Marketing issue217

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ISSUE 217/// END-FEB 2018

IT’S GOOD NEWS! ALFIAN TALIB

CHIEF COMMERCIAL OFFICER NSTP

INSIDE

WANNA MAKE MALAYSIA GREAT AGAIN? PROCUREMENT: YOU MEAN YOU GUYS DON’T WORK ON WEEKENDS? MALAYSIAN MEDIA CONFERENCE TURNS INTO DAY-LONG TALKFEST IS IT GAME OVER FOR FACEBOOK? ISSN 1985-5575

00217 9 771985

557001

KDN NO. PP15776/03/2013 (033405) RM3.50

PRET A MANGER: BRANDED CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

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ISSUE217END-FEB2018

EDITOR’S NOTE

HOW TO MAKE MALAYSIA GREAT AGAIN By the Turbanned Stranger | ham@adoimagazine.com

There was a time when Malaysia was the regional centre of production excellence for television commercials.

We had a national policy called Made in Malaysia (MiM) which required all productions to be made locally.

This resulted in the rapid growth of the film production industry and many advertising professionals became experts in art of film making.

However, these professionals now find work in neighbouring countries, as there is not enough work in Malaysia.

Malaysian Association of Advertising Filmmakers (PPFIM) President Khoo Kay Lye (KL Khoo) has been fighting a losing battle

BRAND POWER

for the continuation of the MiM policy.

His latest quest is to revive the professional production contracts with agencies.

In 2015, PPFIM and Finas made it mandatory for advertising film production companies to become members of the association in order to apply for the MiM certificate. PPFIM then implemented a production agreement which was supported by the Association of Accredited Advertising Agents (4As).

“More than 100 advertising film professionals now work outside Malaysia - mainly in China, Jakarta, Vietnam and Thailand,” says KL Khoo. “Their livelihoods in Malaysia have deteriorated

because of digital short form videos, while some television stations even do the TVCs for free in exchange for media buys.”

“There are many of our freelance Film Directors and Directors of Photography (DOPs) in Jakarta, Ho Chi Minh City, China and also quite a few in post-production roles in Bangkok.”

Is this yet another manifestation of our creative brain drain?

This magazine published an article recently naming more than 60 Malaysian creative professionals who have migrated for greener pastures overseas and highlighted how well they were doing.

The lack of local jobs also affects the fate of film graduates in Malaysia; there are more than 15 educational institutions in Malaysia offering film and television courses.

KL also laments on the problems faced by production houses when the Film Censorship Board

GLOBAL 500 BRANDS

BY COUNTRY

(Lembaga Penapis Filem) rejects final TVCs, and says approvals should come before production commences. Even with storyboard approvals, the final say still lies with LPF. He also debunks the myth that viral videos are cheaper than film TVCs, saying the real difference is where the ad is being placed and he insists the industry needs to be educated on this.

One terrifying trivia that has been around for sometime, in reference to jobs from Malaysian agencies, says that after a film production house gets paid the first 50% of the budget, the second 50% is almost a pipe dream.

There are also instances of “powerful” agencies slashing the bills of production houses by up to 30% and demanding a new invoice for the reduced figure.

This happens after the TVC has been shot and is already on air.

Gangsta stuff!

ISSUE217END-FEB2018

3 HARD TALK

MALAYSIA’S ‘CURSE OF CORRUPTION’ DESTROYS THE COMPETITIVENESS OF MALAYSIAN COMPANIES.

By Chris Jaques, Reputation

MALAYSIAN companies are some of the most corrupt on earth.

That’s not my opinion – it’s the conclusion of Transparency International’s Global Corruption Barometer.

Their findings are based on interviews with more than 160,000 adults in 119 countries around the world. And the results are depressing.

Worldwide, a massive 34% of the global population believe that ‘Most’ or ‘All’ of the Business Executives in their country are involved in corruption.

Across Asia, the number is slightly lower – although still high – with 29% of the population saying that their Business Executives were corrupt.

But the response in Malaysia is truly terrifying.

46% of all Malaysians believe that ‘Most’ or ‘All’ of the country’s Business Executives are involved in corruption.

Malaysian Business Executives are believed to be more corrupt than their competitors in almost every other Asian country. More corrupt than Indonesia. More corrupt than India and Pakistan. More corrupt than China, Myanmar and Cambodia.

In fact, Malaysian business is believed to be more corrupt than business in every single Asian country, except for two: Korea and Thailand – which is hardly the greatest company to be sharing right now.

Whether these findings reflect the reality or not, the perception is extremely serious. And the impact on Malaysia’s corporate sector is critical.

Because research has consistently proven that a country’s image for corruption destroys the share price of the companies that operate within it – whether they are corrupt or not.

I will focus on just two of the most recent studies: Research by Professor

Charles Lee of Stanford Graduate School of Business has shown conclusively that the higher a country’s corruption, the lower its market valuations.

In fact, the average price-tobook ratio for equity was only 1.88 in high-corrupt countries compared to 2.19 in mid-corrupt countries and 2.36 in low-corrupt countries.

Which means that the share price of companies operating in countries that are seen as corrupt are valued at a 24% discount against their competitors operating in low corrupt countries.

In another analysis, Dan diBartolomeo and Howard Hoffman of Northfield Information Services calculated the Market cap to GDP ratio across 100 countries, and correlated the findings with Transparency International’s data.

They found that the stock valuation of companies operating in countries that are perceived to be corrupt are discounted by up to 45% versus the valuations of their competitors that operate in countries that are not perceived to be corrupt.

Whether the discount is 24% or 45%, the conclusion is serious for Malaysia’s CEOs. Because their companies are likely to be valued at a significant discount versus their competitors in Singapore, China, India, Japan – and even their competitors in Indonesia, Pakistan and Myanmar.

And these lower valuations make it more expensive for Malaysian companies to compete in terms of Investment, M&A, Talent – and Growth.

At a time when Malaysia needs to rebuild the longterm vitality of its economy, the country’s association with corruption is actively penalising the very companies on which that vitality depends.

...MALAYSIAN BUSINESS EXECUTIVES ARE BELIEVED TO BE MORE CORRUPT THAN THEIR COMPETITORS IN ALMOST EVERY OTHER ASIAN COUNTRY. MORE CORRUPT THAN INDONESIA. MORE CORRUPT THAN INDIA AND PAKISTAN. MORE CORRUPT THAN CHINA, MYANMAR AND CAMBODIA...

source: www.transparency.org

Chris Jaques is CEO of Reputation, a Research and Strategy Consulting Firm that advises CEOs of Public Companies how to achieve Fair Valuation for their Company’s Stock.

For further information click: www.TheReputationPartnership.com

ISSUE 217 /// END-FEB2018 COVER STORY

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EVENTS CALENDAR 2018 26 MARCH

BRANDED CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE WORKSHOP

BY GEORGE AVELING 10 APRIL

5-IN-1 REPUTATION & CRISIS MANAGEMENT WORKSHOP BY M KRISHNAMOORTHY 16 & 17 APRIL

APPIES MALAYSIA MARKETING AWARDS 2018 26 APRIL

AUGMENTED REALITY (AR) WORKSHOP BY MANU MENON 8 JUNE

MALAYSIAN CMO CONFERENCE 29 JUNE

MC2 AWARDS (MARKETING, CREATIVITY, CONTENT)

MY PRINT IS

DIGITAL

Alfian Talib is a busy man. With barely five months into his new role as Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) of NSTP, Alfian is in the throes of a constant challenge: to fade out the negative din against the print and embrace digital as the new face of the legacy he has inherited.

An early morning chat with him at the New Strait Times office, drew up an intriguing but very promising picture of how he is straddling the two: the good-old, perennial newspaper and digitalization of the news...

21 AUGUST

BEST OF GLOBAL DIGITAL MARKETING CONFERENCE 24 SEPTEMBER

MALAYSIAN CHIEF MARKETING OFFICERS (CMO) AWARDS 26 OCTOBER

DRAGONS OF MALAYSIA & ASIA AWARDS NIGHT 26 NOVEMBER

MALAYSIAN MARKETINGTECH CONFERENCE Regional CEO Professor Harmandar Singh (UPSI 2017/18) ham@adoimagazine.com Content Officer Aradhana Takhtani anna@adoimagazine.com

EDITOR'S NOTE

MALAYSIAN MEDIA CONFERENCE 2018

HOW TO MAKE MALAYSIA GREAT AGAIN? There was a time when Malaysia was the regional centre of production excellence for television commercials. We had a national policy called Made in Malaysia (MiM) which required...

02 CREATIVE SURGE

Business Development Manager Jarrod Sunil Solomon jarrod@adoimagazine.com

IDEAS: THE MELAKA RIVER STORY

Art Director / Designer Chemical Ali ali@adoimagazine.com

Quick, what words would you associate with ‘Melaka River’?

If you haven’t been there in a while, you’d probably say, ‘Dirty’, ‘Filthy’, ‘Evil-smelling’, maybe even ‘Hazardous to life and limb’...

Events & Workshops Ruby Lim ruby@adoimagazine.com Photography & Digital Imaging DL Studio No 7, Jalan PJU 3/50, Sunway Damansara 47810 Petaling Jaya, Selangor D.E. Malaysia tel +603 7880 6380 / 6386, email: studiodl@pd.jaring.my Roving Photographer: Mccain Goh Web & Digital: Nurul Amira Ibrahim, Saravana Kumaa Contributors: Sita Subramony, Alvin Teoh, Mahesh Neelakantan, Edward Ong and Chris Jaques Printer: Cetakrapi Sdn Bhd 22, Jalan Kepong, Taman Sri Ehsan, 52100 Kuala Lumpur Distribution: Spear Millennium Distribution Sdn Bhd E-1-5, Apartment AC4, Taman Sri Sentosa, Batu 6, Jalan Kelang Lama, 58000 Kuala Lumpur MARKETING magazine is published by Sledgehammer Communications (M) Sdn Bhd 22B, Jalan Tun Mohd Fuad Satu, Taman Tun Dr. Ismail, 60000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Tel: 603-7726 2588 Fax: 603-7722 5712 www.marketingmagazine.com.my © All Rights Reserved By: Sledgehammer Communications (M) Sdn Bhd (289967-W) No part of this magazine may be reproduced in any form without prior permission in writing from the publisher. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information in this publication, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors, omissions and/ or for any consequences of reliance upon information in this publication. The opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent the views of the publisher or editor. Advertisements are the sole responsibility of the advertisers.

MARKETING magazine in now available in over 200 selected bookstores across the Klang Valley.

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200 QUESTIONS. 1 CONFERENCE. IT ALL BEGAN WITH A CONVERSATION. REAL CONVERSATIONS, REAL DISRUPTIONS #ASKMEMMC

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FACEBOOK FALLOUT

IS IT GAME OVER FACEBOOK? Not my words, but the words of every single social media exec I have interviewed over the past couple of weeks. Finding digital talent in Malaysia used to be quite a challenge, but not anymore, not in the digital age. I’m in the process of recruiting for our growing social team and have had well over 10 interviews over the past couple of weeks...

It is said that one good conversation has the ability to shift the direction of change forever. How about hundreds of conversations, all jam-packed in one conference? Well, that was what the Malaysian Media Conference 2018 was all about. The only stark difference? These were real conversations with real professionals about marketplace realities...

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

GUNN REPORT

15 WHERE IS MY BELOVED MALAYSIA? The Gunn Report, the global index of creative excellence in advertising, HAS released the results of the newly launched Gunn 100, a ranking of the top 100 creatively awarded...Malaysia is sorely missing...

THINK PARTY

SHOPPER MARKETING

WHY ARE MARKETERS BLIND TO SHOPPER MARKETING – PART II Whether you are a brand manager in a FMCG company or retailer, creative agency or media practitioner– If you don’t win...

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THE PRET A MANGER BRANDED CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE DIRECTORS THINK TANK HOSTS NEW YEAR’S PARTY AT HELI-BAR KL Directors Think Tank, The Tankers and Powertank hosted a big party at the Heli rooftop and lounge bar recently on the 36th floor of Menara KH in Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur...

I love Pret a Manger!

This sandwich chain started from humble beginnings in London in 1986. The two young founders of what is now affectionately known as “Pret” had a simple promise – to serve delicious food, served by friendly, motivated people....

MY PRINT IS

DIGITAL Alfian Talib is a busy man. With barely five months into his new role as Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) of NSTP, Alfian is in the throes of a constant challenge: to fade out the negative din against the print and embrace digital as the new face of the legacy he has inherited.

An early morning chat with him at the New Strait Times office, drew up an intriguing but very promising picture of how he is straddling the two: the good-old, perennial newspaper and digitalization of the news.

At the very outset, it is made clear: NSTP is positioning itself as a progressive, digital first publisher, also fearless. And we say, fearless, because Alfian is not discarding the old, to get on with the new. It requires courage to say though print garners the major share of revenue, “we will adopt digital and next technologies, to address our consumers.�

ALFIAN TALIB

CHIEF COMMERCIAL OFFICER NSTP

6

ISSUE216MID-FEB2018

COVER STORY

Today, at NSTP, the revenue stream still reflects the dominance of the traditional with 80-20, where the 80 percent is seeing a steady decline while 20 percent from digital is almost bolting. How will this equation change?

“We are in the transformation mode; we are restructuring as a digital first publisher. Internally too, that is how we operate- repositioning as a digital publisher, rather than a print company. Print is now playing the supporting role to our digital initiatives.”

Alfian’s optimism that the digital push is inevitable for innovations in the 173-years old NSTP, and yet the existence of newspapers cannot be merely wiped out, brought out our first question.

...NEW YORK TIMES CEO, MARK THOMPSON, RECENTLY SAID IN AN INTERVIEW THAT PRINT WILL BE AROUND FOR ANOTHER DECADE. MALAYSIA TOO HAS A SIGNIFICANT POPULATION THAT VERIFIES NEWS FROM A NEWSPAPER. I DON’T SEE THAT GOING AWAY...

ODYSSEY 4.0 IN NSTP The direction we seek through this transformation, which is led by CEO Datuk Seri Abdul Jali, is to focus more on how we provide our content, products and services to the consumers.

We are currently strengthening our vertical content. We are restructuring our organization and manpower capacity into a more specific, goal-driven sets of vertical organizations.

Providing mere news is no longer sustainable in the newspaper industry and that is why we are bringing content which are beyond news through platforms which are beyond print.

DO YOU SEE FURTHER DECLINE OF PRINT? WILL 2018 BE A WATERSHED FOR THIS INDUSTRY? New York Times CEO, Mark Thompson, recently said in an interview that print will be around for another decade.

Malaysia too has a significant population that verifies news from a newspaper. I don’t see that going away.

AND STILL PRINT IS SHRINKING. HOW BIG WILL BE THE DROP HERE? My bet on the print business is, starting 2018, it will hit a plateau. We already saw this happening with NST, since the past 6 months. So, there is a hard-core segment that consumes news on print. In comparison, our digital has been growing significantly year on year, for 2017.

WHAT IS THAT ONE OPPORTUNITY YOU STILL SEE IN THE NEWSPAPER INDUSTRY? Enriching Malaysian lives with genuine local and global news, phenomenal arts and intriguing education materials are what NSTP is all about.

Although the print media sales around the globe have slumped, SE Asia is still vital. As digital disruption is a bit slow in the region, it gives us a chance to learn to adapt to the industrial revolution 4.0. Transitioning into the digital platform while enhancing the traditional print platform is the step that we are taking as it is the only way forward in the media industry.

WHAT IS THE CIRCULATION OF NSTP NOW? Circulation for NSTP (all three publications) is around 700K daily. And it is consistent at that level. No huge spikes; no significant lows.

WHAT HAS BEEN THE MOST IMPORTANT CHANGE NST HAS BROUGHT IN? We are adopting technology into the legacy of the original print business itself; digital elements into the operations of the print business.

For example, through the past one year we have revamped the distribution system of our newspapers. And it has taken off tremendously well.

Distribution of newsprint has been over reliant on the traditional way of distribution; along this route, it was difficult for most publishers to have visibility over sales unless a big retail, like a 7-Eleven was involved. One would never have a correct figure for a roadside store.

NSTP: ARTICLE OF FAITH By recruiting a whole new team from the FMCG background, we have completely restructured the whole ecosystem. They now lead the whole logistics ecosystem, specially focusing on the distribution of newspapers. This allows us to take advantage of the digital technology embedded into this ecosystem. Now we can exactly know at every single point of sale what kind of numbers we are doing.

It is no longer a number we pluck from the sky.

I believe it is no mean feat to change something that went on for over 100 years!

And if you do not have the stomach to follow through; it becomes a real challenge.

SO HOW IS THIS KNOWLEDGE HELPING YOU NOW? The good thing is we can now identify the white spaces; we know we have a weaker coverage in any particular area.

Earlier, we relied only on the

distributor and engaged with about 2000 distributors without any kind of dedicated coverage.

We have revamped the structure now to engage with only 32 main distributors, more focus; ensuring right penetration.

They are our Market Execution Partners, who protect and enhance the traditional physical newspaper in staying relevant in the internet era.

audiences; by virtue of digital, we reach far more Malaysians; we are accessed by 10 million unique visitors on a monthly basis.

YOU MENTIONED THE INNOVATIONS IN INTERNAL PROCESSES TO BECOME A TRULY DIGITAL PUBLISHER. CAN YOU SHED SOME LIGHT ON THOSE CHANGES? We now have an integrated WHAT IS THE KEY newsroom. So, though we run CHALLENGE TO BEING A DIGITAL FIRST PUBLISHER? independent titles, we have put in place processes to best We report news but we are optimize our resources. This also a business. We cannot helps us cover news for all our exist as a business if it is losstitles. making. To strike a balance Our reporters bring back between how to survive in the new ecosystem, which is the new news to the central ecosystem; then the respective editors pick normal now, and to continue them up; so it is no more writing providing quality content is the one to one; it is like writing many biggest challenge. to one.

We are fortunate to be in By doing this, we cover not the digital age. From 1.3 million just more news but more hyper copies per week in the glorious local news by spreading out days of the print with almost our reporters, giving a huge 8 millions readership, we are multiplier effect. This is crucial now today reaching far bigger

ISSUE216MID-FEB2018

7 COVER STORY

because digital is limitless.

Another innovation we have carried out is the news dissipation cycle, whereby, our reporters send out a breaking kind of news in the first 15 minutes of the event he or she have gone out to cover.

Then we have invested hugely in ensuring a loading time of 3 seconds for our digital news.

This gives us a huge advantage over other news portals.

WHAT IN YOUR VIEW WOULD BE THE RIGHT WAY TO MONETISE CONTENT IN PRINT AS WELL AS IN VARIOUS DIGITAL MEDIA PLATFORMS, SUCH AS SOCIAL MEDIA, APPS AND ONLINE VIDEO? In my view, the right way to monetize content in print as well as in digital platforms is by providing engaging, exclusive content and make it more approachable to the consumer.

NSTP has always been providing exclusive real-time news updates through its digital platforms first,

which includes the social media and online news portal, not to forget the subscription base apps in the Google Play Store and Apple App Store.

Detailed news reports are published in NSTP publications, which includes New Straits Times, Berita Harian and Harian Metro, the following day. Further, producing alternative ways to encode and decode news for the consumer, which includes interactive videos of news reporting and news applications, makes it easier for NSTP to sustain consumer’s loyalty towards its content, products and services.

attention. Journalists use this tools with great ease.

A dashboard is created using the digital listening tools and then we identify the numbers of engagements from the consumer; consequently identifying the trending news which can be monetized by the news outlet.

By analyzing data, we can also monetize on the consumer’s preferences by making the content more specific and targeted. Listening to the needs of our audience is one of the most important elements in the digitalisation of news.

TRENDS IN MEDIA INDUSTRY THAT YOU SEE EMERGING IN 2018?

Data Analysis in the development of news holds a potential to be a significant trend in 2018. In our organization we have a dedicated team of observers, who use listening tools to spot what news will garner more readership and

YOUR GOAL FOR NSTP YOU ARE KEENLY WATCHING OUT FOR? By 2020, as an organization, we aspire to be able to shift our reliance on revenue not only on advertising but on non-advertising revenue, like subscription.

Though we are moving towards digital, we are over

...MY BET ON THE PRINT BUSINESS IS, STARTING 2018, IT WILL HIT A PLATEAU….

ALFIAN TALIB

reliant on our legacy revenue.

We hope to see a major shift.

We have seen a good growth in digital and in the next 18-24 months, I would be personally happy to reach a good mix of 60-40 (with 40 percent revenue coming from the digital model).

NORMALISATION Continuing to protect and innovate the traditional print platform is a great step by NSTP. This is because the print platform has been contributing revenue to the company and hence still relevant in the internet era.

Although, we cannot deny the fact that digitalisation will have a great impact on the print business. In recognition of this new business reality, we are investing in our digital assets. Our digital assets have witnessed impressive growth.

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ISSUE217END-FEB2018

CREATIVE SURGE

IDEAS:

THE MELAKA RIVER STORY

Quick, what words would you associate with ‘Melaka River’? If you haven’t been there in a while, you’d probably say, ‘Dirty’, ‘Filthy’, ‘Evil-smelling’, maybe even ‘Hazardous to life and limb’.

OBJECTIVE Hold that thought as we go back to 2001. The Chief Minister at the time was Datuk Seri Hj Mohd Ali Rustam. He had just returned from a trip to the San Antonio river walk and was inspired by what he saw. Where restaurants, cafes, hotels, theatres, museums, boutique shops and other businesses lined both sides of the river.

It was a public park of sorts, open every day of the year.

There were river cruises, and special events (river parades, river concerts, races and so on) organized throughout the months. He wondered if he could do the same with the Melaka River.

TRUTH The shops and houses along the Melaka River had been there for generations.

Back then, toilets and pipes were built over the river.

If you went to the outhouse and looked down, you could literally see water flowing beneath your feet. As a result, faeces and all kinds of rubbish were constantly bobbing along the banks.

The accompanying smell was enough to slay a biawak from 100 metres away.

CHALLENGE Cleaning the river was the easy part. Making sure it stayed clean, a little more difficult. The problem was the people who lived along the river. The state govt thought of putting up billboards with messages like ‘Love the river’ and ‘Keep Melaka Clean’.

A more emotional route was also considered: ‘Rivers give life’. In theory, it might just work. In reality, it’ll probably take a lot of time, effort and money. Old habits die hard.

SOLUTION Ultimately, the best way to persuade people (not to pollute the river) is to get them to do the job themselves. Billboards are a one-way conversation.

But if people could see- and experience- the value of a clean river; they would tell

themselves not to throw rubbish into the waters.

Unfortunately, the only way to make this happen was to create a new law.

Business and house owners were subsequently ordered to renovate their premises so that their toilets were no longer atop the river. At the same time, the state govt put together a multi-million ringgit budget to beautify the river.

Costs included construction of a water treatment facility, river deepening, bank reinforcement, relocation and so on.

Residents were furious when they found out: “Aren’t rivers supposed to carry away trash, anyway?”, “Why do we need a park besides the river?”, “We don’t have money to renovate our house”, “We don’t have space for a new toilet!” A petition was circulated to remove the Chief Minister from office.

Today, many years after the cleanup, thousands of tourists have taken a cruise along the beautiful Melaka River. Along the way, one can admire the many colourful murals or stop at the various riverside cafes. The beautiful

waters and scenic views are perfect for the obligatory selfie.

Fish and other wildlife can be seen in the waters. In the evening, colourful birds flit from branch to branch in the swamps. Property prices have skyrocketed. Some say as much as 400% within one year of the cleanup. Tourism has become Melaka’s largest revenue earner. The state govt’s biggest and most vocal opponents are now their most ardent supporters.

And all it took was a law to convert rubbish-throwers into river lovers.

Edward Ong is on a quest to discover and create Malaysia’s best ideas.

He is an award-winning Writer and Creative Director, and can be found at IdeasAreBorderless.com

EVERYONE’S COMPLAINT DEPARTMENT:

OVER TIME Working at ungodly hours is nothing new in this industry. And because that’s well known, there are people who take it for granted. I remember some years ago when we were negotiating agency fees. The procurement person included weekends as workdays so we protested.

He replied: You mean you guys don’t work on weekends?

Well, that meeting didn’t go down so well. But as the years passed, I began to realize the stupidity of it.

You can’t get the best out of anyone if sleep deprivation is the norm. Sure, it happens when the shit hits the fan and there is a crisis to deal with. But to demand that of people all the time is both cruel and stupid. This fear-induced work culture is so, so bad, there’s even a word that describes death from overwork.

I don’t have all the answers, but here’s what I think. The burnt-out and overworked culture stems from the lack of reflection; we can’t tell the difference between work that matters and work for the sake of work. Who hasn’t experienced spending countless hours

arguing over a few words on a social media post or losing your mind and having a near stroke experience over wardrobe; light blue striped shirt or white stripes? Or fight over too many words on a barelyvisible mobile banner which no one will give a damn about.

Or, and this is my favourite, an entire campaign you spent sleepless nights over is rejected in 5 seconds because they decided to change the brief in mid-presentation. The examples are endless. Yet we take it all

in because we want to show support. Support for what?

Incompetence? Insecurities?

Personal and biased opinions?

It’s not always like that for sure.

There are moments of pure bliss and also embarrassing moments when clients are sharper and bolder than us and we leave the room with evidence of humble pie crumbs in our mouths. Then there are the other times you feel the entire universe is conspiring to get you and you are bound

to the chains of things not reflected upon.

Perhaps, this is the problem; many people, us included, don’t fully appreciate the power and potential of the work we are called to do nor do we appreciate the intelligence of the people we are speaking to.

If we knew we had the potential of how we can shape society with a powerful idea, perhaps we won’t spend countless hours on nonsensical ideas that don’t mean shit.

The ‘Everyone’s Complaint Department’ series of comic strips began as random doodles and reflection pieces of Alvin Teoh, ECD of NagaDDB Tribal.

These little stories were originally posted on Facebook and are an ongoing tribute to life in Adland.

We don’t fear hard work when there’s conviction and clarity of intent. We’d sacrifice sleep and social life for good work that matters. We love to create the sort of work that is respectful of the human experience. You know, the sort of stuff that compels audiences to feel, think and act.

But what we fear is this - dying at our desks in the pursuit of meaningless work that lacks any depth.

ISSUE217END-FEB2018

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200 QUESTIONS. 1 CONFERENCE. IT ALL BEGAN WITH A CONVERSATION. REAL CONVERSATIONS, REAL DISRUPTIONS #ASKMEMMC

MMC 2018

by Reena Sekaran

WHERE IT ALL BEGAN: A CONVERSATION It is said that one good conversation has the ability to shift the direction of change forever. How about hundreds of conversations, all jam-packed in one conference? Well, that was what the Malaysian Media Conference 2018 was all about. The only stark difference?

These were real conversations with real professionals, about real issues...

10

ISSUE217END-FEB2018

MMC 2018

“EVERY OTHER DAY I HAVE LEARNED THAT EVERYTHING I ASSUMED TO BE TRUE, IS NOT NECESSARILY SO. BUT THERE IS SO MUCH PROMISE IN THE WORLD WE LIVE TODAY. AND IT’S ALRIGHT TO BE EXCITED WHILE BEING AWARE THAT WE AREN’T SURE ABOUT LOT OF THINGS THAT ARE HAPPENING TODAY.” TAI KAM LEONG HEAD OF BRANDING & PARTNERSHIPS MAXIS

“WE HAVE DATA, AND MORE DATA, BUT WHEN TELLING YOUR STORY, GO WITH YOUR GUT FEEL.”

SPENCER LEE HEAD OF COMMERCIAL, AIRASIA BERHAD

I NEGOTIATE A DEAL WHICH SUITS MY PALATE

BY BEING READY TO WALK AWAY FROM IT. THERE ARE LOT OF BRANDS WITH LIMITATIONS ON CERTAIN MEDIA PLATFORMS AND WE STILL MARKET THOSE BRANDS WELL. SANTHARUBAN THURAI SUNDARAM VICE PRESIDENT OF MARKETING ETIKA HOLDINGS

“THERE IS A DECLINE OF DEMOGRAPHICS AS A MEASURE, PEOPLE NOW LIVE MORE IN ‘MOMENTS’.”

PRASHANT KUMAR SENIOR PARTNER, ENTROPIA

MARKETING hosted its thirteenth Malaysian Media Conference (MMC) with the theme being ‘Real Conversations, Real Disruption’ since it had come to a halting realisation that so many disruptions were going on in the media industry in Malaysia.

The event which took place at Sime Darby Convention Centre on the 8th February 2018 was a smashing success. There was a total of three hundred participants present all eager to network and get their questions answered from the industry professionals themselves.

The caffeine-fuelled breaks gave participants the opportunity to network with thinkers from the marketing, media, advertising, digital and content universe.

TIME TO SHINE SOME LIGHT

The highlights of the Malaysian Media Conference were the Spotlight Sessions. Divided into two separate sessions, the first session focused on media issues and the latter highlighted marketing issues.

Four expert speakers were featured in each session.

The four speakers representing the media segment were Bala Pomaleh the CEO for IPG Mediabrands Malaysia, Marc Woo the Country Business Head for Google Malaysia, Prashant Kumar Senior Partner for ENTROPIA and Ranganathan Somanathan, CEO for Malaysia & Singapore at Omnicom Media Group (OMG).

To top the impressive list of Guest speakers, the ones

representing the marketing industry Soptlight Session were Lee Lim Meng, Marketing Director at L’Oréal Malaysia, Linda Hassan the Head of Marketing for Malaysia & Singapore, Domino’s, Mohd Adam Wee Abdullah, Group Chief Marketing Officer, CIMB Group and Santharuban Thurai Sundaram, Vice President for Marketing at Etika Holdings.

Participants were first given access to an online interactive software, Mentimeter.com. They would then proceed to post up their queries as the speakers addressed them in real-time. These were truly engaging moments as each speaker only had 60 seconds to answer one question and there was an endless list of questions! However, the speakers with years of experience

“WE ARE TOO MUCH INTO THE PAST.” RANGANATHAN SOMANATHAN CEO, OMNICON MEDIA MALAYSIA & SINGAPORE.

“IFLIX IS MY FAVOURITE TECH START-UP, THEY HAVE LAUNCHED IN 30 MARKETS, THEY PRICE IT VERY-LOW, EXTREMELY CLEVER, AM VERY EXCITED ABOUT THEIR FUTURE.” MARC WOO COUNTRY BUSINESS HEAD GOOGLE MALAYSIA

ISSUE217END-FEB2018

THE IMPORTANCE OF CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE IS TO ENSURE THAT THE ORGANIZATION CAN DELIVER THE BRAND PROMISE; IT SOLVES MUCH DEEPER-ROOTED PROBLEMS WITHIN THE ORGANIZATION AND NOT JUST SUPERFICIAL FIXES. MOHD ADAM WEE ABDULLAH GROUP CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER & GROUP CHIEF CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE OFFICER, CIMB GROUP

“USING DATA HELPS US TO BE MORE CREATIVE.” BALA POMELAH CEO, IPG MEDIABRANDS

“SUCCEEDING ALONE IS NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE AND SO YOU NEED AN ECOSYSTEM OF PARTNERSHIPS TO GROW.” GAURAV BHASIN CEO, MUDAH.MY

“RM 881 MILLION WORTH OF ADVERTISING IS SPENT ON PIRATED SITES IN MALAYSIA. AND MALAYSIA TAKES THE SECOND LARGEST SHARE OF CONTENT PIRACY IN SEA.” RIDHUAN SIDEK CHIEF DIGITAL & MARKETING OFFICER ASTRO

under their belt, effortlessly answered the questions thrown at them. The official hashtag of the conference #AskMeMMC truly lived up to its name.

The Moderation Panel consisted of Timothy Johnson, Senior VP of Marketing, Product & Partnerships at INTI, Tom Hogg the Managing Director Malaysia of Trade Indy and Malati Siniah, Roving Content Editor, kept both audience and speakers constantly on their toes.

They later shared there was a sense of excitement as a moderator to see the numerous questions come flooding in during the Spotlight Sessions.

#AskMeMMC prompted some 260 over questions being asked and putting the speakers on the spot. Besides the serious questions on the industry, the participants got the opportunity to slide in a laughter or two thanks to the occasional humorous question.

One of which was “What campaign have you seen recently that you were jealous of and wish you did?”.

This was addressed to Prashant Kumar, Senior Partner of ENTROPIA. To which he responded the Maxis campaign where they sent out hologram cards. Santharuban, Vice Vice President of Marketing of Etika Holdings even humorously

11 MMC 2018

“I OBSERVE AND FOLLOW MALAYSIAN BRANDS AND SEE THE COMPETITIVE SPACE BECOMING MORE CHALLENGING AND INNOVATIVE.” LEE LIM MENG MARKETING DIRECTOR L’OREAL MALAYSIA SDN BHD

“CONVERSATIONS IS WHERE THE WORLD IS HEADING; IT’S ALWAYS ON.” DAMIEN CUMMINGS CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER PEOPLEWAVE, SINGAPORE

responded to his Tinder experiences that left the audience in stitches.

Some of the running themes that kept cropping up were building the trust in client-agency relationship, how marketers were prioritizing measurement, AI and its impact on the industry, and ad fraud. This really showed that everyone shared a common problem, and problems could only be dissected through conversations and discussions. And all of it was proven at the Malaysian Media Conference 2018.

This year’s event was sponsored by leading online food portal Fried Chillies, who served gourmet coffee.

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ISSUE217END-FEB2018

MMC 2018

QUESTIONS ANSWERED AT MMC 2018 For Ranganathan Somanathan - CEO, Malaysia & Singapore, OMG: 1.

In one word how would you describe today’s clients?

2.

Why do marketers say there’s a lack of trust between brands and agencies?

3.

Malaysia vs Singapore: which country do you look at as having a worst case of ad fraud?

4.

What is the media industry doing about combating online fraud?

5.

Can you guarantee your client’s campaigns will be immune from ad fraud?

6.

Given the rising concerns in the digital space, can you share an example of how your campaign reporting system has changed in the past year?

7.

Does Malaysia have digital act to regulate the industry?

8.

Tell us how shrinking margins are affecting agencies’ busineses?

9.

What’s next for Malaysia’s creative and media agencies in 2018?

10. What are media agencies doing about ad fraud besides charging clients to prevent it?

11. Is 100% viewability something that your agency offers?

12. How do you become an agent of positive change in a very unpredictable and volatile time as today 13. Have you thought about doing successful digital campaigns, without Facebook and Google?

14. How do you connect the need for a more engaging user experience amidst shrinking marketing budgets?

15. Do you see influencers as effective or just frivolous?

16. Do you think the industry has become unhealthily overreliant on just two very big digital media players, the duoploy, in their digital media mix?

17. Google and YouTube, what value do they bring to marketing?

18. Please share the biggest media experiment in 2017 that you’ve executed that’s paid off?

19. Consumer spend is lesser, should advertising spend follow?

20. Do you think TV industry will survive in light of digital disruption?

21. Since the industry is in a state of flux, are you worried about the rising threat of management consultancies like Accenture and Deloitte?

For Prashant Kumar - Senior Partner, ENTROPIA: 22. One word to describe the journey starting up ENTROPIA over the past 2 years?

23. What is the one challenging moment throughout your journey?

24. So if ‘Moment’ is the new marketplace, are we seeing the death of demographics?

25. When and how can we have a clear reading on marketing digital spend to have more a holistic view for better benchmarking?

26. With so many players in OOH, how do media planners justify their best plans and not be biased to the top 3 key players in the market?

27. Last year Malaysia brought home zero awards from Cannes Lions, do you think this year is Malaysia’s time to shine?

28. Are big award shows like Cannes Lions still relevant in this day and age?

29. Any interesting campaigns spotted in Malaysia (except those from your own agency) last year?

30. How do you handle clients who are small on budgets and big on demands?

31. The secret of putting together a strong team?

32. What is your favourite tech tool?

33. We have seen the use of AI in robots to chatbots, how will AI impact media and marketing in 2018?

34. What was your biggest professional mistake in 2017 and what did you learn?

35. When creating campaigns, media concepts or creative concepts come first?

36. If there’s one secret to winning a pitch what would that be?

37. Will the TV industry survive?

38. How much time and money should we be spending on social media?

39. How can media owners work better with agencies and your clients?

40. Are we still looking at ROI or is brand success more relevant and realistic for measurement?

41. What is the one campaign you’ve seen recently that you’re jealous of and wish you did?

42. Should clients today buy over media/creative agencies?

43. Is Social Media marketing replacing email marketing today?

44. How do you target your market in digital?

45. Do you see fitness as a trend to pick up under advertising / marketing? What can media owners/agency do about this?

46. If you were to choose between a tear jerker and a humorous video, which one would you advise your client to spend on?

47. How would you calculate the value of an organic social media post? Of a brand page, for example...

48. In today’s age what are the investment areas for agencies ?

49. Do you think e-commerce marketing will kick off this year?

50. Best campaign executed by ENTROPIA in the last year...

For Marc Woo - Country Business Head, Google Malaysia: 51. Most innovative use of your platform by a Malaysian Company?

52. How are you making your platforms more relevant to local consumers?

53. Any interesting global campaigns you have spotted on your platform so far?

54. What are you seeing as the top key trend within the media space globally?

55. What is the key priority for Google in Malaysia this year?

56. One way of how marketing can contribute towards driving

57.

58.

59.

60.

61.

62.

63.

64.

65.

66.

67.

business innovation within the company?

Are businesses in Malaysia getting faster in adapting to digital or do you still see them turning to what they are used to?

I am a brick and mortar business who has gone online a year ago.

How can I take small steps in scaling my online business?

If consumers have become more selective, how do I ensure my brand comes out on top?

The one thing that clients should pay attention too when measuring the effectiveness of their campaigns?

One interesting campaign insight you discovered in 2017?

Should your fellow panelists be afraid of you?

KOL marketing, best measurement of success?

Do you see Google working with more local brands to escalate the Asian Market to the world? In this case Malaysia.

How does Google handle sales tax like GST from digital sales?

Key differences between YT & FB videos? (Forget you work for Google) For a company who’s mission is organizing the world’s info, why is Google so focused on hiding their own income and avoiding taxes?

For Bala Pomaleh - CEO, IPG Mediabrands Malaysia: 68. Plenty of innovation and change from IPG, how are you finding the right talents to fit these new roles?

69. How do you see agencies winning the war on talent?

70. How do you effectively extract insights across media for the best ROI from the investments made in traditional and new media?

71. I’m always looking for new ways to inspire my team, what is one way you have inspired yours?

72. How is AI going to affect media buying and how are media agencies striving to stay relevant with this growing threat?

73. When your team has an innovative idea but the client is afraid to see it through, do you convince the client or follow their reasoning?

74. What has been your most memorable experience throughout your journey at IPG? 75. They say you can get to know a person by the 5 main apps on their home screen, what’s on yours?

76. Best media mix strategy for short term sales uplift?

77. Any conclusion soon on the long running dual TV ratings currency issue?

78. Should advertisers go to media owner directly or the agency?

79. What’s the plan for 2018?

80. Since IPG has full service creative with Ensemble, what’s the secret behind its success?

81. What do you think makes clients come to IPG? 82. KPI/ fees/ bonus structures against actual brand & business results - yay or naye 83. What is your favourite campaign not done by IPG last year?

84. How do you see the Adex for 2018?

For Ridhuan Sidek - CMO, Astro: 85. How can mainstream media play a role to teach the younger generation about news credibility (if their main news channels are social media) 86. If NBC was “infiltrated” by the Macedonian mercenaries, how will Malaysians be able to trust local news anymore.. Awani?

87. How does fake content impact consumer choice?

88. How reliable is your fact check team in relation to the new Astro Awani proposition - mind to share the steps taken to ensure authenticity?

89. Have Astro as a media provider been conned into reporting any fake news? What was the impact?

For Damien Cummings - CEO, Peoplewave: 90. How long will it take before content is seen by consumers with the same scepticism as they view ads?

91. Which is the most important in the 4c of Marketing to consider first?

92. What’s your view on the recent Facebook algorithm change and how does that affect the 4C’s you’ve shared?

93. How do you create a conversation around a project that will be completed only in 5 years from now?

94. If people don’t care about brands/product, etc., should companies compromise their CI for this reason?

For Mohd Adam Wee, Group CMO & Customer Experience Officer, CIMB: 95. What is the biggest problem you are looking for a solution in relation to marketing?

96. Why is Customer Experience a priority in 2018?

97. How do you track and measure customer experience across various media channels?

98. What is the measurement you look at to determine the success or failure of a campaign?

99. Do you think clients should go in-house or keep agencies on retainer?

100. Who is the most interesting person you are following on LinkedIn? 101. What would you like media agencies to do differently?

102. Do you think creativity is key to brand success?

103. What are you focusing on this year at CIMB? 104. What is the future of customer experience in 3 to 5 years?

105. What have you cut back on from your marketing budget this year?

106. When will Octo start talking?

107. How does online and traditional banking customer experience differs in CIMB? 108. How you see the e-wallet trend affecting marketing?

109. How do you solve or provide the promised customer experience when the ground staff are doing otherwise?

110. Do you go to agencies based on awards received?

111. Many banks are now more interested to target the emerging affluent and affluent, do you think traditional medium is relevant to this group?

112. What has been the most effective channel CIMB uses to acquire their high net worth clients?

113. What keeps you up at night?

114. How can we reach you to submit our company profile ;)?

115. Are mobile payments like Android Pay and Apple Pay going to be bigger in Malaysia?

116. Do you see branches of banks dying and losing relevance or transforming?

117. Which segments in CIMB does marketing spend most on?

For Linda Hassan - Head of Marketing for Malaysia & Singapore, Domino’s: 118. On a scale of 1 to 10 how would you rate the Malaysia’s marketing industry?

119. What would you like media agencies to do differently?

120. Are you happy with the services provided by your agency?

121. Name a local marketing campaign (apart from your own) that caught your attention recently?

122. In one sentence describe the learnings from your marketing activities in 2017?

123. Has your marketing budget increased/decreased or stayed the same in 2018?

124. Media, Creative or Digital – rank them by order of importance to you...

125. Trends - they come, they go. Do you choose to follow the hottest trend or capture the attention once the buzz settles?

126. What is the latest technology you see shaking up the marketing world?

127. In terms of targeting do you think Moments matter more than Segments?

128. Best Domino’s campaign for 2017, if you had to choose one?

129. If you weren’t in Marketing what would you be doing 130. What is your favourite pizza topping?

131. How has the usage of CRM affected your delivery business positively?

132. What has Domino’s have in store for optimizing online customer journey to order pizza?

133. Is Domino’s a big investor in big campaigns? Or other marketing strategies and tactics?

134. What are the key steps needed to switch from retail stores to delivery business?

For Santharuban T Sundaram - Vice President for Marketing, Etika Holdings: 135. You have said that you are a big believer in traditional advertising, can you share an example of a successful campaign which you did offline?

136. One way of how you’ve changed the way you have conducted market research within the past year?

137. Since you have gone into Singapore, what is a key observation in customer behaviour you have noticed between Malaysians and Singaporeans?

138. What is most important to you when hiring someone new to join your team?

139. What is a problem within the industry which needs fixing?

140. What are the top 3 priorities you look for when your agencies report back to you?

141. What are you considering when putting your budget into advertising on TV? 142. When planning your marketing activities in 2018 what is the one thing that you have changed this year?

143. Will we hear a new jingle for your beverages this year?

144. What is the latest app or online platform that you are personally obsessed with?

145. Media, digital and creative by order of importance how do you rank them? (eg: Creative 1, Digital 2, etc.)

146. Have you visited Dato Vida’s mansion?

147. Do you have different agencies for different brands in the portfolio? How are the agencies selected for fit with the brands?How do you define and measure success metrics for your offline campaigns?

148. You seem to get taller with every successful campaign you’ve done. What are your top 3 favourite and most successful campaigns you have worked on in your life?

149. How do you track your campaign performance?What Etika campaign are you proud of? And what campaign outside of Etika did you like or admire?

150. Your advice on how media owners can work better with Etika and your agencies?

151. How many matches do you have on Tinder?

For Lee Lim Meng - Marketing Director at L’Oréal Malaysia: 152. How is the advancement of technology (AI, facial recognition) changing the beauty industry?

153. Has rising interest in indie make up by celebrities and influencers affected your industry?

154. What are the metrics you follow when measuring the effectiveness of an ad campaign by an online influencer?

155. What is an example of your most successful digital campaign?

156. Have you ever wasted your money on online spending?

157. What is one way you drive innovation within your team?

158. If you were not in marketing what would you be doing?

159. How do you see the beauty industry evolving in 5 years’ time?

160. With the rise of social media beauty influencers, does it change the landscape of the traditional celebrity as your product ambassador?

161. Is most of your spend now on Digital, and especially Social?

162. What is the biggest professional regret in 2017?

163. Media Prima or Astro? For your advertising needs...

164. Do you believe in Cost per Engagement?

165. Should consumers know brands like Kiehls are under L’Oreal or do you prefer them to stand alone?

166. Would programmatic be a huge part of your marketing plan in the future?

For Tai Kam Leong - Head of Branding & Partnerships, Maxis: 167. What was the first thing you did to integrate the older minds with the young?

168. Was admitting failure at first difficult for you, especially to your boss?

169. It’s clear Maxis is a company that encourages and allows mistakes. What if you work for a company that is conservative and is risk averse?

170. Conventional ways of TA identification - is to label them, esp when youth are harder to define now. But it’s an interesting concept to move away from labelling, but then how do we “find” them?

171. In this digital era how do you see traditional media play a role and the significance of tradional media in context?

172. How to convince management to approve a campaign that might fail with no backup of data?

For Spencer Lee - Head of Commercial, AirAsia: 173. How powerful could you be if you did have a Macgyver mullet?

174. What is the best way to brief the agency and get their creative juices flowing?

175. How did you correlate your 46% increment in revenue from the campaigns you ran?

176. Don‘t you think that Air Asia‘s success is all about pricing?

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13

SOCIAL MEDIA

IS IT GAME OVER FACEBOOK?

by James Gaubert

‘FACEBOOK IS FOR OLD PEOPLE’ ‘FACEBOOK ISN’T COOL ANYMORE’ ‘FACEBOOK IS BORING’ NOT my words, but the words of every single social media exec I have interviewed over the past couple of weeks. Finding digital talent in Malaysia used to be quite a challenge, but not anymore, not in a digital age. I’m in the process of recruiting for our growing social team and have had well over 10 interviews over the past couple of weeks and there are couple of things that stand out as key similarities in each and every interview!

The first thing to note is that I have been interviewing digital natives, millennials, the type who grew up watching on demand television on ipads and reading books on eReaders, the generation that didn’t know life before social media!

Apart from the similarities in relation to the unicorn colored hairstyles, piercings and tattoos the one thing that stands out a country mile is the overall perception of our beloved Facebook!

Literally everyone I have spoken to has told me that they don’t use it anymore, its old fashioned, boring, full of ads, my mums on there, its for old people! Well I certainly feel a lot older now! So this got me thinking, especially about the recent Facebook algorithm change, is this the beginning of the end for the social media giant? I for one cant remember the last time I epdated my Facebook status, I’m sure I am not alone!

Facebook wouldn’t be the social media platform to disappear, maybe social sites have a lifespan too. When I was growing up the first wave of social platforms included the likes of Friendster, MySpace, FriendsReunited and FaceParty.

What happened to all of these?

Gone, deceased, all buried in a digital graveyard!

The second wave of social sites was driven by Facebook, and supported by the likes of

Google+ and twitter. Twitter has a niche focus and use, although every where I read user numbers are on the decline and we all know what happened to Google+.

This then got me thinking, why? Is it a generation thing?

If you think about different generations, baby boomers behave differently from gen x’ers, and gen x’ers clearly behave differently to millennials. Each of these generations is perceived to see the world in a very different way that translates into their buying decisions and online habits. Are we seeing the same thing with social sites?

We are in a new era now, one driven by smartphones and mobility. I remember the first time I arrived in Malaysia, I was shocked at the amount of smartphone users, if I am right adoption is so high that there is nearly 2 smartphones for every person. With that in mind it is no wonder that the preferred social platforms of todays modern day

consumer is Instagram, and they aren’t the only platform out there that view the smartphone as the primary platform for their application. These companies don’t even think of launching via a website, the assume, over time, that people will use their mobile applications almost entirely instead of websites, and I think they are right!

So is this the end of Facebook? I’m not sure but one thing is certain, they are going to have to make some significant changes to remain relevant and ‘cool’ in todays society and with our modern day consumer.

There is hope though, Google and Amazon have done it, both of these giants have been around long before Facebook redefined the way in which we communicate. Furthermore they continue to add value in our lives and innovate in all that they do, but social media, as we know, is a very different beast!

WE ARE IN A ”NEW ERA NOW,

ONE DRIVEN BY SMARTPHONES AND MOBILITY.

“

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

14

ISSUE217END-FEB2018

SHOPPER MARKETING

WHY ARE MARKETERS BLIND TO SHOPPER MARKETING – PART II

by Mahesh Neelakantan

UNIVERSITY OF LIFE

WHETHER you are a brand manager in a FMCG company or retailer, creative agency or media practitioner– If you don’t win with shoppers, you don’t win. One the basic building blocks for developing an effective shopper marketing campaign is ‘Data’ and ‘Insights’. While ‘Shopper Data’ is easily the subject of another article – for the moment; let’s place it under the circle of ‘Cannot Control-Cannot Influence’.

Building a better profile of our shopper, uncovering insights and enabling better understanding of purchase-decision hierarchy is something that we can ‘Control and Influence’.

A simple way to kick off better understanding of our shoppers within your teams is to to quite simply spend more time walking the aisles of a supermarket. I recently met a Brand Manager of a consumer goods company who hadn’t been on a market visit for almost two months!

The store is where shopping happens, and there is so much observational nuggets that can be gleaned from just a visit. Check out one other category (not one you work in). Check out other brands. Observe shoppers.

Maybe ask them a question.

Data from a store visit isn’t

statistically relevant; but it’s a great place to build or test hypotheses. # 3 SIMPLE TIPS TO HELP BUILD SHOPPER CENTRICITY & BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE SHOPPER. Shopalongs – as the name suggests – helps to uncover thoughts, influences, and motivations when shopping for a product.

This ensures that the packaging, placement, customer experience, and in-aisle marketing efforts are working (or not) to engage your consumers.

Typically in a ‘Shopalong’ shoppers are asked to follow “think aloud” protocol so that we can hear the thoughts that are going through their heads as they complete their shopping excursion.

And the interviewer or person conducting the shopalong can observe, probe to learn about the ease with which they can find what they are seeking; what they reach for first; what draws their eye; the purchase dynamics if more than one shopper is involved; any frustrations they experience, etc.

Fly on the wall – as the name suggests is an

observation technique where you place yourself in a non-obtrusive position and observe from a distance.

This traditional behaviour observation method allows Brand Managers or Agency planners to discreetly collect information by looking and listening to begin behaviour research.

Interviewers can throw in the occasional follow up ‘casual’ question or probe when they encounter ‘atypical-shopper behaviour’ .

‘Secretary’s Day out’ - designed as a social experiment - this particular method uses a ‘reality’ approach to culling insights and decoding shopper behaviour. Unsuspecting Department Secretaries (6 to 8) are drafted into this experiment by their bosses and given a shopping list with about 10-15 items. The same shopping list needs to be given to all the secretaries and care is taken to highlight categories/products and not brands. Upon returning from their respective shopping trips they are informed about being casted in a social experiment and casual interrogation begins as they are asked to explain the rationale and reasons to buy a particular brand.

This exercise is extremely

useful to decode Purchase decision Hierarchy/Journey.

There are more such simple ideas and tips to get one to spend more time instore - have a team meeting in a store.

Rotate responsibility across your team/agency to go to a store once a week and share pictures and thoughts in your weekly team meeting.

Better still – set up a ‘Shopper Day’ every quarter as a company wide engagement exercise.

If you work in consumer goods, or it’s a big part of your job, however often you go, it’s probably not enough.

It’s amazing how a simple visit can open up our eyes to the immense possibilities on understanding the shopper better and translating that in developing better campaigns targeting your shopper.

Let’s not be blind – anymore.

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

LIFE WAS BRUTALLY TOUGH. BUT BEGGARS COULD NOT BE CHOOSERS!

by Malkeet Singh, Bloomingdale Advertising

I consider myself fortunate to have enjoyed both success and failures, joys and pains, boom times and burst periods in running a home-grown advertising agency over the last three decades.

It is amazing how fast the agency landscape changed and left many an entrepreneur wondering what went wrong.

After graduation in 1979, I started working with a couple of multi-national and local agencies as a copywriter and was driven by an innate passion to some day team up and start my very own advertising business. There was a fire in my belly.

My dream did come true when I teamed up with some colleagues and joined a Kelantanese agency, Li Izuldin Associates in 1986. It was a small agency doing Below the Line (BTL) work for several clients in Kota Bharu. We just

made enough money to cover rental. Whatever, little was left we equally divided among the three partners.

Life was tough. Brutally tough. But beggars could not be choosers. The internet age was still in its formative years. It was still the era of traditional artwork and sending copy for type-setting and films to the press.

It dawned on us that if we wanted to move ahead, we had to change the name of the company from Li Izuldin Associates to something sounding very international. We asked ourselves, why not look at the then largest departmental store in the United States, Bloomingdale’s, for inspiration.

We made our choice by simply dropping the apostrophe and alphabet “s”. Besides, the name resonated “blooming”.

There was no turning back.

Bloomingdale Advertising was all set to run its course as

ordained by the karmic masters.

Everything we touched was an opportunity awaiting to become much bigger. Leading from one success to another.

Through the traditional grapevine, we had a visit from a local client, Master Carriage Malaysia (MCM) who were looking for a local agency to handle the advertising campaign for Isuzu. Although the payment terms stretched beyond 90 days, we persevered and developed an excellent working relationship that led to a growing business.

MCM grew by leaps and bounds to become DRB Hicom Berhad and we were handling the advertising for their entire automotive portfolio and other businesses. We had a fair share of government-related agencies as our clients to become at our peak one of the largest homegrown agencies in the country.

With the fast changing landscape, we have had our

share of ups and downs in the course of over 30 years.

WHAT WERE THE LESSONS LEARNT? 1. Success does not rain forever. Nor does client loyalty. The window of opportunity is there only for a certain period. It is imperative to maximise on these opportunities to the hilt for there is no assurance that they will come back.

2. There is no room for generosity. Be brutally frugal in everything. There will come a day when that precious small sum of hard-earned money can make a major difference. Make savings mandatory. Everything else can wait. Profit margins have become razor-thin!

3. Never delegate. Business owners must refrain from the practice of overly

delegating. Be in firm control of managing clients and finances. Delegation leads to complacency and loss of direction.

4. Always remain nimble, mean and hungry. The era of bigness is over. Keep staff strength to the barest minimum. If there is overload of work, outsource to freelancers.

5. Never take anything for granted. Always have contingency plans in place.

That includes a viable and least painful exit strategy or down-sizing of operations.

6. The business of advertising is not everything. There is more to life. Look around, the experiences learnt in advertising can always pave the way for many other exciting and lucrative opportunities.

7. Have faith. Businesses can be rejuvenated.

ISSUE217END-FEB2018

WHERE IS MY BELOVED MALAYSIA? THE GUNN REPORT, THE GLOBAL INDEX OF CREATIVE EXCELLENCE IN ADVERTISING, HAS RELEASED THE RESULTS OF THE NEWLY LAUNCHED GUNN 100, A RANKING OF THE TOP 100 CREATIVELY AWARDED ADVERTISING IDEAS OF 2017- REGARDLESS OF THEIR COMMUNICATION DISCIPLINE - AND THE COMPANIES BEHIND THEM. TOP 10 WORLD’S MOST CREATIVE COUNTRIES

TOP 10 WORLD’S MOST CREATIVELY AWARDED CAMPAIGNS

RANK COUNTRY 01 USA

RANK CAMPAIGN TITLE 01 Meet Graham

BRAND Transport Accident Commission

AGENCY Clemenger BBDO Melbourne

02 UK 03 Australia

02 Fearless Girl 03 Child Replacement Programme

State Street Global Advisors Pedigree

McCann New York Colenso BBDO Auckland

04 Germany 05 France

04 Evan 05 Endless Possibilities

Sandy Hook Promise Getty Images

BBDO New York

06 Brazil 07 Japan 08 Argentina

06 07 08 09

Lockheed Martin Channel 4 Paralympics Toyota

09 Thailand 10 Canada

The Field Trip to Mars We’re The Superhumans Landcruiser Emergency Network Nike Unlimited Stadium

10 Like My Addiction

TOP 5 CREATIVE AGENCIES ASIA RANK AGENCY 3 Dentsu 14 Hakuhodo 16 Ogilvy & Mather

LOCATION Tokyo, Japan Tokyo, Japan Bangkok, Thailand

17 TBWA\Hakuhodo Tokyo, Japan 19 Ogilvy & Mather Singapore

Nike Addict’Aide

AlmapBBDO Sao Paulo McCann New York 4Creative London Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney BBH Singapore BETC Paris

15 GUNN REPORT

16

ISSUE217END-FEB2018

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

THE PRET A MANGER BRANDED CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE A RECIPE FOR SUSTAINED SUCCESS AND GROWTH

by George Aveling, CEO and Customer Experience Architect, TMI

I love Pret a Manger!

This sandwich chain started from humble beginnings in London in 1986. The two young founders of what is now affectionately known as “Pret” had a simple promise – to serve delicious food, served by friendly and motivated people.

And now, 32 years on, Pret has expanded to 486 stores in 8 countries.

So, what is the root cause of Pret’s success in the crowded “fast food” market?

In a nutshell, Pret has focused on standing out in the market by delivering on its promise. It has succeeded by consistently focusing on delivering a great branded customer experience.

Companies deliver on the branded customer experience when there is an alignment between the brand expectations that marketing departments create with the delivery on those expectations to customers.

It is where experience meets expectations.

How does Pret deliver on its promise?

They know how to make customers feel good. And they know how to make their people feel good.

MORE THAN JUST SANDWICHES The current version of the Pret promise, which is an evolution of the promise of the

two young founders, revolves around the three key pillars “Freshly Prepared”, “Good”, “Natural Foods”.

I associate the word “good” with Pret.

I feel good when I go into a Pret shop. There is a wide choice of fresh food on display. I know that I will be feeding my body good food. I buy organic coffee.

That’s good. Pret does good things. Donations, based on sales, are made to charities.

The company’s branded customer experience resonates in the physical shop environment.

There are beautifully designed signs and pictures on the walls with words that remind me that I am doing good things for my body: “Freshly prepared, good food” “Pret’s spiced pumpkin latte (made with real pumpkin)” “Organic coffee, natural food” “Handmade natural food…”

And more, down to the packaging, complete with reinforcing messages, all very tastefully designed.

So as a customer, I feel good coming into the store, and knowing that I’m paying for good, healthy food and that my money will be used for good things.

PRET PEOPLE PRACTICES How does the company make its people feel good?

... IN A NUTSHELL, PRET HAS FOCUSED ON STANDING OUT IN THE MARKET BY DELIVERING ON ITS PROMISE. IT HAS SUCCEEDED

BY CONSISTENTLY FOCUSING ON DELIVERING A GREAT BRANDED CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE...

Pret has a strong focus on doing good for employees. Its aim is to hire and engage passionate, motivated people who are happy to serve customers.

Therefore, it places a lot of effort on culture. It understands that products can be copied, but great company culture is bulletproof.

The company has stated that its aim is to have people feel good when they come to work.

This is important, as working in a Pret environment, making fresh sandwiches from 5am in the morning, serving hordes of hungry customers, is a highpressure job.

Each Pret outlet is mystery shopped weekly. Mystery shopping is used as a reward mechanism. If the mystery shopper has a good experience, team members get an extra £1 an hour for the hours they have worked for the week. The company reports that that 80% of its shops get the bonus every week. Not bad at all!

In short, Pret has created a wide range of methods to build its branded service culture.

So, what can we learn from Pret a Manger?

Building company brands is just half the story. The other half is following through to make

sure that your company delivers on the branded customer experience through your people, product, environment and processes. Companies that seem to “make it look easy” have created a branded culture, where decisions and behaviours at all levels are made with a direct line of sight to the delivering on the brand promise.

My parting question to you: What is your company doing to show your customers and your people that you are delivering on your brand promise?

(Good) Food for thought.

Until next time.

George is the Group CEO and International Partner of TMI, TACK International in Malaysia and digital learning consultancy, Elementrix. He is conducting a workshop on Branded Customer Experience on March 26.

Details with Amira on 03-77262588.

18

ISSUE217END-FEB2018

R3 AGENCY REPORT

AGENCY NEW BUSINESS DOWN 10% OVERALL FOR 2017 WITH 600 FEWER REVIEWS THAN 2016!

IT was a declining year for creative, media, and digital agencies overall in 2017, with 10% less new business revenue won compared to 2016, according to research by independent consulting firm, R3. The company tracked 7,400 new business wins from more than 700 agencies globally. Despite a slight increase in the total number of wins for creative agencies in 2017 (4,840 vs. 4,688 in 2016), the YoY revenue is down 16.9%. Media agencies saw the inverse trend, with the number of wins decreasing by 24% while revenue increased by 5.4% over the previous year.

A POSITIVE YEAR FOR WPP, IPG AGENCIES 2017 was a positive year for WPP and IPG, who saw significant gains over 2016. IPG more than doubled their estimated revenue generated by new business wins this year, largely driven by the strong performance of McCann WorldGroup, who were the number one creative agency for both the United States and globally. WPP’s new business revenue increase was driven by their media agencies Mediacom and Mindshare. Mediacom was the number one agency globally, as well as in the US, Europe and LATAM, with Mindshare taking the top spot in APAC. On the creative side WPP’s Ogilvy was the top agency in Asia Pacific.

The top 10 global creative wins table was largely dominated by the United States, with notable account moves including McCann WorldGroup’s January win of the Verizon account, BBDO’s win of Macy’s and GS&P’s win of the PepsiCo US business. One notable entry on the table comes from an unconventional player, Accenture Interactive, who won the global Maserati creative business in November of 2017.  Omnicom’s BBDO and DDB were the top creative agencies in Europe and LATAM, respectively, in spite of the holding company’s dramatic decrease in revenue generated by new business in 2017.

THINK TANK

DIRECTORS THINK TANK HOSTS NEW YEAR’S PARTY AT HELI-BAR KL

Directors Think Tank, The Tankers and Powertank hosted a big party at the Heli rooftop and lounge bar recently on the 36th floor of Menara KH in Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur. The cream of the local creative industry turned out in force to party until the wee hours.

Check out the pictures if you recognise anyone here...

Mediacom has three wins on the top global media wins table; PSA Group and Walgreen Boots Alliance’s global accounts, and the Revlon US media business. Dentsu Aegis Network also had two of the top 10 wins with Jaguar Land Rover and Subway.

Market

NO 1 Creative

NO 1 Media

Global

McCann WorldGroup

Mediacom

US

McCann WorldGroup

Mediacom

Europe

BBDO

Mediacom

LATAM

DDB

Mediacom

AP

Ogilvy

Mindshare

The Branded

EXPERIENCE WORK SHOP

The missing link to building trusted, powerful brands

26 MARCH 2018 SIME DARBY CONVENTION CENTRE 9AM - 530PM

CONTACT RUBY T: +603 7726 2588 E: ruby@adoimagazine.com ABOUT THE FACILITATOR

George Aveling CEO, TMI Malaysia

BONUS!!

George Aveling will be available for a one-hour virtual consultation to address your specific implementation questions postworkshop

George is the Group CEO and International Partner of TMI, TACK International in Malaysia and digital learning consultancy, Elementrix.

He is a mentor to senior leaders.

He is also an organisational leader, writer and much respected consultant.

George opened the TMI office in Kuala Lumpur in 2005.

TMI, with a presence in 50 countries, is a transformation consultancy, focusing on the customer experience. TACK International is a global practical sales and leadership development consultancy, similarly with offices in 50 countries of the world.

Elementrix, a digital learning and innovation company, is the latest

addition to the solution offerings offered under George’s leadership.

Both TMI TACK and Elementrix were given industry awards for Employee Engagement and Mobile Learning in the recent HR Magazine National Vendors awards.

George was given the highest honour in the TMI international network, being awarded the TMI Friendship Award for contributions to the TMI global consulting network in 2011, in 2016 and again in 2017. He is the only person in the TMI global network to be given this prestigious award more than one time.

COURSE OUTLINE This is a practical workshop, led by George Aveling, a seasoned customer experience practitioner, who will give you practical steps to build trust in your brand through your Branded Customer Experience. You will be given a model to help you move forward, as well as examples from overseas, case studies of success, and root causes of some failures (the greatest learning comes from our failures!). By the end of the workshop, you will be armed with thinking and ideas to further build your brand…from the inside out, throughout the whole organisation.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND? This workshop is for practitioners who are responsible for building powerful sustainable brands in a holistic way – branding professionals, heads of customer experience, change leaders, organisational development, customer experience professionals, account directors.