said the unknown element of surprise and gamification was what drew customers back to the site.

A web app also helped as it didn’t result in another dormant app on the mobile device and the brand was also able to identify and profile its customers on social media in real-time.

Moreover, launching a browser-based web app also allowed the company a speedy rollout and quick bug fixes. The ease of use and a frictionless method to redeem the rewards, said Lim, was also vital in luring users. This incentivised consumers to interact with the brand on digital over and over again.

And, of course, rather than using “push marketing” tactics, and relying on paid media, this particular campaign had a pull factor.

Initially the company promoted the new loyalty system by sending an eDM alert to the 50,000 users in its data base. In terms of paid media, Lim said the company spent about SG$100 for Facebook promotions.

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Cutting through the digital clutter E-commerce is a cluttered space with almost every other retailer going online to target Millennials. But the online world itself is no longer just about the survival of the fittest, but rather it is about the smartest and the boldest. To stay afloat in such a highly cluttered space, out-of-the-box thinking is needed.

Retailers online cannot be afraid to experiment, said panellists during a discussion at the Millennial 20/20 Summit. Jill Standish, senior managing director of retail practice at Accenture, said experimentation today was a must given how fast the face of the e-commerce industry was evolving.

“Every consumer is a little bit different. If I were a retailer today, I would want to do fast experiments and try something new. If it works then great, otherwise shut the project down,” she said.

But the real problem arises when retailers forget to measure the success of their experiments.

“There are retailers who think that a concept is cool and keep rolling it out without measuring the profit it brings to the business. People in the future are going to question how your experiment increased traffic, sales and conversions around the brand. So you need to know what metric did it help increase,” she said.

If you are going to experiment, go ahead and measure it before and after. She added that technology has brought about a change in buying behaviour of consumers. This ensures the retailers are always on their toes to come up with fresh ways to reach more consumers.

Rashi Talwar, head of on-site merchandising and regional marketing at Zalora, said being a young online shopping fashion brand, experimenting with pop-up stores was largely done to grow the brand’s presence regionally.

“We set up temporary pop-up stores around the region once in a while to educate our customers,” she said. But sticking to your core brand DNA is vital. As such, transactions at the pop-up stores were still done through designated computers set up in the stores.

Arguing that visibility is a key factor in gaining brand traction was Suresh Dalai, head of retail merchandise planning at Levi Strauss & Co. At the end of the day, having a touch and feel of your brand helps in creating a personal bond with the consumer and creating an experience.

“Size and visibility is the simplest level of personalisation. Without which, you are lost,” he said.

“Spin the Bean” organically. According to data analysed, the company found that 64% of the respondents were female and 60% to 65% were Millennials.

To date about 600,000 spins have already occurred and the platform has seen an over 55,000 redemption rate, which was an approximate 9% redemption rate, whereas the general rate usually hovers at 1% to 2% and a good redemption hits the 6% mark.

Overall, the move saw half a million dollars in revenue generated.

She added that going digital also saved the company marketing dollars when it came to printing coupons and new offers. This also cut

additional labour costs. On digital, a simple click on the back-end system means new rewards being offered to consumers.

“Driving engagement need not be long, tedious or expensive. The cost of the microsite was not exorbitant. In fact, it is an asset you can use for a long time,” she said.

She added most visitors to the store would also ultimately purchase other products – so there was upsell and cross-sell at the store.

“Of course, there are those who will come and get the free drinks, but a majority will upgrade. Ultimately our goal was to increase footfall which this did. The cost of discounting was far less than that of upselling,” Lim said.

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MARKETING FEATURE: MILLENNIALS

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What beauty looks like in the eye of the Millennial Embracing diversity is one way. Vivienne Tay writes.

With such a plethora of beauty brands pushing their offerings to consumers, cutting through the clutter can prove to be quite challenging, be it digitally or on the ground.

While some brands may struggle to win over the hearts of consumers, Richa Goswami, head of digital at Johnson & Johnson APAC, highlights the simple fact that winning over the Millennial beauty consumers lies in understanding who they are.

“The truth is, if we don’t care about the Millennials and what happens to them, they have no reason to care about a brand that tries very hard to matter,” she said.

She said what Millennials care about is a sense of community and a want to be part of something bigger than them. Millennials want to be around people who have the same passions and interests, she added.

With the widespread availability of usergenerated content, be it through forums, YouTube beauty “gurus” or beauty blogs, it is not hard to see the impact beauty communities have on purchasing decisions.

“This is where it becomes important for brands to start engaging in these communities and with their influencers,” she said.

Embracing diversity is also an aspect which Millennial beauty consumers have shown an interest in because of globalisation.

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Globalisation has led to a growing trend of Millennials trying out products which are relatable on an ethnic front. Giving an example of the Indian market, she said J&J’s Clean & Clear started marketing natural skincare ingredients such as rose water and lemon for its face washing product. These ingredients are common to most Indian households when it comes to natural doit-yourself skincare remedies.

“Having products which are relatable to one’s culture is where you have to be in order to make embracing diversity part of the brand ethos,” she said.

She said along with a freedom of choice and a want to be entertained, Millennial beauty consumers are also discerning, hence, an honest conversation with consumers’ is vital.

Alexis Horowitz-Burdick, managing director at Sephora Digital, thinks Millennial shoppers should instead be viewed as individuals who exhibit traits which are typically “Millennial”.

More often than not, they are clumped and seen merely as an age group.

“A 25-year-old consumer is not dramatically different from a 50-year-old consumer,” she said.

The only difference between the different age groups one should be considering is the different touch-points; one might have more money than the other and also have a different

path-to-purchase. One of these touch-points is mobile. “The role of mobile in a consumer’s lifestyle has become so pervasive to a point that a consumer’s mobile device is now an extension of the individual,” she said.

What this means for marketers is the mobile phone is now one of the first touch-points for the consumer. While being in-store, the mobile allows consumers to search for online reviews of products and also price compare.

Agreeing with her was Goswami, who said that mobile devices, coupled with social media platforms, allow Millennials to be heard. This makes it important for brands to be authentic.

“Along with authenticity, Millennial beauty consumers crave intimacy and experiencebased marketing that is one-on-one. Hence, a one-size-fits-all strategy is definitely out of the window,” Goswami said.

Additionally, the increasing role of mobile demands a smooth transition from online to offline, which needs to be seamless to ensure a more holistic customer experience.

According to Horowitz-Burdick, successful businesses are able to harness an omnichannel approach in their business model.

“What is driving amazing retail or consumer product businesses are those which smartly utilise an omni-channel or multi-channel approach,” she said.

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How do you make an everyday brand cool again?

For Oreo, thin might be the way in with Millennials.

Venus Hew writes.

Many firms have realised the purchasing power of Millennials (aged between 18 to 34) could reshape the global e-commerce playing field. Brands are being forced to constantly reexamine strategies to capture this lucrative pie and keep up with the needs of these digitally savvy and increasingly demanding consumers.

Speaking at the recent Millennial 20/20 summit, the director of e-commerce for Asia Pacific (APAC) at Mondelez, Ganesh Kashyap, explained how and why his company hopes to capture the e-commerce market in China, a country of 1.3 billion people.

He said the Chinese online snacks purchase category is growing at 20% year-on-year, and Mondelez’s online business, including Oreo, is already growing at a much faster pace in the country with its online sales doubling this year.

“In Asia, for our category – food, biscuits and candies – the shift is most pronounced in China, especially with its e-commerce boom,” he said, adding that more than 10% of snacks in China are sold online now.

He also explained how online and offline data in China was helping Mondelez, which is hoping to achieve at least US$1 billion in e-commerce revenues by 2020.

At one point, he said, Oreo was losing market share in China with women between 25 and 30 not consuming the biscuits as they were deemed “too sweet”. To counter this, Mondelez decided to launch Oreo Thins.

But the response wasn’t really great when the product was placed online. But rather than throw up their hands in despair, Kashyap and his team decided to use the insights garnered to create a new campaign to showcase the difference between the original Oreo and Oreo Thins. This drove click-through rates and sales, WWW.M A R K ET I N G - I N T ER A C T I V E.C O M

and helped Oreo Thins become a US$60 million business in China.

Re-engaging with Millennials However, re-engaging with the Millennial consumers in China is a constant challenge for the brand.

“We knew that Millennials had lost touch with the Oreo brand, and we had to re-engage them,” he said. He added the brand needed to break free of the image of being just another everyday biscuit brand in a grocery basket.

In beefing up its marketing efforts, Mondelez tied up with Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba in launching a three-day campaign to create a personalised Oreo packaging via digital printing that allowed customers to choose their preferred artwork, messages, icons and colours before placing their orders on their smartphones.

The results, he said, were desirable. Oreo lifted its conversion rate by three times, with more than 40 million re-posts of the campaign on Weibo. He added thousands of consumers also posted positive feedback creating a huge fan base for the brand in a rather tricky market.

Separately, in a recent PwC Total Retail 2016 report, Chinese shopping behaviour is said to have become a leading indicator for global shopping behaviour.

Alibaba’s Single’s Day, a popular 24-hour shopping festival in China, is often compared to America’s Black Friday sales and used as a bellwether for the Chinese e-commerce market.

In 2015, the online sales in China had massively shifted to mobile, said the PwC study. On Alibaba’s Single’s Day 2015, 69% of all transactions were made on mobile devices, up from 43% in 2014. Its online sales for the

same year also came in at $14.3 billion, a 60% increase over 2014.

These numbers resonate with what Kashyap said.

He added Chinese online shoppers were typically young and better educated, with more than 50% of them aged under 30.

Expect more personalisation from Oreo in Singapore and Asia As for the Oreo fans in Singapore, Kashyap said the company was working on building personalised Oreo offerings for the market – much like the rest of Asia. The market is an important one for the brand.

In mid-September, Mondelez announced it was overhauling and forking out US$65 million to build global research, development and quality offerings. The Singapore technical centre will be one of the first to open, with completion expected in Q1 2017 and slated to be its centre of excellence for gum and candy.

Kashyap added that for brands looking to grow sales online in the Singapore e-commerce market, a differentiated offer with great content that engages people is a must.

Moreover, the personalisation of consumer interactions is also needed.

Comparing the Chinese and Singapore markets, he said the underlying trends were similar, but undoubtedly, there were also several differences. For example, Singapore’s food and beverage purchases online are anchored in convenience such as the relative ease that online ordering and home delivery offers. In China, convenience matters.

But more importantly the consumer is looking for a differentiated range and compelling value.

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MARKETING FEATURE: INFLUENCER MARKETING

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The brand-influencer relationship can be a win-win situation for both parties. But there are always dangers – especially when influencers go off script – and leave brands subject to a public backlash, particularly online and on social media.

However, influencers are becoming more of a necessity rather than an option when it comes to reaching out to consumers – especially in the fast-moving consumer goods sector.

According to Lee Lim Meng, marketing director at L’Oréal Malaysia, influencers help bring a sense of relevance to the target audience.

They allow customers or potential customers to get to know the product from a relatable source which is more natural and authentic.

“It can be similar to hearing about a product from a friend or someone you look up to, rather than a brand that wants to sell you something.

Influencers also have more credibility and provide a type of social validation,” Lee says.

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Getting your message out: Speaking the right language through the right person is important.

“We don’t want someone who isn’t a fan of the brand to be promoting the brand – today consumers quickly see through a non-authentic endorsement.”

Lee Lim Meng – marketing director at L’Oréal Malaysia

Some influencers gain their fame through excelling in their craft such as beauty, cars or food. This allows their followers to look to them for advice when it comes to such categories.

Through this trust, brands can reach out to influencers to educate and inform the consumer about a product.

“Using influencers to provide more information about products and how to use

them will make fans and potential customers more likely to take note and follow suit,” Lee adds.

Influencers are also important during the point when purchase decisions are made as their reviews and product features will come in handy when fans and potential customers are deciding whether or not to buy the product.

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interested potential customers to make informed decisions.

Marketing also spoke to Rachel Cheong, marketing director of HIC Juice, who has worked with influencers in Singapore ranging from local celebrities to social influencers in the lifestyle genre, such as Tay Kewei, Tan Kheng Hua, Jianhao Tan and Melissa Koh. Work with your agency and be on the lookout There are several factors when it comes to selecting the right influencer for your brand. According to Lee, aside from reach, engagement, quality of content and brand fit should come out on top.

“We don’t want someone who isn’t a fan of the brand to be promoting the brand – today consumers quickly see through a non-authentic endorsement,” Lee says.

She adds that L’Oréal’s agency, Lion & Lion, also helps with identifying and assessing potential influencers – avoiding myths such as following the “only ‘high reach’ influencer” trap – and connecting with influencers and managing relationships on behalf of the brand.

Similarly, for HIC Juice, content mix and synergy between the influencer’s lifestyle and what its brand stands for is important as an influencer’s content needs to sustain the interest of the target audience.

Lee adds her team always has its agency do its due diligence in advance of engaging a potential influencer. This includes looking over the influencer’s historical posts, news, and feedback from their audience and the wide social web.

“Normally, when we first work with influencers we look to review any paid work (such as a video) before engaging, as well as actively encouraging them to work closely with our digital agency,” Lee says.

Having a contingency plan For Cheong, it is important to adhere to the same high levels of customer service when working with influencers, as well as customers, when it comes to managing potential flak or a backlash.

“Customers are able to leverage on the reach and connectivity of social media to amplify any negative experience with the brand,” Cheong says, adding it would default to the crisis management strategy it has in place for all customers.

Similarly, L’Oréal’s Lee says the brand actively listens for unusually high mentions that would indicate a great success or something it

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SIX STEPS TO EMPLOYING DIGITAL INFLUENCERS EFFECTIVELY Digital influencers are becoming a serious component of any marketing mix in the age of social media. Yet, brands have only begun to grapple with using them effectively as there are no established guidelines and sufficient best practices to using digital influencers.

Unlike professional spokespersons, most digital influencers are amateurs who are holding full-time jobs while only doing brand endorsements on a part-time basis. Hence, the level of professionalism expected by brands fluctuates drastically, and often result in mutual frustrations.

In some instances, the misuse of digital influencers results in very public and embarrassing situations for both parties.

There are better ways to using digital influencers effectively that meet the business objectives of any brand without the painful experiences. Here are some steps to follow: Step 1 – Decide on micro or macro influencers There is a distinction (though not always so obvious) between awareness and preference.

Awareness is just mere knowledge of the existence of a subject (without needing understanding), while preference requires appreciation with selection bias in your favour.

Hence, there exists two very broad categories of influencers – micro and macro influencers.

Macro influencers are celebrities that can generate massive awareness in short periods of time due to their large following. Micro influencers are usually within the first or second degree separation from individuals. While they are seldom celebrities, they are, however, trusted sources of information and recommendations that influence preference.

For example, famous food bloggers (macro influencers) can easily build awareness of new restaurants and eateries to try. However, it takes micro influencers to rebuild preference towards eateries who are generally perceived to have existing poor repute. Thus bringing real customers back to the business.

Step 2 – Use a release rather than a restrict strategy We recommend using a release rather than a restrict strategy when employing digital influencers. Release strategies state a specific end goal while offering free creative expression to digital influencers to achieve it. Influencers have more freedom to adapt their respective executions according to whatever is most relevant to their followers. This improves the overall messaging quality resulting in improved authenticity.

Restrict strategies issue orders with specific instructions that dictate every move regardless of whether they are suitable for brand personas of the respective digital influencers. Presumably more reassuring in terms of expected outputs, such executions are often presumptuous and mismatch the influencers’ true personas which reduces overall effectiveness of the campaigns.

Step 3 – Recruit from existing customers Recruit digital influencers only from your existing pool of consumers as a matter of highest priority. Never choose anyone merely on abilities without ensuring the candidate is also an existing customer. This is both a defensive and effective approach.

While it is true, you are free to recruit anyone from anywhere as digital influencers, not everyone is an ideal candidate.

Professional spokespersons are conditioned to be “on brand” for the duration of their employ. Even then, there have been many public and embarrassing cases of slip-ups where their habits override professional conditioning. How much more can we expect of amateur digital influencers who had no such professional training?

Step 4 – conduct brand trainings and briefings Never use digital influencers before ensuring they are adequately equipped via brand training.

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Such sessions serve as critical brand references as well as opportunities to establish mutual expectations that includes trust.

It is also good practice to include a code of conduct to guide what is acceptable and what is not. Treat them with due courtesy as you would with traditional press and media. Why discriminate? Meet your digital influencers you are about to employ in person and get to know them better. It is always prudent to ensure both online and actual personality are consistent and dependable.

As a result, aim to build real relationships (not transactional ones) that are critical for any digital influencer’s programme to be truly effective.

Step 5 – Employ digital monitoring Employ digital monitoring to ensure you are able to track the results and performance of your digital influencer’s programme. Why invest in areas where you are not able to account for returns on efforts spent? A robust digital monitoring solution can facilitate tracking of digital influencers’ activities, and also quantify their respective performance.

As a result, brands can adjust the right combination of digital influencers to optimise the tactics employed to fulfil the overall digital influencer strategy. Not all digital influencers offer the same value and digital monitoring clarifies reality.

Step 6 – Review to reuse or release Have a consistent cycle of reviewing the results of the employed digital influencers. We normally recommend reviewing the results ideally on a six-month basis or no shorter than three months between reviews.

Time is needed to allow digital influencers to show value to brands that utilise their services. The key benefit of using digital influencers is that brands can deploy their campaigns, observe, measure and optimise in real-time. Being effective means being able to decide who to recruit, reuse and release at any point of time in the campaign without allowing it to fail and become bad history.

Ryan Lim, founder of QED Consulting

needs to be aware of. Together with Lion & Lion, it has developed several contingency plans in an event that an influencer does something the brand does not want to be associated with.

How brands can measure the effectiveness of influencers Some short-term measures a brand can undertake, according to L’Oréal’s Lee, can be the use of social listening tools such as Talkwalker and Unmetric to track classic social metrics such as mentions, engagement and reach.

Using tracking codes in links are also useful in understanding any referral impact back to the brand’s web assets.

“This helps us to understand whether consumers later completed a goal we associate with the objective, such as visiting one of our own websites or signing up for one of our newsletters,” Lee says.

Over a longer perspective, L’Oréal also benchmarks its ROI on whether sponsored mentions drive buzz.

Although buzz is a less direct indication of success, Lee adds it helps the team learn and gain insights on what works and what doesn’t for the brand.

For brands such as HIC Juice, reach, inbound traffic, post-engagement as well as a lift in sales, helps determine whether or not an influencer is indeed “influential”.

Make brand ambassadorship a long-term goal While long-term brand ambassadorships are not in the pipeline for HIC Juice, building brand advocacy is a big deal for L’Oréal.

“Influencer outreach is not a one-off activity; it is a long-term commitment to building a relationship as well as nurturing a wider, brand community on the web,” Lee says.

Agreeing with Lee is Aldrina Thirunagaran, assistant vice-president of digital marketing at OCBC Bank, who shares the recent success the bank had with its influencer partnerships with local celebrities Pornsak and Michelle Chong.

“Being in the business of building relationships with consumers, it is equally important brands build relationships with influencers as well, as it is really a partnership,” she says.

She adds Chong and Pornsak have gone on to speak for the brand at various events and on social media.

That type of earned media to her is the most valuable because that is where OCBC Bank is getting advocates for its brand.

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AUDREY OOI Marketing: What is your claim to fame?

My blog has always been pretty personal, hence, my blog topics covered whatever I experienced at that point in time. I went from a student to a working girl and eventually to a wife and mum. These days I blog about parenting and children more, but I still post about beauty, fashion and my personal opinions. Claims to fame can include our meme proposal which went viral, as well as the birth of our son Fighter who was born premature at 31 weeks. We received a lot of attention during then too.

Marketing: How has the influencer landscape changed over the years?

I started blogging in 2004. I started monetising my blog in 2008. When I first started there were only blogs so the early influencers were only bloggers. Now with Instagram and other social media, there are many other types of “influencers”. I think the challenge currently is determining who has actual actionable influence and who is just known for having nice photos.

JIN LIM Marketing: What is your claim to fame?

To be honest, I don’t think I’m that famous.

Yes, people do recognise me on the streets, but it’s nowhere compared with people like Elizabeth Tan or Siti Nurhaliza. Most of the time people just tell me they love my videos, which I am truly grateful for. How do people know me? YouTube, I guess.

Marketing: How has the influencer landscape changed over the years?

I don’t know when I started becoming an influencer.

All of a sudden one day, I was labelled an “influencer” and to be honest I didn’t understand what the whole terminology meant until they explained that an influencer is what brands use to help influence their followers to like their products, which I hardly do because I use my social media platforms mainly to promote my lifestyle and YouTube videos. If a brand comes in, and it fits and makes sense with my current lifestyle, I will accept the sponsorship.

Today, social media has made it a little

Marketing: What are some of the challenges of being an influencer in Malaysia?

I have worked with Estée Lauder, Unilever, Astro, McDonald’s, Volkswagen, Tourism Istria to name a few recent ones. Fake statistics. In the drive to get ahead, a lot of influencers are buying fake followers to fool clients. It’s unfair to genuine influencers who lose out on collaborations, and it’s cheating the clients of their money. It is also bad for the industry because clients who unknowingly work with fake influencers will start to think that influencers don’t work and they stop investing in it. Fragmentation is another challenge. There are too many influencers right now and every young girl with 10,000 followers on IG aspires to be a top influencer. But not all have real influence.

Marketing: Tips for clients when it comes to working with influencers?

Clients need to know how to spot influencers with real influence who can drive action or whose word people trust. There’s no foolproof method, but looking at the level of engagement on their social media is one. Also, keep your ear to the ground. Chances are if you haven’t heard anyone around you talk about an influencer, chances are they’re probably not that popular.

bit more “personal” between the “influencer” and their followers. But, of course, all this goes out the window when a brand pays money and expects only good things to be said about their brand, which is the case these days isn’t it?

Marketing: What are some of the challenges of being an influencer in Malaysia?

At this point of time, anyone can be an influencer. And for brands, there are just too many for them to choose from. Challenges for influencers? Not having a voice to say what they really want because if that is done, there will be no cash flow, but to eliminate that, an influencer should only be working with a brand that they truly are a fan of and believe in.

Secondly, influencers are also more than numbers. Relevance sometimes matters more than reach. Clients should engage an influencer relevant to the brand who will yield better results rather than someone who has tons of followers, but doesn’t fit the brand.

Storytelling packs a more powerful punch than a pretty picture. Someone who can tell a good story will always sell your product more effectively.

And third, influencers are more than just a megaphone for your brand. I think brands can move beyond just asking for a photo of the product. The good influencers can tell your story and collaborate more meaningfully if properly incorporated in your campaign. We can do much more than just act as a display ad.

followers these days by just buying them.

Just make sure you pay attention to their engagement, not their numbers. Quality over quantity.

Marketing: Clients you have worked with over the years?

Recently, I have worked with Samsung, adidas, Mercedes-Benz, Daniel Wellington, Tourism Australia, Netflix, Levi’s and Marvel/Disney.

Marketing: Tips for clients when it comes to working with influencers?

Here’s something to take note. If you approach the influencer directly, you’re probably going to get them a lot cheaper versus going through a “social media” agency.

I mean, yes, agencies are supposed to make their cut, but trust me when I say that some influencers don’t even get half of what these agencies charge clients. Also, look out for their engagements, it’s easier to get a lot of

Excerpt from Nielsen’s “Turning Silver into Retail Gold” survey

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MOVING INTO A CONTENT ERA

Content marketing is no longer an option. It is a must.

Firms are fast grasping the importance of great content when it comes to connecting with audiences.

Here are some of the ways organisations can really pick up skills in this area. Check them out in our latest Master Report.

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Content marketing is a field that is growing in Singapore. Locally, big brands are taking notice of it. Recently, Changi Airport Group launched a content marketing platform called “Now boarding by Changi Airport” to attract more users.

The initiative was part of Changi’s mission to rethink travel and it has three distinct content pillars: go global, live local and discover Changi.

The new initiative targets those in transit, visitors and even local residents looking for a vacation. On the website, articles, videos and infographics are used to tell stories of travel and exploration. These are aimed at educating users by giving tips on travel, information on airport events, destinations around the world and the local flavour of Singapore, among others.

“Through our efforts to create unique airport experiences at our terminals, we aim to make Changi not just a place for boarding flights, but a destination on its own – where vacations and happy memories begin,” Ivan Tan, senior vice-president of corporate and marketing communications at Changi Airport Group, said in a statement.

Tan added that Changi’s vision for the platform is a step from the physical to the digital realm – from delivering a great airport experience to inspiring new journeys online.

Smaller players are also using content marketing to their benefit. One such boutique firm is fitness studio GuavaPass.

Emma Harris, vice-president of global brand strategy at GuavaPass, said the company continues to invest more in content marketing because it believes all content is the future of meaningful customer engagement.

Her company’s particular focus is on video. This year, GuavaPass tested content recommendation platform Taboola to drive more traffic to its blog.

Moreover, the company formed an internal content team this year which was tasked to create daily content for the company’s blog and eDMs. These were sent out to consumers across cities such as Singapore, Bangkok, Beijing, Dubai, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Manila, Seoul, Shanghai and Taipei.

Over the past year, the company has focused on revamping its blog to include short “BuzzFeed list” styled content which it can distribute in channels outside of the blog such as its biweekly email newsletter. It has also taken many of its offline events online by easy live-streaming.

But measuring return on investment is not easy and many marketers, including GuavaPass’ Harris, are aware of that.

When asked how the company looks to measure the money poured into content investment, she said: “We measure it depending on the content platform, for example, based on engagement and frequency.

“We attribute close to 75% of our customer acquisition efforts to organic ROI – where efficient content marketing also makes up for a great deal of our organic efforts.”

For Harris, a successful content marketing is one that will drive brand awareness and engage with new audiences. Essentially, it needs to cut through the clutter already there.

“We see success in content marketing when we see engagement among our audience where our content gets likes, shares, tags and reposts – all of which are key in content marketing, ” she said.

“Consumers also expect unique content from our brand in a regular time frame. This includes daily blog posts or a biweekly local newsletter.

“By adhering to regular time frames, this results in successful consistency in content.” She said as brands steer away from traditional marketing, content marketing is a fun and playful way to reach out to consumers in a creative manner.

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STRATEGY AND ORGANISATION

How often B2C marketers meet to discuss their content marketing programme

CONTENT CREATION AND DISTRIBUTION

Effectiveness ratings for B2C social media platforms

Source: 2016 B2C Content Marketing Trends – North America: Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs

With the influx of players in the space, the Content Marketing Institute also spoke to several marketers as to what success really means in this booming space. In its B2C Content Marketing 2016: Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends, North America report, it said that today 48% of B2C marketers meet with their teams either daily or weekly to discuss their content marketing programme.

About 28% of those marketers say the meetings are “extremely” valuable and 31% say they are “very” valuable. As such, the effectiveness is greater among teams that meet more frequently (55% of the most effective B2C marketers meet daily or weekly).

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“We see success in content marketing when we see engagement among our audience where our content gets likes, shares, tags and reposts – all of which are key in content marketing.”

GOALS AND METRICS

The most important metric B2C content marketers use

On top of that, B2C marketers are getting better results with Facebook. This year, 66% rated it effective (versus 58% last year). The effectiveness of the remaining leading platforms fluctuated only slightly.

There’s also been a shift in the paid methods that B2C marketers use to promote and distribute content.

Over the past year, the use of promoted posts, social ads and search engine marketing (SEM) overtook print and other offline promotions as the paid method that B2C marketers use most frequently to distribute content, said the report.

Meanwhile, B2C marketers also revealed that sales are the most important metric their organisation uses.

But the most effective marketers, however, were more equally divided

CHALLENGES AND PRIORITIES

Top challenges for B2C content marketers

BUDGETS AND SPENDING

B2C content marketing spending (over the next 12 months)

Source: 2016 B2C Content Marketing Trends – North America: Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs

on their top two important metrics: sales and sales lead quality. The study also said B2C marketers are now placing more of their budgets toward content marketing. This year, they’re allocating 32% of their total marketing budget on average to content marketing. Last year the number stood at 25%.

Also, 50% of the marketers said they expected to see B2C content marketing spend increase over the next year – especially for the larger B2C firms with more than 1000 employees (60%).

Lastly, the report noted B2C marketers, compared with B2B counterparts, have more issues in the field as they struggle to understand and choose the right technology.

The report above surveyed a total of 3,714 recipients from around the globe – representing a full range of industries, functional areas and company sizes during July and August 2015.

However, it presents the findings from the 263 respondents who said they were B2C marketers in North America.

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NBCUniversal’s talent roster for Asia includes E! News Asia hosts Maria and Elizabeth Rahajeng (Indonesia), Yvette King (South East Asia) and Raymond Gutierrez (Philippines)

Mastering the building blocks of branded content What more can advertisers do to reach and engage audiences, while at the same time enhancing credibility? The newly launched NBCUniversal Content Studio offers a content proposition that opens up exciting new opportunities for telling brand stories.

NBCUniversal has a remarkably rich history of delivering best-inclass creative and branded content campaigns to advertisers. Earlier this year in New York, the company launched the NBCUniversal Content Studio – a new service to create and distribute content for brands.

Announced to industry leaders at the 2016 APPIES, it has expanded the service to Asia. The studio will serve as a developer and producer of original content on behalf of its advertising partners.

The NBCUniversal Content Studio’s media-agnostic approach allows clients to take advantage of NBCUniversal’s vast storytelling expertise, data, insights, distribution partnerships and massive scale.

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“NBCUniversal has seen a rising number of clients who want to go beyond the standard 30-second commercial or a suite of digital banners. As such, branded content is increasingly important as advertisers seek editorialised solutions to break through the clutter in an ever-crowded media landscape.”

Charmaine Wong – director of advertising sales for Asia.

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It will tap into NBCUniversal’s creative and content community of writers, directors and talent as well as its network of production partners.

The content can be distributed on NBCUniversal networks as well as being customised for other platforms, primarily social and digital.

“While advertisers are well-served by buying TV and digital ads, NBCUniversal has seen a rising number of clients who want to go beyond the standard 30-second commercial or a suite of digital banners,” said Charmaine Wong, director of advertising sales for Asia.

“As such, branded content is increasingly important as advertisers seek editorialised solutions to break through the clutter in an evercrowded media landscape.”

With the rise of ad blockers and skippable ads, advertisers are forced to think differently in creating more engaging content, content that the consumer chooses to watch.

The acceleration of this trend provides an opportunity for brands to work with content creators to collaborate and create content that works and entertains. But who to collaborate with?

NBCUniversal’s long and successful history of working with marketers across Asia to reach diverse audiences with custom creative makes it an ideal partner to explore branded content solutions.

“Our award-winning custom creative content and world-class production capabilities have established us as one of the leading partners for clients in the region, exceeding many of their expectations.”

Natalie Gee – director, creative and production, Asia.

“We are content creators and have been for over 100 years. Now, we are able to engage our world-class talent in front and behind the camera to create content for clients that delivers results,” said Scott Mackenzie, vice president of channels for Asia at NBCUniversal.

The NBCUniversal Content Studio makes it easy to deliver clients' unique ideas and opportunities the NBCUniversal portfolio of networks and talent can provide.

Combined with an enviable reach, distribution and advanced audience targeting capabilities, this venture presents a new solution to solve NBCUniversal’s brand partners’ needs, and enable them to build long-term value with their customers.

This is done through smart versioning, an enhanced solution providing content that is tailored for each individual platform ensuring engagement levels are maximised. Plus, clients can also use this content for distribution across their brand platforms which could include their social channels, websites, apps and retail channels.

The NBCUniversal Content Studio can also bring to bear its distribution and production partnerships for maximum effectiveness.

For many years, NBCUniversal has developed custom short and long-form content for advertising clients across a wide range of consumer categories such as luxury (Gucci, Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, Estée Lauder, Hugo Boss, Escada, L’Oréal), automobiles (Subaru, Honda), travel (AirAsia, Tourism Malaysia, Ministry of Tourism Indonesia), beauty and fashion (TRESemmé, Zalora), consumer goods (Nestlé Fitnesse, Nestlé Kit Kat, Marigold) and entertainment (Universal Studios Singapore, United International Pictures).

“Our award-winning custom creative content and world-class production capabilities have established us as one of the leading partners for clients in the region, exceeding many of their expectations,” said Natalie Gee, director of creative and production for Asia.

The NBCUniversal advantage With a plethora of broadcasters, publishers, producers and media partners in the market offering branded content solutions – what, then, is NBCUniversal’s edge?

As part of Comcast, the world’s largest media and entertainment company, NBCUniversal has a strong foothold in Asia, reaching more than 34 million subscribers across 20 countries through its TV network and video-on-demand brands.

Additionally, a cumulative 35 million social media users are followers of the company’s brands and talent on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, increasing opportunities for reach and engagement with branded content.

NBCUniversal’s TV network and video-on-demand brands act as a strong filter for audiences to cut across the content clutter.

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“We are content creators and have been for over 100 years. Now, we are able to engage our world-class talent in front and behind the camera to create content for clients that delivers results.”

Scott Mackenzie - vice president of channels for Asia at NBCUniversal

With so many different content options to choose from, having a piece of branded content associated with a global pop culture powerhouse such as E! or a leading women’s entertainment destination such as DIVA, gives viewers a sense of credibility and an idea of what to expect in terms of quality, which in turn leads to deeper engagement.

Additionally, the digital and social media channels of these brands have huge followings on the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The diverse portfolio of NBCUniversal’s group assets that can be capitalised for production of branded content include the company’s

Upcoming original productions include E!’s !t Girls, starring (from left to right) Solenn Heussaff, Isabelle Daza, Georgina Wilson, Liz Uy

NBCUniversal also airs premium dramas, express from the U.S., such as Universal Channel’s Shades of Blue, starring Jennifer Lopez

Universal Studios theme parks, as well as other studio facilities in Singapore and across the region.

Furthermore, NBCUniversal’s content capabilities and talent roster cut across the best of Hollywood and Asia. Original Asian productions include long-form formats such as DIVA’s How Do I Look? Asia, hosted by Jeannie Mai; and E!’s !t Girls, which star four of Philippines’ hottest A-list celebrities: Georgina Wilson, Solenn Heussaff, Isabelle Daza and Liz Uy. Short-form series include E! All Access and E! News Asia.

These productions feature the wealth of creative expertise from NBCUniversal’s US parent – the creators of Keeping Up With The Kardashians, Live from the Red Carpet and Mariah’s World, ensuring that branded content created through the NBCUniversal Content Studio is led by some of the top production and creative talent in the industry.

NBCUniversal International Networks, the international channels division of NBCUniversal, is one of the world’s premier entertainment portfolios, delivering quality content and compelling brands to over 176 territories in the world. The brands in the portfolio include Universal Channel, Syfy, 13th Street, Studio Universal, E! Entertainment Television, The Style Network, DIVA, Telemundo, Bravo and Golf Channel. NBCUniversal International Networks is a division of NBCUniversal, one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies.

Contact the following NBCUniversal executives to find out more about the NBCUniversal Content Studio: Scott Mackenzie - vice president, channels, Asia Scott.Mackenzie@nbcuni.com +65 9109 6173 Charmaine Wong - director, advertising sales, Asia Charmaine.Wong@nbcuni.com +65 8118 0495 Natalie Gee - director, creative and production, Asia Natalie.Gee@nbcuni.com +65 9338 9317

Partners for DIVA’s How Do I Look? Asia Season 2 are Zalora (Official Wardrobe Partner), AirAsia (Official Airline Partner) and Marigold (Official Beverage Partner – Malaysia)

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TV BROADCASTER OF THE YEAR

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TV BROADCASTER OF THE YEAR The power of television cannot be underestimated. Despite the rise of digital streaming and viewing, and the likes of Netflix and Iflix, watching television continues to be a popular leisure activity. Today, TV broadcasters are also realising the power of instant gratification and the insatiable viewing appetite of audiences. As such they are streaming content live or on the same day from all parts of the world. With that backdrop, let’s find out who made it to the top five broadcasters’ list in 2016.

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TV BROADCASTER OF THE YEAR

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METHODOLOGY HOW DID WE ACHIEVE THIS? The Media Benchmarking Survey is one of Marketing’s main initiatives to understand and inform our marketing community on Singapore’s competitive media landscape. The TV Broadcaster of the Year's rankings were derived from the questions in the Media Bench Marking Survey via an online questionnaire on Marketing’s database of client advertisers and marketing services agency professionals. All answers were considered by Marketing when finalising the rankings. This year’s revamped survey focused on the marketers’ top five preferred choices of the media and the rankings were collated based on the total scoring systems with preference one getting five points and preference five getting one point.

QUALITY RECIPIENTS AND RESPONDENTS With more than 900 respondents participating in this year’s survey, the research gathered holistic and up-to-date feedback from advertising decision-makers and influencers and agency professionals from various marketing services.

100% of our respondents were manager-level decision-makers with more than 20% from the most senior ranks of client advertisers and another 27% were VPs or director-level marketers. The majority of the respondents from the agency side were CEOs, MDs and GMs (47%), while 43% were marketing personnel and 10% creative and media personnel. Advertisers from major and local international banks, FMCG companies, property and construction, as well as those from travel and hospitality companies participated in the survey. Agency professionals across the marketing spectrum were also well-represented.

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TV BROADCASTER OF THE YEAR

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1 | MEDIACORP

Mediacorp clinched top position this year. The past year has seen Toggle, its online service platform, going ahead full steam to produce made-for-digital only productions. Called Toggle Originals, the platform aims to deliver a variety of entertainment options, providing a one-stop destination for all original local productions.

In May this year, it also launched the Toggle Red Button service, offering live broadcast TV and video-on-demand services into a single seamless environment. Toggle also inked a two-year partnership with Eleven Sports Network to offer international sports content and the highly-popular English Premier League for local sports fans under the newly created Toggle Sports umbrella.

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With a renewed emphasis on original quality content and easy accessibility, Toggle’s average monthly traffic has jumped six-fold, while its video viewers have grown eight-fold since 2014, said the state broadcaster.

As Singapore’s official broadcaster of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, audiences were able to watch live games online on Toggle and Okto, its TV channel for sports.

Mediacorp revealed more than 2.75 million viewers tuned in to the broadcast on Okto and almost 11 million video views were recorded on Toggle for live and catch-up viewing. Channel NewsAsia also posted 115 videos on its Facebook page that registered 18 million views.

As part of its raison d’être to create quality content that informs and entertains its audiences, the state broadcaster appointed industry veteran Cheah Chee Kong (pictured) as its chief content officer in November 2015.

Cheah will oversee the content strategy and development of Mediacorp’s portfolio of entertainment products and platforms, among other things.

This year marks a major milestone for Mediacorp’s local TV history as it completes its roll-out of digital TV across all housing estates island-wide on its DVB-T2 network using indoor reception.

Currently, six out of its seven free-to-air channels are broadcast in high-definition.

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TV BROADCASTER OF THE YEAR

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2 | BBC BBC grabs second spot this year. Following last year’s successful launch of Storyworks, the inhouse content-led marketing team at BBC says it has run many fantastic campaigns over Asia.

This year, BBC Storyworks published a study called “The Science of Engagement”.

This is the first time globally its in-house insights team did so, in partnership with facial coding experts CrowdEmotion. Combining traditional research metrics with facial coding, it hopes to understand how brands can use content-led marketing to effectively engage with consumers.

BBC Advertising will offer this insight to premium clients as part of its campaign reporting to ensure they understand the full impact contentled marketing can have on consumers and the value of it to their brands.

As BBC World News turned 25 at the beginning of 2016, its flagship technology

programme Click launched its first-ever 360° programme with never-before-broadcast views of CERN’s famous Large Hadron Collider. BBC said its viewers were able to witness the world’s first 360° magic trick and the world’s first 360° game review. It also explored a remote Swiss glacier to learn about the research technology buried beneath metres of snow which included a unique helicopter trip. Several successful multiplatform campaigns have been run throughout APAC and Singapore on TV, print and online.

For example, its ABR and Talking Business shows are broadcast live from Singapore. With the introduction of the network’s Asia Business Correspondent and launch of its new bureau, BBC said it needed to promote its business offerings in Singapore to drive viewership. With media touchpoints, it has had bus advertisements running on financial and affluent residential routes and

house ads on BBC.com and the BBC News app, among others. Successful advertising campaigns have been run throughout Asia and Singapore from tourism, finance, technology to luxury.

3 | NBCUNIVERSAL INTERNATIONAL NETWORKS

Taking third spot this year is NBCUniversal International Networks (NBC). In August this year, it announced the launch of its NBCUniversal Content Studio. The studio aims to help

advertisers become original programmers and publishers by developing and distributing short and long-form content for them in formats across TV, digital and social platforms, a spokesperson from NBC said. Among its other features and services, the studio will serve as a developer and producer of original content on behalf of its advertising partners. Its clients are also able to use the tailored content created for distribution across their brand platforms which could include mobile sites, apps and retail channels.

Branded content is also becoming increasingly important as advertisers seek scaled opportunities to break out of the clutter in today’s crowded media landscape. On that, NBC said it had a long history of working with national

marketers to reach diverse audiences with custom creative content it develops for clients.

Early this year, the broadcaster appointed Ling Sze Gan as vice-president of affiliate sales and branded digital partnerships for NBC in Asia to drive the ongoing growth of its business across the region. Gan joins from Sony Pictures Television Networks Asia, where she was vicepresident of affiliate sales and media partnerships.

Also joining the television team was Paul Valentin, who relocated from London to Singapore for the newly created role of vice-president of sales strategy and development for Asia Pacific.

He spent 10 years at NBCUniversal International’s headquarters in London, where he was most recently director of strategy and analysis.

4 | TURNER Coming in fourth place is Turner, which has seen major developments over the past year.

This included a complete re-haul of its global corporate identity. Together with a new logo, the re-haul moves to transform the company into one which is more consumer-centric and data-driven.

Notable distribution deals this year included Oh!K, Turner’s Korean entertainment brand, Warner TV and Boomerang in several key markets. There was also a spike in new apps and games for Cartoon Network, and several non-TV deals with major telcos in the Philippines and Thailand.

Mark Eyers, chief content officer for Kids Networks in Asia Pacific, was also promoted to senior vice-president in January. Meanwhile, 5 2 M AR K ET I N G O C T O B ER 2 01 6

Eric Lee was appointed as regional director of location-based entertainment in August.

Some key campaigns which have been run in the past year included one for CNN International, which continues its two-decade reign as the number one international news brand in the region. Cartoon Network marked the return of its Ben 10 and The Powerpuff Girls franchises.

This saw full-scale marketing campaigns being run worldwide, including a social-heavy approach in Asia Pacific. This year also saw Turner providing support in producing original branded-content.

Prudential’s Cha-Ching campaign clicked over five years in 2016. A new project between Cartoon Network and Unilever’s Paddle Pop, featuring an animated version of the brand’s lion mascot, is also underway.

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5 | DISCOVERY Taking fifth place this year is Discovery Networks Asia Pacific. The past year saw Discovery redesigning itself as a digital media company in response to changing consumer habits.

This has not only allowed it to provide content across multiple platforms, but also reposition itself as a forward-looking consumercentric organisation. The network made two new strategic hires to the executive team.

Gerald Ang (pictured right), director of audience engagement, joined the team to shift the approach towards conversational marketing.

Meanwhile, Elliot Renton (pictured left) joined as head of sports to drive the strategic development

and operational management of the sports product portfolio. The network also inked a partnership with Viddsee, a Singapore-based

online film hub. It also launched content from the channel’s First Time Filmmakers documentary series as part of the Republic’s 50th birthday.

Another key campaign was Shark Week, which engaged consumers via digital and social channels such as Snapchat. Snapchat users were educated through bite-sized information and facts about shark conservation. This included a takeover by Kathy Xu, a Singaporean activist from the Dorsal Effect.

Looking ahead, Discovery is aiming to actively add new talent and skill sets to its leadership team to focus on consumer engagement and data-driven insights.

6 | FOX NETWORKS GROUP (FNG) ASIA Robert Kirkman, the creator of The Walking Dead. Regionally across Asia, the fourth season of the hit series Asia’s Next Top Model wrapped up in June to record-breaking engagement numbers. On the Chinese front, SCM has multiple films and mini-series in production, including a financial thriller called Trading Floor, produced by celebrity Andy Lau. Last year, the network launched “Fox Formats Lab” in Singapore, a novel programme with MDA, which was aimed at building up local production and filmmaking talent.

Five local production houses have been commissioned to create factual content for the National Geographic’s suite of channels.

Fox Networks Group (FNG) Asia, formerly known as Fox International Channels Asia, has had a remarkable year. It continues to push boundaries in programming and original productions, taking on new ad partners and business initiatives.

Last year, 21st Century Fox, FNG’s parent company, announced its expanded partnership with the National Geographic Society and the launch of National Geographic Partners, a joint venture aimed at growing all of Nat Geo’s branded assets.

On the programming front, FNG secured the exclusive global rights outside of Mainland China for the highly anticipated Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace, which is expected to have one of the highest investments in production value among Chinese series, rivalling those of Hollywood.

Additionally, FNG Asia made a push into producing original entertainment content – globally, regionally and locally, across multiple genres. It launched its first global, original scripted drama this summer – Outcast – by

7 | SONY PICTURES TELEVISION Securing seventh spot is Sony Pictures Television (SPT) Networks, Asia, which hosts English general entertainment channels such as AXN and Sony, including Asian content providers such as Animax, GEM and ONE. The broadcaster expanded its distribution in Singapore with the launch of AXN, Animax and GEM on Singtel TV, bringing its channels to more viewers seeking premium content closer to its original telecast.

The channel has a wide viewership with varied preferences in shows. For example, for action lovers, AXN, renowned for its original productions, announced the return of the world’s most popular WWW.M A R K ET I N G - I N T ER A C T I V E.C O M

adventure-reality series, The Amazing Race Asia, season five. Not leaving light entertainment far behind, the channel launched “ROFLing Nights”, which is further complemented by a line-up of drama series such as How to Get Away with Murder, season 3.

SPT has also witnessed a few new additions on the leadership front. It has strengthened its network portfolio by promoting Virginia Lim (pictured left) to senior vice-president and head of content, production and marketing, reporting to Ang Hui Keng.

Additional appointments to the leadership team included Jacqueline

Tok (pictured right) as vice-president of media and sponsorship sales; Nirav Haji, vice-president of affiliate sales; and Jef Lim, vice-president of production.

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TV BROADCASTER OF THE YEAR

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8 | SCRIPPS NETWORKS INTERACTIVE Scripps Networks Interactive Asia Pacific develops engaging lifestyle content in the home, food and travel categories for television, the internet and other emerging platforms.

The company’s lifestyle media portfolio comprises television brands such as HGTV, the food network, travel channel and an Asian food channel. These are present in 17 countries and collectively engage more than 34 million viewers across the region.

Across the four channels, while the Asian food channel showcases culinary experiences and pays homage to the diversity of the Asian food culture, the food network showcases the best-of-world cuisines through innovative, cutting-edge programme concepts.

Furthermore, while the travel channel talks about travel adventures around the world, HGTV is the only regional-home focused channel in

Asia that presents viewers with ideas and stories on how to personalise their dream home.

The company also promoted Carl Zuzarte as senior vice-president of programming and production; Raphael Phang as head of programming; and Elise Ching as programme acquisitions director. Zuzarte oversees the four Scripps Networks’ brands, including the Asian food channel, the food network, the travel channel and HGTV, with the programming and production team reporting to him.

In his new role, Zuzarte will be working across all four brands to leverage programming content, on-air talent and digital programming extensions to develop compelling and relevant content.

Earlier this year, the network created a new international leadership position with Derek Chang being promoted to head of international lifestyle channels. In this new role, he is responsible for

leading and setting the strategic direction for the company’s international-owned and operated lifestyle channels. He will also continue to directly manage the Asia Pacific operations.

storyboards and illustrations from the series and the famed iron throne.

Isaac Hempstead Wright, who plays Bran Stark in the show, visited Singapore and met fans at the exhibit while his interviews were

broadcast across regional television, radio, print, online and social media. With exclusive regional rights to the Oscars in Asia, HBO Asia also delivered the complete Oscars experience live across multiple screens.

These included a live broadcast and streaming of the Oscars Red Carpet and the 88th Annual Academy Awards, exclusive red carpet highlights on the network’s social media platforms, as well as backstage interviews and web exclusive footage on HBO Asia’s website.

Promotions for the Oscars were seen across outdoor billboards, television, radio, print, online and social media throughout the region. Four red carpet live Oscars screenings and various contests were organised across Asia.

9 | HOME BOX OFFICE Taking ninth spot this year is HBO Asia which ramped up its Asia original productions, with four of its shows in the first stage of production.

While its first returning series, Halfworlds, season 2, a dark action fantasy drama, will premiere at the end of the year, also making its debut later this year is its first China coproduction. HBO Asia has had several successful campaigns this past year. One of them was the sixth season of Game of Thrones.

To promote the show, the channel brought the interactive Oculus rift 4D immersive “Game of Thrones: Ascend the Wall” virtual reality experience to Singapore.

More than 7,000 fans experienced it during the week-long exhibit which included weapons,

10 | VIACOM INTERNATIONAL MEDIA NETWORKS Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) bagged the 10th spot. With investments in new Asia original programming, the network saw strong ratings growth across its channels such as MTV, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr and Comedy Central in Singapore.

To further strengthen its foothold in the region, the network showcased the first-of-itskind stand-up comedy series, Comedy Central Stand-up, Asia!, featuring 24 Asian comedians.

Not far behind was MTV which showcased a dance tutorial show called OK Danceoke and MTV Asia Spotlight which features popular and up-and-coming acts in Asia, monthly.

VIMN is focused on bringing together the best campaigns for further growth. Along these lines, the network launched the Nickelodeon 5 4 M A R K ET I N G O C T O B ER 201 6

acting academy and theatre as part of KidZania Singapore in April. Similarly, the network organised Nickelodeon’s first Asia novelty run, SpongeBob Run, which was presented by X-Change Republic in August.

To ensure its digital presence, the company in August, in collaboration with Singtel, launched Nickelodeon play, an app which offers hundreds of episodes, surprises and games. It is available from the Apple App Store, Google Play, and via the “kids pack” section of Singtel’s cast app.

Realising the need to cater to a wider audience, MTV continues to reinvent itself for the Millennial audience with a new look and feel on-air and online, with digital initiatives such as #MTVbump and MTV Canvas.

On the management front, at the beginning

of the year, Paras Sharma was promoted to senior vice-president of MTV, Comedy Central and Paramount Channel brands and digital media for Asia. It also named Claire O’Connor as the vice-president of consumer products and retail marketing for Asia Pacific.

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B2B sales and marketing functions are undergoing a major facelift in 2016. We are now living in a “post-digital world�, where the integration of digital activities has seamlessly and fully become a part of B2B companies. How can B2B brands stand out in a world of endless online search results, and ever-changing technology? How can companies take advantage of new tools and strategies to make them relevant to themselves and connect with customers? Read on to find out.

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B2B AGENCIES: DON’T BE SEEN AS JUST A SUPPLIER

Social and mobile have completely revolutionised the world of B2B. This is forcing marketers to constantly evolve and try out new technologies and platforms. It is also forcing B2B players to be “always-on”.

But what is important at the end of the day is to ensure your image as a trusted partner doesn’t get marred in the eyes of clients. At Marketing’s annual B2B Asia conference last month, Ajit Aras, general manager of sales and marketing at Sharp Electronics Singapore (Sharp), said in today’s digital world, protecting your image was crucial.

He said that more than 60% of B2B deals were lost even before a proposal was made, simply based on the image you have online.

“Many a times, deals are lost due to bad reviews and reputation online. It just takes one senior member of the management team to come across a bad review to axe the deal,” he said.

Therefore, it is crucial for a company to protect its image and branding online – especially with B2B customers becoming “always-on”. He added that on average, B2B customers come across six touch-points (such as the internet, social media, plus calling sales executives) before making a decision. Given that most B2B buyers are also consumers 5 8 M A R K ET I N G O C T O B ER 201 6

at the end of the day, they also now expect tailored solutions with immediate services without delay, Aras said.

“In the B2B space, marketing has changed from just a lead generator to being a companion of the customer. This is because the customer has changed. Easy digital access has disrupted the traditional buying path of a B2B customer.

In response, companies need to consider digital transformation. All roads of digital transformation must lead to the customer.”

But there is no doubt, digitalisation is actually helping corporations improve the customer experience. “Brands with greater digital capabilities convert 250% more leads to sales.”

One advantage B2B marketers generally have over their B2C counterparts is a deeper understanding of their customers.

“The advantage B2B marketers have is, we generally know more about customers based on research and surveys. So we know what their technical and commercial inclination is and it’s therefore easier to ultimately grasp their dynamic needs.”

Change your image from a supplier to a thought leader B2B clients expect their agency partners to

understand their company’s business, products and services. Further, to really connect and win over their trust, position yourself as a thought leader and provide them with educational content, said Aras.

Invest dollars into creating the right content.

At the end of the day, this adds value.

He added that content which can connect to the audience doesn’t necessarily need to be expensive and can be created in-house. While 30% of marketers think case studies are the content of preference of buyers, only 19% of buyers say the same. Hence, providing the right content is important.

He suggested companies should use analytics to better understand the content clients might be keen on. “Data analytics is important as we know what the customers like, dislike and expect to see in the future; it can help to improve the customer experience.”

Meanwhile, on targeting the right audience, Ben Farnsworth, regional director of APAC at Encore Digital Media, said programmatic was increasingly becoming popular among companies wanting to specifically target a set of audiences even in the B2B space.

He added digital wasn’t the answer to everything, but it helps when it comes to targeting in a very niche way.

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WHAT DOES THE TERM ‘MOBILE’ MEAN TO YOU?

Mobile phones have become an extended part of our being. Today, mobile is forcing marketers across silos to have an “always-on” mentality.

But marketers need to stop thinking of mobile as a device and start thinking of it as a person, said Auke Boersma, managing director for APAC at Light Reaction. People today are constantly on the move. They are mobile.

He added marketers might find it challenging to look past mobile as the device and to instead look at it as a person.

“Don’t think of mobile as a device or a platform where you have to cater your marketing messages to, think of it as the person that is actually receiving it,” he said.

“I personally believe the consumer is ‘mobile’. This applies to both B2C and B2B perspectives. A business’s bottom line should be to connect with the consumer as an individual and then converting them into the customer, no matter where they are geographically,” he said.

He was speaking at Marketing’s B2B Asia conference, along with panellists Chris Reed, founder of Black Marketing, and Roger Graham, director of growth and marketing for APAC at Hootsuite.

According to Graham, the first step towards adopting a mobile-first strategy is 6 0 M A R K ET I N G O C T O B ER 2 01 6

acknowledging how powerful mobile can be in gathering data about your customers.

According to Hootsuite’s studies, there are 1.2 billion active social media users in the APAC region and 1.1 billion of them are on mobile devices. This clearly means there are more mobile devices than there are people.

“However, marketers are still viewing mobile as more of an add-on rather than an aspect that needs to be central to the brand message and image,” he said.

“Mobile is giving us a lot more information than data because it is always by the side of the customer all day, every day.”

He added that with mobile, customers would always remain connected and they are “always-on”. Having the right tools and the right people who understand mobile technology is, hence, crucial in adopting a mobile-first strategy.

“What percentage of your team are mobile experts? Who on your data team understands mobile? These are questions that need to be asked in order to stay ahead,” Graham said.

However, when it comes to adopting new strategies, more often than not, businesses and marketers are still shy to make the first move, especially if it is something competitors have yet to make a foray into.

“None of the companies want to be the first

to make a move. More often than not, they want to see some existing case studies of how other people have done it in the past,” Boersma said.

He added that marketers need to ultimately exercise common sense be it in traditional or digital mediums. Doing something for the first time takes guts. “Take yourself as the target audience and decide what you like and translate that into your next campaign. Use common sense,” he said.

When it comes to ensuring a brand connects no matter the medium, Reed, global CEO and founder of Black Marketing, thinks that at the end of the day, it is all about the content which the brand puts online to reach out to its customers.

“Content is driving engagement across all platforms. It is not about one particular platform, but rather the strength of the content and how it connects,” he said.

Citing LinkedIn as an example, he said it was crucial to see at all times how the brand was being presented on both desktop and mobile as business-social platforms often have multiple features such as chat capabilities, articles on the feed and brand profiles.

“If you are strong on content, you should market it through mobile as now there are more people in the B2B world on social platforms,” he said.

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IS ACCOUNT-BASED MARKETING HERE TO STAY? Account-based marketing (ABM) has been around in the B2B space for decades, but in Asia, it is still a relatively new concept. During a recent B2B Asia conference, we found out that many companies in the region are still figuring out if they should actually apply ABM as part of their B2B digital transformation journey.

In short, ABM focuses on specific clients, as opposed to marketing in a generic manner.

It also includes support for the post-sale customer life cycle to contribute to the overall customer experience.

Speaking at Marketing’s annual B2B Asia conference, Nishi Seth, senior marketing manager of FX international payments at

WWW.M A R K ET I N G - I N T ER A C T I V E.C O M

American Express, said ABM was all about working with a sales mindset and personalising your communication with each prospect using technology. According to her, ABM can be used for three areas, primarily attaining new prospects, nurturing prospects in the funnel, and existing clients.

“If you have the resources, you can launch ABM for all three areas simultaneously,” she said. But marketing budgets are tight and a company is not always able to execute all three areas at the same time.

For those keen on trying out ABM, but lack resources to invest in new technology, a “pilot” route may be the way to go, said Seth.

“First, identify your target account list, then start refining it, and then develop a series of targeted messages before marketing to the companies on that list,” she said.

She suggested companies could run a pilot programme on ABM using both online and offline channels to see the results before launching it full scale.

“Speak to agency experts and evaluate whether ABM meets your marketing objectives.

Check whether you have the resources and the budgets to embark on ABM. Engage with your sales team and ensure they are aligned before rolling out the functions,” she said.

All in all, she added: “Prepare a plan before deep diving into ABM.” Also on the panel was Varun Rai, regional marketing manager of Asia, commercial fleet, retail (B2B) at Shell, who said it was important that a company invested in key account management discipline especially for large enterprise accounts.

He added that although strategic or key account development has been around for decades, ABM should not be viewed as “old wine in a new bottle” as the technology underlying ABM enables a highly dynamic and personalised experience. He stressed the importance of using ABM to personalise the engagement with your customers.

“Nothing is as personal as a face-to-face conversation with the sales person. But if you talk about the digital channel, ABM will be a key enabler in driving richer personalised conversations and will help you target a group of decision-makers in the buyer’s organisation much more effectively, ” he said.

“Ultimately good marketing is about delivering an engaging experience for your customers, and technology enablers like ABM will help marketers make that happen. At Shell, in my business unit, I can already see potential for ABM to be used with targeted key accounts to leapfrog our current digital practices. This is something I am planning for my team to venture into in the coming 12 to 18 months”.

Seth added that while ABM was seeing more adaptation, it was not the only key area B2B marketers would be focusing on.

“We still need to try and prove the effectiveness of the channel and see more and more firms trying ABM out,” she said. “There is still a lot of room for other technologies and channels to co-exist with ABM.” OCTOB E R 2 016 MARKE TI N G 6 1

EVENTS

HAVE RETAIL PLAYERS UNDERSTOOD THE IMPORTANCE OF DATA COLLECTION? The retail world in Singapore has surely evolved.

Over the years, as globalisation and education levels in Singapore rise and spending power increases, consumers are demanding bigger and better brands make their way into the tiny red dot.

The tiny nation has seen an exponential growth in malls and brands entering the country. But with the increase in malls, we also saw a slow gloom take over the state of retail.

While on weekends it is hard to make your way around these malls, these same spaces become ghost towns on weekdays.

DATE:

23 August

VENUE:

Four Seasons Hotel Singapore

MADE POSSIBLE BY:

6 2 M A R K ET I N G O C T O B ER 201 6

It is safe to say, the retail marketing arena has over the years faced challenging times.

Rentals remain sky high and the competition is stiff with a dense number of brands in a single area. Creating a holistic experience today is no longer an option, it is a must.

But finding a solution in this area is a task meant for the long haul. For one, collecting data from offline retailers is still in its infancy stages in Singapore, said Benjamin Glynn, managing director of Emarsys. He added that the retail players were still at a nascent stage when it comes to data collection and analysis.

While there has been improvement in the data collection process because of loyalty programmes being set up, and on-ground staff now collating data by asking the right questions, it has in no way reached a maturation point.

When asked how he advises clients, he said there was no one size fits all. It is always about where the clients are.

“You need to identity how you want to collect data of your consumers, especially if

you are an offline retailer. There is a long way to go in the data capture arena in Singapore,” he said. Not having the right data also leads to the wrong offers and products being thrown at consumers online, that is, given a retailer has both online and offline offerings.

But having both an offline store and online platform is not suitable for everybody.

According to Piers Lee, managing director for APAC at BDRC Asia, it is nonetheless important to weave the two worlds together given how crowded the online space is. But, of course, this also is not a cookie-cutter solution.

Giving an example of a recent travel client, he said that while the client already had a presence online, he and his team of experts advised them to open a physical store on the ground in a market such as Vietnam. This was because the market was not ready to make such huge payments online.

“We advised them to turn it into a coffee shop with a travel show room. So there is a space in the offline world for e-commerce WWW. MARK E TING-IN TE RAC TI VE . C OM

EVENTS

brands to venture into as well,” he said. And it is not as though e-commerce is a cheap alternative argued Tito Costa, chief marketing officer of Zalora.

“We have to pay rent to the landlords of the internet such as Facebook and Google and the like,” he said.

E-commerce is an extremely competitive space so unless you have a differentiated offering, it is very hard to stand out.

“Unless you have a very clear positioning, it is very difficult to be successful. But the answer to this is not always retail stores. It is to be clear on what you want to build,” he said.

For Zalora, the company decided to get into the world of retail via pop-up stores.

“As a young brand in the fashion world, WWW.M A R K ET I N G - I N T ER A C T I V E.C O M

there was no question about whether or not we wanted a more experiential journey. The touch and feel of Zalora helps us reach and increase the acquisition of new customers,” he said.

But for this to work, retailers need to ensure the loop comes back a full circle.

For Zalora, this meant having the sales purchase still online despite having a showroom. This ensured the data and profile of shoppers were captured. He added that 90% of the budget still goes online and 10% is left for experimental executions.

But one challenge for the fashion brand is targeting tourists, he said. This is largely because they are always on the move and here for short stays.

Meanwhile, Ivan Loh, chief executive

officer of Bugis Street Online, said one way his organisation had been able to counter this and get tourist information was via providing goodie bags.

“Singapore is hot and humid. So for a tourist, we provide a free goodie bag to make things a little easier for them. And, in exchange, we get their personal data. And, in this way, over the years, we have built up a good portfolio of the tourists that visit us,” he said.

“We had to spend quite a lot of effort and isolate the target audience. We ran campaigns with incentives so as to promote them to share their data,” he said.

“At the end of the day, it is about understanding the consumer and coming up with ways to understand that data.”

OCTOB E R 2 016 MARKE TI N G 6 3

CAREERS

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CAREER PATH Marcus Loh Vice-president, brand, marketing and corporate communication, PSB Academy First job?

At 17, my uncle took me under his wing for the family business while I was pursuing my diploma in mass communication from Ngee Ann Polytechnic. I remember securing us lengthy broadcast features in Mediacorp’s news programmes. It was a glorious introduction to the world of storytelling through earned media – that’s when I first considered making a career out of doing this.

First job in advertising/ marketing?

I started out at a brand consultancy as an analyst. My first boss and mentor came from Asia Pacific Breweries, where he spearheaded a milestone brand evolution for Tiger Beer.

The opportunity to research, learn branding techniques, and help clients translate narratives into actionable frameworks, still influences my approach to marketing today.

Perks of your current job?

Quality education is a social leveller in Singapore. As a privately owned education institution, I love that we can further level this playing field for our students and their families by being bolder and more nimble in delivering on meaningful initiatives to help aspiring students earn a recognised degree in an area of interest.

Worst job?

I once had a superior who would call for full-day meetings. Real work was done after office hours.

It was a near-brush with – and total aversion to – death by meetings.

Marketing professionals you admire?

Kishore Mahbubani for being Asia’s most compelling voice; Martin Sorrell for taking marketing into the data age; and FairPrice’s Seah Kian Peng whose social impact is felt every day by thousands of Singaporeans. As an avid student of the craft, I do have a long list of marketers I admire.

JOB SHUFFLE Independent creative agency Govt Singapore hired JWT Singapore’s business director Jude Foo. He is tasked to lead the growth and integration of the agency’s account management, planning, digital and social capabilities, among other things.

He will report to the agency’s managing director Leon Lai. The agency has a current headcount of 25 and is poised to grow to 40 in the next 18 months.

McCann Worldgroup Singapore handed Nick Handel, managing director of MRM// McCann Singapore, the CEO role. Meanwhile, Rob Doswell (pictured), who held the twin roles of McCann Singapore CEO and regional managing director of Craft, McCann Worldgroup’s global production and adaptation unit, will now focus exclusively on Craft’s expanding APAC business. Doswell has held the role since 2014, joining the agency to replace Ben Lightfoot.

Possible Singapore appointed Gerard Lim as its new managing director.

He will be in charge of driving growth, collaboration, optimisation and innovation across its specialised disciplines. The company also recently hired Malcolm Wild as chief technology officer. He was the CTO for Razorfish EMEA and managing director (APAC) for e-commerce system integrator Sceneric, which was acquired by Publicis. Both will report to Paul Soon, Possible’s CEO for APAC. Former chief executive officer at Malaysia Airlines (MAS)

6 4 M AR K ET I N G O C T O B ER 2 01 6

Christoph Mueller joined Persian Gulf carrier Emirates as its new chief digital and innovation officer. He started work officially on 20 September.

He was previously hired by MAS in March 2015 to help the beleaguered airline after its sales and image were affected by two aircraft losses the previous year.

PropertyGuru Asia appointed Hari V. Krishnan (pictured top), president and chief business officer, as CEO. Meanwhile, current CEO Steve Melhuish, (pictured bottom), also a co-founder of the company, took on a vice-chairman role. Krishnan had been previously the managing director for LinkedIn Asia Pacific since 2013. At Property Guru, he was tasked to focus on leading and accelerating regional business growth initiatives, among other things.

Mars Inc appointed David Kiu vice-president of corporate affairs. According to his LinkedIn profile, his new role includes leading internal communications and engagement, corporate communications, reputationrelated issues and crisis management. Before this role, he was with Unilever for more than three years. He was overseeing employee engagement, corporate communications, external affairs and sustainable business for Asia Pacific for the organisation.

DBS named veteran banker Shee Tse Koon as its new group head of strategy and

planning. He joined DBS from Standard Chartered Bank, where he was most recently CEO of its Indonesian franchise. He reports to CEO Piyush Gupta and is tasked to provide thought leadership and counsel to the senior leadership team on major strategic issues.

BBDO Asia picked Nick Morrell as its new regional business director.

He will be based in Singapore and be responsible for leading a portfolio of international clients and driving business growth across Asia. Most recently at Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore, he ran its global Singapore-based Pampers business, leading a 30-strong team that produced some of the brand’s most memorable recent work.

Ivan Wong, managing partner of Mindshare, left the agency.

He first joined the agency in 2003 and since then has taken on various roles at leading media agencies such as Starcom, MPG and IPG Mediabrands.

He returned to Mindshare in January 2014 as an EXCO member of the Singapore senior leadership team where he also headed business development plans for the agencies.

BBH Singapore hired creative director Aste Gutierrez for the Nike business.

His previous stints included Fred & Farid Shanghai, AKQA Shanghai, BBDO Guerrero and Party New York. He has already hit the ground running at BBH with his first campaign – Nike Unlimited Manila.

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LAST WORD

................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Did you cry over the iPhone 7 too?

WHY I STILL DON’T HAVE MY IPHONE 7 I really did try, Vivienne Tay writes.

Did you manage to secure an iPhone 7 handset at the official launch in Singapore? If so – the odds were definitely in your favour.

As a Singtel customer trying to please her mother with a new phone, getting hold of a reservation slot for a 256GB iPhone 7 Plus in black was quite a tumultuous task for me. Despite my many attempts, broken website connections and slow loading pages kept getting in my way and in just a matter of minutes, handsets were sold out – in all colours and storage sizes. And I was not alone.

Within hours, angry Singtel customers flooded the telco’s Facebook page and there were more than 2,286 comments discussing the website crash and the difficulties in securing a handset.

While Singtel has not yet responded to Marketing’s queries on the matter, it did, however, make consistent status updates on its Facebook page. It informed customers of the technical glitch, the change in schedule for the handset reservation and also addressed the concerns of some customers in the comment thread.

Singtel was not the only telco to be swarmed with angry comments because of pre-orders. While not facing the exact same problems as Singtel, rival telcos StarHub and M1 received complaints on isolated issues on their social media pages. StarHub faced intermittent website issues and M1 faced issues on stock availability. Marketing has reached out to StarHub and M1 for comment.

This led me to wonder if more could have been done by the telcos to cope with the high, and sometimes frenzied, demand of the yearly iPhone launches. I decided to ask some of our industry friends.

Preethi Sanjeevi, regional chief marketing officer and head of consumer insights for VML Southeast Asia and India, said Singtel placing advisory messages and updates on the crash and when the site would be up again was essential. This would ensure panicked customers it was aware of the matter and was looking into it.

“Every organisation is vulnerable to a crisis. It is more vital to assess WWW.M A R K ET I N G - I N T ER A C T I V E.C O M

the situation post-crisis and implement a response plan than to fret over spilled milk,” she said. Remedying such a situation, she added, is not difficult, but requires advance planning.

In this day and age, where consumers turn to social media platforms to voice their frustrations, it is expected that news of a crisis will spread fastest on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.

She added that a few angry consumers, however, may not be an accurate representation of consumer sentiment.

She explained it would be better to stress-test the website to find out the limit to which concurrent users can be served without degrading the site’s performance. Site crashes aside, slow page-load times can also compromise on the overall user experience.

Although Singtel was steadfast on a communications front, the fact the technical glitches could still occur for such high-profile launches was not something which was acceptable from a consumer standpoint, explained Prantik Mazumdar, managing partner at Happy Marketer.

“This is the seventh edition of the iPhone and by now the telcos should have had enough chances to learn from their past experiences and be better prepared to manage capacity,” he said.

He added it was unfortunate that in today’s day and age, large resource-heavy organisations were unable to handle website load spikes on their sites during such high-demand periods. This is especially so for launches such as the iPhone as they are predictable, time-bound events that organisations have ample time to prepare for.

Such recurring issues don’t augur well for Singapore’s brand image as a technology hub and they need to be tackled soon.

But since this is a common problem faced by all three telcos, Mazumdar thinks it is unlikely to hurt the sales of the new iPhone 7.

“It’s high time these companies take a leaf out of the books of Amazon, Flipkart, Alibaba and TaoBao that are able to handle far larger e-commerce volumes globally to resolve this issue,” he said.

OCTOB E R 2 016 MARKE TI N G 6 5

LAST WORD

................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Did you cry over the iPhone 7 too?

WHY I STILL DON’T HAVE MY IPHONE 7 I really did try, Vivienne Tay writes.

Did you manage to secure an iPhone 7 handset at the official launch in Singapore? If so – the odds were definitely in your favour.

As a Singtel customer trying to please her mother with a new phone, getting hold of a reservation slot for a 256GB iPhone 7 Plus in black was quite a tumultuous task for me. Despite my many attempts, broken website connections and slow loading pages kept getting in my way and in just a matter of minutes, handsets were sold out – in all colours and storage sizes. And I was not alone.

Within hours, angry Singtel customers flooded the telco’s Facebook page and there were more than 2,286 comments discussing the website crash and the difficulties in securing a handset.

While Singtel has not yet responded to Marketing’s queries on the matter, it did, however, make consistent status updates on its Facebook page. It informed customers of the technical glitch, the change in schedule for the handset reservation and also addressed the concerns of some customers in the comment thread.

Singtel was not the only telco to be swarmed with angry comments because of pre-orders. While not facing the exact same problems as Singtel, rival telcos StarHub and M1 received complaints on isolated issues on their social media pages. StarHub faced intermittent website issues and M1 faced issues on stock availability. Marketing has reached out to StarHub and M1 for comment.

This led me to wonder if more could have been done by the telcos to cope with the high, and sometimes frenzied, demand of the yearly iPhone launches. I decided to ask some of our industry friends.

Preethi Sanjeevi, regional chief marketing officer and head of consumer insights for VML Southeast Asia and India, said Singtel placing advisory messages and updates on the crash and when the site would be up again was essential. This would ensure panicked customers it was aware of the matter and was looking into it.

“Every organisation is vulnerable to a crisis. It is more vital to assess WWW.M A R K ET I N G - I N T ER A C T I V E.C O M

the situation post-crisis and implement a response plan than to fret over spilled milk,” she said. Remedying such a situation, she added, is not difficult, but requires advance planning.

In this day and age, where consumers turn to social media platforms to voice their frustrations, it is expected that news of a crisis will spread fastest on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.

She added that a few angry consumers, however, may not be an accurate representation of consumer sentiment.

She explained it would be better to stress-test the website to find out the limit to which concurrent users can be served without degrading the site’s performance. Site crashes aside, slow page-load times can also compromise on the overall user experience.

Although Singtel was steadfast on a communications front, the fact the technical glitches could still occur for such high-profile launches was not something which was acceptable from a consumer standpoint, explained Prantik Mazumdar, managing partner at Happy Marketer.

“This is the seventh edition of the iPhone and by now the telcos should have had enough chances to learn from their past experiences and be better prepared to manage capacity,” he said.

He added it was unfortunate that in today’s day and age, large resource-heavy organisations were unable to handle website load spikes on their sites during such high-demand periods. This is especially so for launches such as the iPhone as they are predictable, time-bound events that organisations have ample time to prepare for.

Such recurring issues don’t augur well for Singapore’s brand image as a technology hub and they need to be tackled soon.

But since this is a common problem faced by all three telcos, Mazumdar thinks it is unlikely to hurt the sales of the new iPhone 7.

“It’s high time these companies take a leaf out of the books of Amazon, Flipkart, Alibaba and TaoBao that are able to handle far larger e-commerce volumes globally to resolve this issue,” he said.

OCTOB E R 2 016 MARKE TI N G 6 5