The pitch

Singapore not as high-end as HK

2010-10-21T10:55:00.004+08:00

I was in Hong Kong for a week long editor’s conference and was looking for a high-end gift for my high maintenance husband.

Walking along the IFC, I drooled when I saw brand names like Tom Ford and Ascot Chang which carries Brioni. Brioni the makers of the tuxedo in James Bond’s Casino Royale!

As a Singaporean, I felt envious. Why doesn’t Singapore have top notch brands setting up shop in this city?

The daggers of envy were stabbed deeper when Marketing’s entire regional editorial team visited the Monocole store. Global affairs magazine Monocle opened its second retail store in Asia, launching a Hong Kong bureau to join London, Tokyo, New York and Zürich.

The store will play a dual role, acting as a retails front and as a hub for its editorial operations.

Why didn’t Monocole’s editor Tyler Brule set up operations in Singapore?

I decided to ask some branding experts for their thoughts.

Size, perception and reality were the reasons given to why high-end brands set up in Hong Kong. Size does matter especially with Hong Kong’s 7 million population versus Singapore’s 5 million. This makes Hong Kong a more attractive choice for a premium brand’s location after Tokyo and Shanghai.

“Though perception is changing, Hong Kong has a longer history as a global city having attracted global financiers and travelers for longer too. And reality is another reason. Hong Kong’s climate plays a role with its four seasons linking well to the fashion industry’s exciting seasonal cycles versus Singapore’s ‘single’ season. Hong Kong has also been longer linked with ostentatious wealth which would also attract premium brands to Hong Kong first, before Singapore,” said brand specialist Interbrand.

I got my answers but my envy didn’t end.

I did leave Hong Kong with a Brioni wallet though.

It's got everyone talking... 'Really'?

2010-10-18T15:09:00.007+08:00

Microsoft Windows 7 phone ad is garnering much attention in most parts of the world, with bloggers voicing extreme opinions. Tell us what you think about it?

I personally enjoyed seeing the video but hang on, what’s the differentiation in as far as its messaging is concerned? I fail to understand.

And as my colleague says, the background music looks like its right out of Wisteria Lane in Desperate Housewives!

There are moments in the video that do make you smile but I guess that’s all.

What do you think? Let us know.

What’s In A Name or W.I.A.N?

2010-10-01T13:26:00.000+08:00

YOG or Youth Olympic Games. This begs the question, yet again- What’s In A Name (W.I.A.N). Singapore’s inclination toward abbreviations is common knowledge, as just about every expressway, bank, Government body, school, college, commercial complex etc. eases into a coinage of truncated verbiage.

The colloquial speak eventually finds a way into it being ‘the brand name’. The latest entry into the Abridged Book of Convenience (ABC) being YOG - The ‘Youth Olympic Games’.

One could argue that the official name is still the full form of it, however the fact that the commonly spoken and written depiction is YOG, would suggest otherwise. Now, when you probably have the greatest sporting event engrained in a ‘name’ i.e. ‘Olympic’, why should you strip the magnificence that it represents into a set of cold, hollow and meaningless letters.

On the contrary, the meaning of the word ‘Olympic’ should have been heightened.

This is not really about just abbreviating an institution, or about it being a Singaporean obsession. The larger question being- ‘Should convenient condensing of brand names arise without any apparent reason?’

Queensland and Northern Territories Air Service, Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, Victor Company of Japan, International Business Machines Corporations, Bayerische Motoren Werke alias QANTAS, 3M, JVC, IBM, BMW respectively, had both reason and wisdom to rename themselves from descriptive, industrial institutes into initials that grew into multi-billion dollar brands.

Heritage does have a role, and in my view a brand needs to earn an acronym and by that I mean GE and LG, having successfully built their equity have the license to be known by an initial should they so choose.

Occasionally though, brand initials can run the risk of allowing for the world to hijack it into undesired territory based on their unfavourable actions for e.g. Beyond Petroleum (BP) and Government Motors (GM). A move to change into one could sacrifice its equity. Hence let Harley Davidson always be Harley Davidson.

Some brands have had other reasons such as KFC -be it the Kentucky taxes or the implications of ‘Fried’ in a world getting healthier. Removing some baggage, bridging language barriers, changing an offering or renewing meaning from when the brand started to its current avatar can legitimize an acronym. Though, initializing an already existing acronym such as YMCA into Y, one could ask Y?

I don’t personally dismiss acronyms but there are limits and at times it does rob the brand of potentially positive emotions and YOG being one such example. Keeping Mother Teresa Charitable Trust intact as against MTCT would be preferred.

Today, when one is tasked of creating a fresh brand name it would be advisable to keep it simple, meaningful and acronym-proof. Some may not agree and say FCUK, whilst St. Thomas University of Public International Diplomacy might just concur.

Mohit Gopaldas is managing director, Identity Counsel Brand Consultants

The Digital Sweet Spot

2010-07-09T13:47:00.001+08:00

2009 was the year “Minority Report” finally came to life with augmented reality interaction – and you facing up to the reality that privacy is now as confidential as a fish bowl after Facebook made private information searchable.

2010 marks the birth of new devices that are creating more waves in content creation, redefining the usage of mobile phones.

Apple’s iPad has given dying newspapers a new lease of life. The explosion of smart phones and democratic data plans from telcos has converted people from watchers to participators. Location-based applications tell friends where the others are, and real-time status updates across social sharing services, such as Twitter and Facebook – all invite you to read and respond.

Instead of making predictions on the impact that new technologies and trends like Google TV, HTML5 and location-based advertising will have on marketing, it would be more apt to talk about how you can work digital advertising effectively for your client’s business.

With the exponential growth of online content and surge of marketers adopting digital as the lead for their campaigns, we are starting to see more interesting work in Singapore. As the market begins to mature, digital practitioners must put their money where their mouths are, and start delivering results for every cent the clients entrust.

Over the years, I’ve been able to put certain theories to test, and having worked with many brilliant minds, I’ve observed that a combination of factors may just help you nail that sweet spot for your brief and yield results beyond expectations.

Monetise Social Currency
Marketers are starting to mimic successful campaigns, by utilising various components of social media – from viral videos to micro-blogging, Facebook engagement to discussion forums and activation.

And of course, the million-dollar question – “Is there money to be made in social media?” I’d like to think so. The market is ready to separate the boys and men, amateurs and the pros.

If you believe in your idea, peg your remuneration to its result and impact. The digital medium is inherently accountable, and it’s not difficult to work out an attribution and valuation model.

No doubt, the mode of engagement puts pressure on the agency to sharpen the strategy, and gives clients glimpses of a social media heaven. If done well, you’ll have a new convert.

Preach responsible advertising and demand your payout.

Rally People Around a Cause
Human beings gravitate towards goodness. They want to be able to contribute for social, political and environmental causes. We have seen how certain initiatives have gathered the support of global citizens.

The secret to their success: authenticity, sincerity, honesty and keeping it real. These attributes win the hearts and minds of people. More often than not, you are able to move them into active participants.

A brand can stand for a cause under their corporate social responsibility efforts. Whilst the commercial returns are not immediately visible, you will see gains in brand affinity.

However, do be warned that there is a flipside. When you force-fit a cause for a brand in a one-time effort, people can smell dishonesty from a mile. The same impact of cause marketing can work against you.

Maneuver Channel Platforms
Just as many people have an online presence, web users have real friends, (yes they do!) passions and lives. However, this line between virtual interaction and real life connection is getting thinner.

There is now more reality in virtual reality than ever. Here lie opportunities for channel platform maneuvers, where we move people from online to on-ground to mobile and vice versa.

There must be a strong motivation or incentive to move bums off seats. Or a belief that people will connect like-minded individuals, who are passionate enough to do something. I much prefer the latter approach.

A community that is driven by passion creates a longer (maybe even permanent) bond with the activity, thereby making it a valuable asset to any brand.

The science is in the methodology of crowd sourcing. Appoint leaders to be poster boys, and recruit various tiers of members. Along the way, appoint leaders from the mass crowd and grow organically. Soon the multiplier effect will happen.

Content Decentralisation
Content is still king, but you don’t have to create all of it. Take the model of decentralisation and start building satellite content outside the original ecosystem.

Set a framework. Cut consumers loose, invite them to fill in the blanks, and let them remember the experience as their own.

One model we find working out well is an idea of content co-creation with brand ambassadors, from editors to social influencers. However, the accessibility to publishing tools has created many self-proclaimed social influencers.

Sadly, there many who talk amongst themselves, leaving not a single dent of impact. The balance of official and non-official voices is a delicate thing to handle. We must be very selective of who we engage.

Most brands that are brave enough to adopt this find their brand trust increasing year after year. The more you let go, the more you gain.

Lastly, there is no formula in hitting the pot of gold.

Sometimes, it’s about good old-fashioned understanding of human emotions. Sometimes, we have to go beyond our core disciplines to get the results. Sometimes, it requires us to do the minimum.

Deng Xiao Ping once said, "I don't care if it's a white cat or a black cat. It's a good cat so long as it catches mice.” Likewise, do whatever it takes to get the results.

Jeff Cheong is ECD and Head of Tribal DDB Singapore

Does branding have a future?

2010-07-02T12:10:00.001+08:00

I remember about 10 years ago that many people in “the industry” predicted that branding, like several other aspects of business, would die at the hands of the internet.

This idea started when the internet represented a new way of choosing things to buy, where traditional media and retail channels would be overtaken by digital substitutes and people would return to buying products not brands.

The concept experienced a reincarnation of sorts in last few years.

Web 2.0 was going to replace a brand’s reputational promise with transparent user reviews. The Long Tail effect was going to allow niche offers to overtake famous “big hit” brands by allowing buyers to express their true preferences - buying the products they really want, unfettered by production, distribution and communications bottlenecks that have been the traditional battlegrounds for brands in the past.

Well it’s fair to say that brands have survived these pressures. But the practice of branding has been significantly impacted in the process – and not just as a result of the impact of the internet.

It’s also true that while advertising agencies have famously struggled to re-invent themselves – brand consultancies have not always been at the leading edge of innovation in their own practice.

So what are the factors driving change in branding? At FutureBrand we work with renowned futurologist Richard Watson to identify the key macro trends with the most widespread real impacts.

• Changing demographic shapes – tailoring products to the needs of aging populations and the expectations of “digital native” youth

• Global connectivity – the fact that while many people in emerging markets in particular may not have the money or access to brands, their ever increasing exposure to those brands in context of marketing and entertainment shapes their aspirations

• Technology –a range of categories are on the cusp of significant change from technologies in genetics, robotics, nanotechnology and the internet. These will have the effect of shifting their overall value propositions and evidentiary basis for benefits

• Sustainability – this is an issue that’s not going away. Relative to say Europe, much of mainstream Asia remains preoccupied with prosperity rather than sustainability. But consumer niches are growing, and progressive governments and corporates operating in more demanding international environments are starting to offer leadership on this issue

• Emerging economies and Asia – particularly post the global financial crisis, it’s fair to expect that economies and cultures in this part of the world emerge as producers and shapers of brands – not simply large masses of consumers to be exploited

Considering these trends and forces of change that put pressure on brands and the practice of branding, FutureBrand has been giving thought to what makes a ‘future brand’ – a brand that maximizes its long term potential to create business value.

1. It must strive to make people’s lives better.

2. It must do so based upon a future forward view of their category in which their brand, that of the company or organisation and their products and services are driving positive change.

3. Related to this, it must provide an emotional connection to those who are the brand’s greatest advocates or ambassadors, that sets a future brand apart from its more rational or ‘me too’ competitors.

4. And, finally – it must actively understand, manage and appropriately exploit all touch-points at which a consumer or stakeholder interacts with the brand as an organisation, a product or a service. All sensory stimuli are used to connect and differentiate so that the brand values, experience and consumer preference is reinforced and aligned to a brand’s vision.

These characteristics naturally have an impact on the practice of branding in a variety of ways. For example, managing and maximizing touchpoints now means designing great screen-based experiences. Offering compelling emotional connections with brand advocates requires the acceptance of a degree of freedom in customers’ participation with brands, rather than trying to stage “controlled” experiences. So brand management becomes a highly dynamic process of influential interactions with people – not being the logo nazi.

So yes, branding has a future, but its practice is not the same as its past. Brands remain critical assets that drive and deliver ‘value’. As we move into the 21st century, the challenge for marketers and practitioners is to understand how brands can evolve and facilitate growth for the benefit of investors, stakeholders, consumers, customers and employees.

Tim Riches is chief growth officer, Asia Pacific and chief executive officer, Singapore for FutureBrand.

The iPad: New Day Or False Dawn?

2010-06-24T12:37:00.002+08:00

In terms of technology, 2010 has undoubtedly been the year of the iPad.
It has been hailed by many as being the future of everything from computing to publishing, whilst, as with the iPhone, publishers & advertisers alike have pounced on the new device, launching apps for their products and services.

But will the iPad live up to its hype, and should brands & publishers be falling over themselves in the way that they are?
As with most things, the answer is a mixture of yes & no.

Advertising Nirvana?
“Well, we’ve got a lot of free apps — we like that, users like that…What some (developers) are starting to do is put mobile ads in their apps… and most of this advertising sucks.” -Steve Jobs, April 2010

So what does all of this mean for advertisers?

Well, as already discussed, at present the iPad is very much a niche device, but one which punches above its weight in terms of the desirability of that audience and the publicity it generates. And the audience it attracts certainly seems keen to test everything that the iPad has to offer, with over 1 million apps being downloaded on its first day of release.

As a portable device, but one with a browsing experience far beyond that of even the best mobile phones, the iPad opens up new ways for brands to connect with consumers. Targeting content and experiences based on location and demographics, but with rich media experiences, means that brands could create deeper and more durable interactions with consumers.

However, the app rush also exposes two potential issues for brands. Firstly, the fact that the iPad is definitely much more than simply an oversized iPhone means that you can’t simply port your old iPhone app across, at least not if you want it to provide a high-end experience. And, just as the iPhone’s app library is now full to bursting, so a similar rush to develop iPad apps could mean that it becomes very hard to stand out from the crowd.

With more things than ever clamouring for consumers’ attention, any brand app or experience will have to be exceptional to really break through.

Don’t Believe The Hype?
What then is the final reckoning for the iPad?

Whilst it has generated enormous publicity it is still a niche product, and likely to remain so in the near to mid-term future. But by, once again, creating a new sector, Apple is likely to spark a wave of competition that should drive costs down and specs up.

Outtake: Brands shouldn’t simply throw money at tablet apps, but should definitely be thinking about how their audiences are using them, if at all, and how they could fit into that usage.

The continuing battle between closed environments and open platforms will continue, with no winner obvious at the moment. Whilst it would be stupid to ignore Apple’s latest uber-gadget, it would be a very brave exec that bet everything on one or the other.

Outtake: In the mobile wars, all the major operating systems have announced a common app language. Bar Apple. Investing in iPad apps is certainly not a bad idea, but be prepared to have to recreate it for other systems as they come along.

Tablets start to show us what the future of content consumption might look like. At present however too many magazine/newspaper/book apps simply recreate the printed page in a digital format, whilst the revenues likely to be generated won’t plug the massive defecits saddling so many publishing companies.

Outtake: Forward thinking brands will be working with publishers to re-imagine the world of publishing. Just as Time Warner & Toyota’s Mine showed how printed magazines might evolve, so there are opportunities to do the same on tablets.

Advertisers will want to test the capabilities of the iPad, and use it to create more immersive experiences for consumers. But the challenge will be to stand out and, as always, it will come down to creative, rather than technical details.

Outtake: Just because you can do something on the iPad, doesn’t mean you should. Ask yourself why anyone should care about what you plan to do, and keep asking until you have an answer. To paraphrase Bill Clinton, It’s the creative, stupid.

And what about us, will we all be rushing out to buy an iPad? Well, I’m no Apple fanboy, but as the owner of a Macbook, iPod and iPhone I’m clearly not immune to their wiles either.

But for all of that, I’m going to follow the advice of British satirist Charlie Brooker, and wait till it’s cheaper and lighter, and in the meantime I’ll continue to stare enviously at my friends who have bought what Brooker describes as the world’s most expensive rectangle.

The author is Ciarán Norris, Head of Social Marketing, Mindshare

Who cares if it is Good or Great… ?

2010-06-16T17:36:00.001+08:00

Many years ago I was fortunate enough to sit in a training course in Ogilvy Singapore conducted by then Global Creative Director Neil French. He was trying to educate a bunch of suits on what Great Advertising is – not just good…but GREAT. His method was interesting. He showed a reel of Award Winning TVC’s from previous years award shows. So all were winners, and one could argue were already Great. He then instructed us to vote on a 10 point scale. Of course after the first few ads had been played – and we’d all given those spots a 7 or an 8 (pretty good) - he told us we could only use the numbers under 5 or a 9 or 10. So they were either great. Or they weren’t.

Given Neil’s personality, use of profanity and general fear that he instilled in most junior suits it was quite a memorable way of forcing you to question whether something is GREAT – or just kind of OK. Most of us were comfortable with 6’s 7’s or 8’s.

But are we setting our standards high enough? Given the number of average ads on TV , let alone great ones maybe our standards aren’t high enough.

Now I am in the world of media I know we aren’t striving for GREAT.

I have heard too many times the phrase “at least they are doing something…” Usually in the context of new media. Or Search. Or Social Media activity. The fact that a client is doing something is seen as good – as doing something is seen as better than doing nothing.

Now call me old fashioned – but I tend to disagree. It’s a bit like giving a ten year old a violin and asking them to play something. Any sound they make is better than nothing ?? No it’s not. Silence would be better than hearing a sound that resembles fingers on a black board.

Getting a client to ‘do’ Search or Social just so they’ve ticked a box is responsible for users seeing crap on their Facebook pages or spending money on paid ads when their organic rankings are already going to get them the visibility they crave.

The difference between Great Search or great Social – or Great Media in general is huge – in terms of value, impact, relevance and engagement. But why do we settle for good… or even encourage poor just to get a client into a new medium?

Maybe we need more Neil French’s in our side of the industry – bullying and cajoling media teams as well as clients into a more binary view of our business – make it great or keep your money in your pocket!

At Maxus we have banned the expression “at least they are doing something…” or else my ten year old will visit with her violin.

As to an example of great work - I think what Dell is doing (not our client) with their Direct2Dell initiative has turned around a very closed and combative organisation who had failed to embrace the blogging community into a very open and collaborative organisation... Some brilliant work for Axe in Japan (not our client) in the mobile application space is another example of not just doing something in the mobile marketing space - just to give it a go - but doing something that really uses the potential of the medium, a real insight - Japanese guys use their mobiles as an alarm clock - and integrates the brand perfectly into the medium.

The author is Neil Stewart, CEO for Maxus in Asia Pacific.

iAd's revolutionary promise

2010-05-10T10:38:00.004+08:00

Mobile is the undisputed champion of media across the globe with more than 4.1 billion people using mobile phones. That’s about six in 10 people, compared with less than three in 10 who access the internet through a PC. It is easy to understand why advertisers are excited about using mobile as a tool for marketing. The ubiquity of the mobile, combined with the ability to target, track, measure and reach people at key purchase decision points, quickly transforms into advertising nirvana. So why then is mobile advertising only expected to account for a paltry 2% of the digital media market’s spending in 2010 (according to eMarketer)?

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has the answer: “Because most mobile advertising really sucks.” He is right. Screens are small, which leads to disappointing creativity that makes it difficult for an ad to successfully compel a viewer to invest the time away from their current activity to click through. But Apple’s new iAd platform has these possibility to change that, at least for the projected 100 million Apple mobile device users.

It is a relatively small number of the total global mobile population, but as Jobs pointed out in his April presentation it is a very attractive demographic for advertisers. Furthermore, AdMob reported that the iPhone OS accounts for 50% of mobile web traffic and, in places such as Japan, Apple’s iPhone accounts for 72% of the smartphone market, according to Tokyo-based MM Research Institute Ltd.

With iAd, not only has Apple re-thought mobile advertising with the entire iPhone ecosystem in mind, but it has also drawn on its experience as one of the world’s most enjoyed brand advertisers, leading to several features that sets iAd apart. Users will come across iAd within an application. At first, the ad will look similar to the current small banners that are common, but the meat of the ad presents itself after a user initiates interaction.

Paramount to Jobs is that the iAd experience does not take a user away from their current app. Because of the new iPhone OS4 multitasking capabilities, a user can interact with an iAd without closing their current app and go back to where they left off when they are done with the ad. Jobs believes that if people don’t have to “pay the penalty of having to find their way back to their app” it will result in more clicks (or taps) for advertisers. An improved user experience may be just the thing the mobile advertising industry
needs to propel itself further into the plans and budgets of advertisers.

iAd intends to present advertisers a mobile ad platform with more impact, delivering “interactivity and emotion”, as Jobs puts it, by giving creatives a richer canvas to work with, blurring the line between entertainment, information, apps and advertising.

It sounds very promising, but there are questions and challenges.

One unknown is the quality of the metrics and data advertisers will be able to get on iAd campaigns. According to registered developers, there are restrictions on third-party targeting and measurement, which many
advertisers rely on for precise and unbiased information about their digital marketing.

All the data will flow through Apple, presumably on the technology that came with its recent Quattro acquisition.

Targeting will benefit from the detailed understanding Apple has about users from its iTunes and App Store behaviour, however, it is yet to be determined how well this approach will be received by marketers.

The iAd interactive and emotional experience is also not alone in the mobile
advertising market. Companies such as Medialets offer similar units, which also allow for rich and immersive creative.

Furthermore, while the number of Apple apps downloaded far surpasses any others, the Apple App Store isn’t the only game in town. Nokia, BlackBerry and others have moved into the apps distribution business. Then there is the price tag.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that being part of the iAd launch could cost up to US$10 million, with regular campaign pricing eventually in the US$1 million range. There is no denying that Apple has proven time and time again its expertise at making technology simpler, fun and sexier. Apple has redefined categories so don’t be surprised if mobile advertising is next.

The author is Jason Kuperman, vice president, digital development, Asia Pacific, Omnicom group.

To make 'like' easier

2010-04-27T09:59:00.007+08:00

Facebook just gave you a great new tool to spread recommendations about your product.

Many brands have content, news about their newest shiniest product, that they would love to get shared across social networks. The idea of information about your product “going viral” and gaining vast reach without having to pay media costs has long been a holy grail.

But despite platforms like Facebook providing the possibility for it to happen, it hasn’t.

Why, because of the friction involved. The effort both you (the brand) and your fans have to go through to get the information to “jump the wall” from your website to the social network, is too high.
Facebook just changed that by proving a portable Like button (it used be the Fan button). Copy and paste a few lines of code onto your site and you can have that familiar Thumbs Up right on your own website. And since a Like is form of recommendation, earning and getting those Likes visible is extremely valuable.

Here is the simple elegance, when a person clicks on the Like button on your site, news of that gets posted to their wall. For their (on average 150) friends to see, and hopefully click on. No need for them to do messy copy and paste, nor to go through the hurdle of logging in. Just click.

Get a few tens of thousands of people to Like your news, and you quickly gain reach that people thought only “old” media could give you. For free. Facebook expects to serve 1 billion “Like” buttons in the 1st 24 hours of its launch just to give you an idea of scale.

Now, you all you need is news that people will Like!

We at Vocanic implemented this on our own website www.vocanic.com, allowing visitors on the page to “Like” the page. Take it for spin and see how easy it is – easy enough for your brand’s audience to do too.

By Ian McKee, CEO Vocanic

Brand within a brand

2010-04-22T11:20:00.003+08:00

How important a role do brands play when it comes to creating a nation’s image? Perhaps a lot, according to Tim Love, Omnicom’s Vice Chairman and recently-named chairman of Asia Pacific India Middle East & Africa (APIMA).

Brands are both target and the key vehicle to improve a nation’s perceptions he says and what better example than the United States. Love discussed this in a recent lecture at Oxford University titled "The Penalty of Freedom."

Despite a generally positive global reaction created by Barack Obama’s presidency, there continues to be a significant anti US sentiment worldwide. Citing the reports from the Pew Research Centre which has been measuring the global attitudes about the US since before 9/11, Love says that the results show a slight improvement in America’s image in 2008, but its well below the ratings in 1999 and 2000. Moreover, this perception was exacerbated by the global economic tsunami that started in 2008 and which has been perceived as a result of unrestrained US financial hubris.

Marketing in its May issue asked the head honchos of agencies whether nations can really brand themselves. Love in his lecture goes a step further saying sweeping societal and technological change has altered traditional definitions of global brands in a world with new frames of reference.

This, Love says, also reflects in concern brands have in mind given the interconnectedness of the global economy as well as potential unfavourable perception towards American businesses and brands. He cites that among the world’s top 100 economies, 49 are nations, while 51 are multinational corporations. This means more peoples lives are touched by corporations and brands than any single nation's government.

“The planet is not one homogeneous market and multiculturalism is fast becoming an essential characteristic of global brand-building,” Love says.

This does not hold only true for America. Look at the socio-political upheaval in Thailand and the impact it has had not only on the country’s image among tourists but the business operating there. Foreign reports stated how some hotels in central Bangkok closed temporarily because of fears of violence between security forces and anti-government protesters who occupied an upmarket shopping and leisure district since 3 April. This included InterContinental Hotel Bangkok and also the luxury shopping mall Gaysorn Plaza.

And just as I pen this blog, we receive news of AdFest, one of the industry’s most reputed event falling to the axe.

This takes me back to what Peter Valerio comments on marketing-interactive’s story on whether Singapore can brand itself as a nation? Valerio says image is a far more appropriate word than brand as far as its perception is concerned. If anything, image management/influencing is far more appropriate and realistic.

Love further adds that the evolution of media in particular is creating a new generation of global citizens whose affect on brands is undeniable. However, he emphasizes that there is a penalty to this new-found freedom of unprecedented levels of shared communications. “In a world where we are all more accessible and more visible, we also must become more accountable—to ourselves, to our society and to our planet,” he says.

Is Twitter killing Sports?

2009-11-19T11:42:00.002+08:00

If we needed another example of how Twitter is changing the way of sports media and how the stars communicate with their fans, two players from the All Blacks have given us just that this week.

Cory Jane and Neemia Tialata, squad members of the fearsome New Zealand rugby side currently on tour in Europe, tweeted about their non-selection for this weekend’s big test match against England before the team was officially released to mainstream media.

One can imagine it’s irked the All Black coaches, though they attempted to make light of the situation at the official team naming in London. Watch the start of this video to see coach Graham Henry’s humourous reaction to the Twitter dilemma.

This is just the latest example of how Twitter has caused problems for sports stars, with one particular NBA player, Charlie Villanueva of the Milwaukee Bucks, landing himself in hot water with management when he tweeted during a halftime break earlier this year.

Shaquille O’Neal is another NBA player addicted to Twitter, using the social media tool to trash talk opponents and share his dislike for former Orlando Magic coach Steve Van Gundy.

There are numerous other examples – including rookie Australian cricket batsman Phil Hughes tweeting about his axing from the Ashes test side in July.

Here’s an interesting (American) commentary below regarding the question whether Twitter, and social media as a whole, is killing sports.

What do you think? Should sports stars simply bypass mainstream media and use social media tools like Twitter to reach their fans? Do traditional media still have an important role to play in covering sports?

Who wants to elect an awards jury?

2009-10-13T11:11:00.002+08:00

With all the debate about the purpose and worth of award shows in the past 12 months, The International Andy Awards has taken a novel approach – you decide the jury.

For the first time the Andys, which are based in New York, are asking the public to vote on who they want on the jury. You can also nominate jury members who you think should be in the running to make the jury, but you have to be quick, the select a nominee option closes on 15 October and overall voting closes on 15 November

I think this is a great idea, especially in this digital, everyone-has-a-voice online age that we live in. Also especially as the Andys want to make its awards show more global and pick the best of the best from around the world, and have a better representation from the digital marketing world. It's also targeting Asia, so if there’s someone you think is worthy in Asia then nominate them online at electthejury.com.

“Communications platforms have gotten so complex and advertising is going through unprecedented change because of it. But one of the things that hasn’t changed is the way that awards shows work. Our mission is to get more people from different disciplines actively involved in figuring out who decides what the best work in 2010 is,” Ty Montague, co-chair of the Andys and co-president and chief creative officer of JWT North America, said.

Check out a video of Montague and co-chair Michael Lebowitz's explanation on the jury selection here.

American Idol meets advertising award show, sort-of. Will be interesting to see the results of this crowd-sourcing model and what jury it churns out in the end.

What would you do if you got the sack?

2009-10-12T10:31:00.003+08:00

Retrenchments, redundancies and lay offs are very common these days in the advertising industry, but what would your reaction be if it happened to you?

Would you document the whole experience online, through a series of videos and images in a funny, creative way?

That’s exactly what art director Shane Dawson and copywriter Ben Birchall did after they were sacked from The Campaign Palace Melbourne, which is part of WPP, after the agency lost the National Foods account. The pair have created this site called The Sack, which shows the experience of them losing their jobs and their travails in filming the journey, finding out what to do with their time, looking for business and setting up as freelancers.

It shows them going for interviews at agencies like Droga5 and DDB in their hunt for a new job, and shows them gaining some small media fame. It’s good fun and worth a look.

So far their videos have got thousands of views (they're up to day 24), and like a fine wine the series gets better with age. No doubt it’s a only matter of time before they get a new job.

YouTube: A web odyssey

2009-10-06T09:51:00.000+08:00

It's miserable weather in Singapore today so here’s a bit of frivolity – 100 of the greatest hits on YouTube since its inception.

And all in four minutes. Actually its 3 minutes and 24 seconds, but who’s counting.

This clip recaps some of the best and brightest moments YouTube has captured, some clips of pure hilarity and stupidity, and some which have lead to 15 minutes of worldwide fame for the subjects. There’s everything from Susan Boyle, the light saber-wielding Star Wars kid and Zinedine Zidane’s World Cup headbutt to Obama Girl and Ok Go’s treadmill music video.

YouTube has certainly irrevocably changed the media landscape and our consumption of media, and it’s amazing how many of these clips from this montage have become etched in our minds.

Outrageous Outdoor

2009-09-14T14:42:00.005+08:00

Why is outdoor advertising in New Zealand so damn good?

It's hard to put your finger on. Maybe it’s the beautiful Middle-Earth like landscape, the adrenalin-loving people or the wide open spaces. The risk-taking, conquer the world/Edmund Hillary spirit. Whatever it is, OOH advertising in NZ is often truly innovative and eye-catching.

Here’s one recent example for the news website stuff.co.nz:

Those Kiwis just love to do cheeky and provocative stuff.

Here’s one for the controversial Hell Pizza brand (which in the past has used DM which involved giving condoms away in pizza boxes).

And one to promote the American TV show Weeds a few years back by DraftFCB.

This great campaign actually ended in people trying to steal the ‘weed’ from the billboard, which looked very real but of course was fake. A great way to generate some attention.

Colenso BBDO won a few awards with this exploding billboard:

There’s also some work that TBWA NZ has done over the last couple of years, some video game-sniper related stuff and some work for Adidas which is also very interesting.

The question is, why is OOH in New Zealand so good?

And in Singapore, what’s holding this market, a fellow developed country with about the same sized population, back from doing similarly great work?

Football ad feast

2009-08-20T15:32:00.005+08:00

I don’t know what it is about football, but the sport lends itself especially to great advertising.

I came across this ad this week by England’s Football Association, to encourage participation.

It’s a great ad and reminded me of a number of good football-related campaigns. This one's from a few years back.

And in my digging I came across a few other gems (a lot from Nike).

This one's proves a nice insight into Wayne Rooney.

And this one is more similar to the first one, and was directed by Guy Ritchie.

To finish up there's always this famous football ad.

I couldn't find the English version but for those who remember the 2002 World Cup it should be familiar. Arguably the world's greatest footballer Pele spruiks an anti-impotence drug, then claims he's never had a problem getting it up. And then there's always this light-hearted gem from the UK for the beer brand John Smith:

So just what is it exactly about football ads? Is it easier to make a good ad about football, because of the subject, or not? Are there any other great football ads you would recommend?

Huge chance for Singapore's sporting cause

2009-08-19T16:07:00.004+08:00

While there may be 10 years until the 9th edition of the prestigious Rugby World Cup, there still remains a huge amount of work for Singapore to carry out should the International Rugby Board (IRB) allow hosts Japan to stage some group matches here in 2019.

As it stands right now, Japan has been awarded the 2019 hosting rights for the world’s third biggest sporting event. Part of the Japanese Rugby Union’s successful proposal to the IRB was that it was a bid not just for Japan, but for Asia as a whole, and that potentially both Singapore and Hong Kong could host a group each in the tournament.

Japan has still to put forward a required second proposal to the IRB, detailing “compelling reasons” why it should host part of the event outside its own territory.

According to Ian Bremner, the chief executive of the Singapore Rugby Union (SRU), the time frame for that is within the next couple of months.

It’s not yet clear when the IRB will come to a final decision, while they’d probably be forgiven if they put it on the backburner for now given that their number one priority at the moment is pushing for rugby sevens to be included in the Olympic Games.

What will play in Singapore’s favour, however, is that 2015 hosts England are planning to host some group matches in Wales. The birthplace of rugby is also waiting on confirmation from the IRB but if the RFU is successful, a precedent will surely be set for the following tournament.

But whatever the time frame, if Singapore is indeed given the green light by the IRB, there are a number of key issues to head up the planning process.

Putting the massive sports marketing opportunities to one side for a moment, first on the agenda is the completion of the Sports Hub. I experienced the furore in my own country when New Zealand was handed the hosting rights of the 2011 Rugby World Cup - the rugby-mad nation was split down the middle between those who wanted a new waterfront stadium in Auckland and those who wanted Eden Park redeveloped in time for the big event. The debate dragged on for months, forever stalling the actual building work.

“To be honest, the Sports Hub is definitely the first thing that needs to be organised,” Bremner said.

“In the talks that we had prior to the bid, the SCC (Singapore Sports Council) were major partners in those discussions. I think we all realise that the sports hub will happen – in what shape or form, I personally am not sure.”

Jonathan Leow, who currently heads up the sports PR and marketing team at SPRG, also raises a valid point regarding training facilities.

“I would say that is the one area that Singapore needs to step up in to host a World Cup pool. Even currently there are only two natural grass pitches actively used by the SRU, and the Singapore Cricket Club (SCC) has two more at its disposal,” he said.

He’s speaking from experience too, having previously been in charge of training grounds and pitches for both the IRB Singapore 7s in 2004 and 2005 as well as the SCC 7s.

“Having one great stadium is fine for paying fans, but at the top level teams require their training grounds to be as good as their playing areas.”

If the infrastructure is up to scratch, it then becomes about marketing the event and attracting local sponsors to get involved. On the surface, it’s easy to assume that rugby struggles to get a foothold in Singapore’s sporting scene but it’s a game that is quickly gathering momentum in the city-state.

As Bremner points out, in terms of the game locally, there are 24 schools that play rugby at Under 11, 13, 15, 17 and 19 levels. There are four universities and 12 rugby clubs, women’s polytechnic and university rugby, as well as women’s senior rugby.

So it’s clear there’s a local base of rugby people – the problem lies in the fact the national team is not involved and whether those neutral locals will be attracted to watching other international teams square off against each other.

It has been speculated that the Wallabies (the Australian national side) will play their group matches here, though nothing has yet been set in stone. It would certainly make geographical sense to draw Australian supporters (and their dollars) to Singapore, while you’d assume Hong Kong would host England and Japan would keep the All Blacks – the game’s most marketable team.

Whichever of the big rugby nations does base itself in Singapore, Leow sees attracting local sponsors to the table as a major road block, given very few view rugby as a sport with wide appeal. The tournament’s current worldwide partners are Emirates, MasterCard and Heineken.

That fact was highlighted when the proposed World Club Challenge, scheduled to be held here in July, was canned because a lack of major sponsors as well as inadequate facilities.

“Even with the Government backing this initiative, the worry for sponsors would be how much value it would be for local companies – and local sponsors are a key part I feel of the wider picture.”

The participation agreement for something as major as the Rugby World Cup carries a significant number of clauses by way of what you can and can’t do, yet Bremner says there are definite plans to get local companies on board.

“We would be building a very strong programme around it in terms of things like coaching clinics, all sorts of things. With those sorts of things, clearly there’d be an opportunity for local companies to get involved in one of the most major things to happen in Singapore in a number of years.”

Granted, Singapore does have a fair amount of time to play with if it is ultimately confirmed as a co-host for RWC 2019. But aside from hosting the Olympic Games or the FIFA World Cup, it won’t get a better opportunity to further push its case as the premier sports hub in Asia.

Australia’s second ad TV show

2009-08-17T15:37:00.009+08:00

First there was The Gruen Transfer and now there’s :30 Seconds – a new Australian comedy-drama about advertising which is written by Aussie ad agency Three Drunk Monkeys (3DM).

3DM, which incidentally is working with StarHub, wrote the new show, specifically its executive creative directors Justin Drape and Scott Nowell with Prodigy Films director Tim Bullock. :30 Seconds is being produced by Zapruder’s Other Films, which was behind The Gruen Transfer. For those who don’t know it, The Gruen Transfer is a hugely successful Australian TV show which analyzes the world of advertising. It features a panel of advertising members, like George Patterson Y&R Australia CEO Russel Howcroft, Leo Burnett Australia CEO Todd Sampson (who has now become some kind of sex symbol because of the program) and DDB Australia ECE Matt Eastwood. The show has been a ratings hit and provided the general public with an interesting, and humorous look, into the world of advertising.

Here's some clips from The Gruen's segment The Pitch, where two ad agencies have to made ads for a fake brief. This one's to promote the invasion of New Zealand.

And here's the second one.

On the back on The Gruen Transfer comes :30 Seconds. While I haven’t seen any of the show apart from these snippets promoting it online, it could be a winner as well.

With a high-profile cast, :30 Seconds is set in the fictional world of multinational agency BND. If you throw the classic American drama Mad Men into this mix, it seems to be a golden age for fictional TV programs about the advertising and marketing world. Mad Men, now just starting its third season in the US (and the second season to debut on pay TV in Asia soon), has been a massive hit and so has The Gruen Transfer in Australia (it’s just finished its second series). Gruen has made it overseas to quite a few countries I believe, but not to Asia.

Why is that? And will :30 Seconds make it to Asia? Why couldn’t we have an Asian version of The Gruen Transfer, with Asian industry members dissecting Asian ads?

I think there’s definitely room in Asia’s TV environment for a show that examines the world of advertising, whether it be done in a fictional way or in a more light-hearted, comedic approach. Both Mad Men and The Gruen Transfer have made advertising seem more interesting and exciting (and more important) as a profession, and in Australia graduate numbers for advertising careers have soared.

If the marketing and advertising industry wants to claim its fair share of the best and brightest young minds around wouldn’t this be a good, if a little unorthodox way, of doing it in Asia?

It might not be exactly tied in, but HP’s new Asian reality TV show which encourages creativity is at least I start. I, for one though, would like to see more of this kind of thing.

Sprite oral sex ad was a fake

2009-07-22T12:47:00.002+08:00

A controversial new ad for Sprite, that has been doing the rounds online and has been revealed as a fake, is a very interesting marketing experiment.

The Huffington Post reported on the ad, which it claimed had been banned in Germany, but has now been revealed as a fake originating from the US. The TVC has no official affiliation with Coke or its agencies. The fake ad can be watched here. Its interesting to see the presenters refer to Singapore’s recent Burger King ad scandal.

Its also quite fascinating about the media storm this ad, which is not real, has created. Has the kerfuffle actually indirectly helped Sprite, because it wasn’t involved and looks responsible compared with the oral sex ad? Or not? With what seems like a constant recent stream of offensive and controversial ads, are brands now looked on better if they play it safe in their marketing, or should they be edgy?

What agencies will do for business

2009-07-10T11:44:00.009+08:00

Its been a tough 12 months for the advertising industry and it's interesting what agencies these days will do for money.

We’ve seen pitches with 30 agencies involved, heard claims of massive undercutting and more marketers are making agencies jump through hoops for little return.

But on 30 July at the Ritz-Carlton we’ll put that all aside to celebrate agency excellence and the best client-agency relationships in Singapore. This year we'll announce our first ever Agency Professional of the Year, and unveil several new categories such as Search Marketing Agency of the Year and Web Design Agency of the Year. Will Ogilvy & Mather take home the overall Agency of the Year crown again? Who will be 2009's Next Big Thing?

I hope to see you all there at our Agency of the Year awards, and share a drink with you.

Also, thanks to LloydNorthover Yeang for creating our ad campaign for the awards, and thanks to JWT's Angus Fraser and Ogilvy's David Mayo for being good sports. Not that I'll be able to look at either of you the same again though.

Droga5 fires up Aussie adland

2009-07-08T13:51:00.004+08:00

It hasn’t been all smooth sailing since advertising guru Dave Droga launched his agency in his native Australia 19 months ago, but this week the often-maligned creative outfit made the local ad industry sit up and take notice as it unveiled two huge campaigns.

Dave Droga, a former ECD of Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore who has gone on to worldwide fame and fortune, started Droga5 in Sydney on 1 January 2008 and straight away the new agency made waves. It brought in a number of industry heavy-hitters, like Marianne Bess, David Nobay and Sudeep Gohil from Saatchis, and picked up one Australia’s top brands in VB, which had been with George Patterson Y&R Melbourne for more than 40 years. For those who don’t know, marketing for VB in recent times has been extremely successful and won many advertising awards. Droga5 Sydney also won V Australia, a low-budget international airline owned by Virgin, and is working on Puma down under after a global win.

Consistent with Australia’s tall-poppy syndrome (Aussies love to criticize the high and mighty) Droga5 has copped a lot of flak, particularly for its work for the VB sub-brand VB Gold ( a mid-strength beer). See the work on YouTube here and then check out comments about a similar piece of work here (on this one Droga5 publicly acknowledge that it collaborated with the writer of the Manstrokewoman sketch).

However this week Droga5 has hit back in big way. Firstly, it launched an ambitious campaign for V Australia. This great idea, which echoes Tourism Queensland’s “Best Job in the World” campaign in some ways, uses Twitter and social media in a very smart way. How effective will it be? Its early days, so only time will tell.

Also this week Droga5 Sydney unveiled its highly anticipated work for VB, which is one of the largest beer commercials ever produced in Australia with a cast of more than 2000 people and a crew of 150.

The massive campaign, which includes this site and the usual suspects – print, radio, outdoor, in-store etc – also ties in with the current Ashes series between Australia and England. Foster’s, VB’s owner, is a big sponsor of the Aussie cricket team. It includes different executions of the TVC and features Aussie celebrities and sports stars.

The ad harks back to some of Foster’s best ever beer ads, like “The Big Ad”:

And “Flashbeer”:

Will it reach the same heights as those? Again, its too early to say but it will certainly give them a shake. No matter what happens Droga5 Sydney has definitely answered its critics in the best way possible and let its work do the talking.

Is Microsoft’s ad too sick for YouTube?

2009-07-06T10:18:00.003+08:00

Having recently been panned for its unsuccessful ads involving Jerry Seinfeld and founder Bill Gates, Microsoft’s marketing team has taken another hit with news that their latest online ad has had to be pulled off YouTube following complaints from users.

The controversial ad features Dean Cain, of Superman fame, and is directed by Bob Goldthwait –the guy who played Bobcat in the Police Academy films.

It’s already been pulled from YouTube but you can watch what all the fuss was about here.

What do you think of the ad? Does it warrant the public outcry? Or is it even funny?

Enter the digital ninja exit the overnight "expert"

2009-06-29T17:33:00.011+08:00

On a trip just completed to New York to rally support for, well, I can't say too much, but it's a pretty badly kept secret, I had the opportunity to meet a lot of interesting agency people on Madison Avenue including a ninja.

I was very interested in how fast digital was moving in the US as compared to Asia and if the Yanks at the epicentre of advertising and marketing had any answers.

My thinking was we really don't know where it's heading in Asia, clients blame the agencies for not being forward thinking enough and not being able to define what works and what doesn't, and agencies blame clients for not being brave enough.

But hey they must know where it's all headed in the States, they have the biggest clients, they built most of the biggest or stickiest online properties (and all the ones China likes to ban); Google, twitter, facebook, digg.com etc. and they have witnessed the fastest fleeing for the exits, in main media, of any market.

One of our meetings was in the offices of McCann Erickson New York, where the extremely helpful Susan Irwin arrange for us to meet with Faris Yakob EVP chief technology strategist with McCanns or self described digital ninja.

Faris, has a laid back skate boarder vibe about him and is addictively enthusiastic about the digital space (actually I'll stop with the glowing description there, I don't want to risk the caning a competitor recently got over a profile of Moray MacLennan!).

What transpires is Faris experiences a lot of the same frustrations in his market as we do out here, a lack confidence not matching the soaring wave of digital media consumption and considerable knowledge gaps.

He recalled to me sitting in a meeting with someone who was supposedly something of a digital adviser who continually called the world's favourite micro blogging site "tweeter" which took us on to talk of charlatans who set themselves up as consultants, taking advantage of the lack of real knowledge in the field.

He stresses that it's important companies get used to and immerse themselves in the technologies and platforms to understand and engage consumers better, otherwise you are just on the outside trying to look in through what can be a pretty foggy window if you don't understand it very well.

I guess it isn't enough to play around the edges you really need to understand why audiences engage on all these platforms or spaces, before you can hope to get an understanding of how you can take advantage of the environment.

But just as interesting as anything Faris had to say was the fact McCanns has this job function inside its walls - you feel very much this guy has time to think, research and play, all the better to advise the agency, and more importantly the clients.

Sure a lot of agencies out here have staff who blog, twitter and socialise in other ways online and most now have staff in a digital department, but there used to be in those last years and months before the bubble burst last time around a push to have digital "thinkers" in the company who just were allowed to sit around and come up with ideas, of course they all went the way of online pet shops by 2001.

But maybe it's time the job function, with a bit more of a pragmatic overlay, is revived.

Faris' job title reveals he does more than sit around and think all day, he is part of the executive that shapes the McCann business model and works with clients, planners and creative teams to build clients' digital presence, he's also a pretty promiscuous figure on the speaking and writing circuit.

As clients are now looking for more than canned responses to their very many questions about digital marketing and need access to someone within the agency's walls who has more than just a day pass to the digital world, we could do worse than hunt for and install talent in agencies that comes from non-traditional places.

So maybe it's time to lock away the breakables and bring in a ninja!

Predictions for Cannes

2009-06-22T17:30:00.003+08:00

Just had a look through some the entries being judged at Cannes this year, and there is some brilliant work.

Recession or not, the industry is still capable of producing some fantastic stuff. Here’s Leo Burnett’s global creative chief Mark Tutssel predictions of 50 campaigns that he thinks will win gongs at Cannes (via Rapp's Cannes Cast blog).

I’ve picked out a few from this bunch which stand out, for mind. There’s this one:

And this nice London stunt for T-Mobile:

The Matrix-inspired Golf ad:

And Nintendo’s Great Wario work:

Um, probably the least said about this one the better.

This is a great ad:

And a few more to finish off:

Well done if you got through all those.

The common theme seems to be that the entries and delegate numbers might be down at Cannes this year, but the best work will still win out in the end, and we can celebrate the creative power of great advertising. That's what matters.

How online shoots itself in the foot

2009-06-01T17:30:00.004+08:00

There are many good reasons to put your money into digital marketing, and here’s one big reason not to.

This would have to be one of the most annoying local online ad campaigns in recent memory.

Take a look.

Now I agree that the problem here is not that’s an online ad, the problem essentially is that it's just bad advertising. It’s annoying. Really annoying. And most banner ads aren’t nearly as annoying as this.

Banner ads are also a small part of digital marketing. There’s everything from social media, search, video, rich media, social networks, blogs and everything else in between for marketers to get involved in.

But the problem is that this ad is so bad, it’s detrimental to the practice of digital marketing. It gives the online market a bad rap. Sure I can name numerous TV ads that are annoying, that are repeated over and over. But this Mocca.com banner ad just seems worse in many ways. And as people spent more time online than any other medium these days, maybe it is. Not only does it make you actually surf away from the site that the ad appears on, it’s so bad that someone has spent time to upload it to YouTube just to show the world how painful it is.

I'm not saying you shouldn't put your money into digital - if you read the pages of Marketing and our online properties, you'll see we truly believe in the power and effectiveness of good digital marketing. But for god's sake think through and test what you plan to do before you do it, and at the very least, make sure you aren't out there annoying people.

Where next for advertising?

2009-05-26T09:53:00.004+08:00

An interesting development from Australia recently has highlighted how cluttered the world has become of advertising these days. Is there any room or new spaces left?

A rugby league player, Gold Coast Titans hooker Nathan Friend, was busted by the sport’s governing body for his very own version of ambush marketing. Friend wore headgear that was branded with the logo of his own personal training company in a game against the Brisbane Broncos. The National Rugby League quickly fined Friend for breaking sponsorship rules.

Now sports stars wearing logos and branding is nothing new, and in truth this incident is a far cry from what the myriad of dramas that Australian rugby league as brand is currently dealing with (don't ask). In boxing you often see fighters battling it out with ugly ads on their backs. But headgear? Where to next? We already have ads in toilets, on coffee cups, taxis, trains, bar mats, mobile phones, blimps, hangers and everything else.

What’s left?

Will we start to see ads on things like ties, belts and prams? Will tattoo advertisements for brands on bodies become the norm?

Everything in life seems branded one way or another. Have we gone too far in the pursuit to break through the clutter, or does the consumer even care anymore?

Inspiration or imitation?

2009-05-21T09:28:00.009+08:00

While it’s difficult to take anything away from an ad which inspired a nation to discuss a particularly sensitive topic, it’s equally as hard to ignore some of the negative feedback which it also garnered.

The ‘Funeral’ TVC, created by Leo Burnett and directed by Yasmin Ahmad for MCYS, has been picked up by a number of bloggers who the claim it is a blatant rip-off of a scene out of Good Will Hunting.

In the ‘Funeral’ ad, a widow speaks of her dead husband’s imperfections at his funeral. In the scene out of Good Will Hunting, Robin Williams’ character talks of the ‘little things’ he remembers about his wife.

Bloggers have been quick to draw similarities between the two films, questioning the originality of the Funeral TVC.

For those who don’t want to sit through the entire Good Will Hunting scene, skip through to about the 1min 40 mark.

This similarity raises a larger issue for the creative industry around the world. Creatives get inspiration for their work from a variety of sources. But when does this cross the line? Is there such a thing as a truly original idea anymore?

Have bloggers been correct in labeling the MCYS ad a rip-off of Good Will Hunting or are they reading too much into it? Would love to hear your thoughts.

Coke’s brilliant ad

2009-05-08T14:25:00.002+08:00

Sometimes you see a piece of advertising that you enjoy so much you just have to pass it on.

This ad for Coke from Mother in the UK certainly fits the bill. It’s funny, quite out there and just plain weird but wonderful. Check it out.

The Pitch: Tourism marketing continues to innovate

2009-05-06T11:32:00.003+08:00

Following the lead of Tourism Queensland and the hugely successful ‘Best Job in the World’ campaign, Tourism New Zealand is also leveraging the power of user generated content to market the Land of the Long White Cloud.

A mobile recording studio has been set up to collect footage of what visitors to New Zealand have to say about the country, with the short interviews then loaded up onto YouTube.

Over 32,000 people have already checked out the videos, which now number close to 1500, on Tourism New Zealand’s ‘Have Your Say’ YouTube Channel.

It’s the latest example of national tourism bodies using real stories from real people – all giving personal recommendations – a marketing tool which is continuing to grow in power.

Tourism Malaysia has a similar component on its website with ‘My Discoveries’ – where visitors share their unique experiences through videos, photos and stories.

The ‘Best Job in the World’ initiative remains the poster campaign for innovative tourism marketing that channels the power of social media, with Tourism Queensland still creaming it in international publicity. Video applications for the job garnered huge worldwide interest, and the winner of the contest will be announced today.

The 16 finalists arrived on Hamilton Island for the final round of interviews this week and were immediately surrounded by international media crews, including the BBC which is shooting an hour-long documentary.

According to the Tourism Queensland CEO Anthony Hayes, they’ve already calculated over $100 million in publicity and expect another $20 or $30 million to roll in before the week closes – a sound return for what Hayes says came to around $1 million.

Creative turn for local industry?

2009-04-13T10:02:00.001+08:00

The Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) has launched its 2009 campaign ‘Funeral’, an uncomfortable topic as many would find it. The TVC moves the audience with beautifully crafted script and music and leaves their eyes glassy.

The previous one ‘Family’, too, showed a night worker, living in a rented HDB flat, financially constrained finding it hard to make ends meet. Not something you would expect coming out of the government, which is known to be particularly particular about how Singapore is portrayed in TVCs.

Needless to say, both campaigns have received acceptance and appreciation from Singaporeans. Both have been directed by Yasmin Ahmad, who is well-known for her creativity and directorial brilliance in Malaysia as well as Singapore.

Does this then reflect a change in the government’s mindset, a move towards embracing the not-so-rosy reality and finally putting the message in the campaign ahead of superfluous details like what the protagonist is wearing or where is it shown to be living?

Singapore’s creativity standards has long been under question when compared to neighbours like Malaysia and Thailand and this need not necessarily translate into any sort of finger-raising on the creative agencies but certain tacit parameters that have to be followed.

Industry insiders too have agreed that advertising in Singapore misses the local flavour and culture. Well then, if everything is global in this country, do these campaigns make a mark in their own little way? Does the industry think that it could well be the beginning of a new trend that gives Singapore a significantly higher creative standing?

Social networking is a big differentiator

2009-04-09T17:38:00.000+08:00

Facebook, Twitter and the entire social media revolution differentiates this recession from others and is the best time to build relationship with consumers, says Guy Abrahams of ZenithOptimedia.

Abrahams was speaking at the media agency’s event “Maximise Market ROI in a Slowdown”. Here is what he had to say.

Hef eyes up NZ mansion

2009-04-08T14:31:00.001+08:00

An advertising agency in New Zealand pulled a decent April Fool’s Day prank last week, publishing full page ‘articles’ and a PR kit announcing that Playboy mogul Hugh Hefner was converting part of the Rotorua Museum into his new Playboy holiday mansion – a ploy to deflect some recent and highly publicised criticism from an Australian blogger.

The idea from Auckland’s KingSt Advertising initially sprang when reports were published on recent research which discovered a link between hydrogen sulphide - the gas that gives Rotorua its infamous rotten egg smell - and male sexual arousal.

The research had come by way of Italy’s University of Naples and it was published in the Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The news stories reported that Hefner had brokered a deal with the Rotorua Trust to convert the final stage of the Museum into his new mansion.

"At my age it's great to get up in the morning without relying on any form of medication," the press release quoted Hefner as saying.

The fictitious story was partly set up to deflect criticism from an Australian blogger who had bagged the smell of Rotorua on his site. The blog quickly made national news and caused an outcry from patriotic Kiwis.

The media release claimed Hefner was bound for Rotorua as soon as he heard the sex claims.

"While I thought the research findings would attract a lot of international interest from men looking to improve their sexual performance, I never expected a call from the man responsible for the sexual revolution of the sixties," Lyall Thurston from Rotorua Centennial Trust said in the release.

This doctored interview with Hefner was produced and put up on the www.rotoruaNZ.com website.

IPL or SAPL?

2009-04-07T11:58:00.001+08:00

IPL or SAPL

Cricket, politics and Bollywood together are known as the three religions in India and get Indians going like nothing else. The new TVC for IPL Season 2 shows best what cricket does to this massive nation.

The campaign, by TBWA Mumbai, truly reflects that cricket is a great unifier, beautifully interweaving elements of unity in mundane activites with that of the brand proposition of MAX "Deewana Bana De", meaning “makes you crazy”.

The campaign also strikes a chord in its mere conception which chooses to leave behind grave issues of boundaries, nationality and religion, all of which were an integral part of the previous campaign, to show simple habitual similarities across the nation. (It is relatively easier to build a campaign on the idea of religion in India I think!)

Its natural to revel in the simple yet brilliant execution of the campaign while watching the TVC, but it makes me think how much of the brand IPL will suffer due to its temporary relocation to South Africa?

Indians also love watching soap operas but nothing caught their attention more than the news of general elections and security issues compelling IPL to move out of the country, a move definitely not the best for brand IPL and brand India. With the attacks on Mumbai and those on the Sri Lankan team in Pakistan recently, brand cricket is facing some large challenges.

According to reports from newswire PTI (Press Trust of India), Pawan Munjal Managing Director and CEO Hero Honda Motors, one of the main sponsors of Indian Premier League (IPL), said shifting of the cricket extravaganza to abroad will affect the business opportunities of the firm.
"The IPL moving out of India this year is likely to restrict opportunities to leverage our brand association," he said.

Will the IPL in effect now become the South African Premier League? Will some brands be reluctant to partner up with the tournament because of its move to Africa?

Ultimate future is death, digital is the present

2009-04-06T15:47:00.000+08:00

It began with banner ads, went onto interactive ads, applications and then the entire wave of search and social networking swamped the digital marketing space.

We heard agencies convince marketers on why they should go digital and marketers defending their standpoint based on their apprehensions. One of the most frequently stated reasons for an evasive tendency like this was “My boss is not online!”

While this is a valid reason and must have hold true for a while Sane, who is chief digital officer of Starcom for North and South Asia, says it isn’t the case any longer. In his presentation Sane said: “The top management is fully digitized, for the simple fact that your 45 plus year old boss has teenage kids who are online and to connect with them, they have to keep up with the latest trends in the online space.”

With ample of evidence of digital’s prowess and success, marketers cannot escape the reality and Sane adds that no longer can we say the digital is the future, it’s now and it is the present.

“The ultimate future is death, nothing else,” he says.

Drawing a parallel with a rear view approach, Sane said this attitude of marketers makes them see competition at much greater distance than it actually is. “The need therefore is to realise the difference between interruption and interaction. We have only scratched the surface in terms of leveraging on digital,” he says.

What after the recession?

2009-03-26T14:26:00.003+08:00

Consumer behaviour will change after the recession says David Evans, ex-adman and founder and CEO of performance-improvement firm Grass Roots, who was in Singapore recently.

Grass Roots specialises in employee customer and reseller focused reward and recognition programs, and it recently announced expansion plans for Asia Pacific despite rough economic weather. Established in 1980, the firm has a presence in more than 16 countries.

Before starting Grass Roots, Evans had had stints with Benton and Bowles now called DMB&B and a brief one with A&B, an agency under the same group.

I caught up with him a day after he spoke to a gathering at the Singapore Chamber of Commerce and he urged the industry to stay optimistic during these times. Evans said that there will be a paradigm shift in consumer behaviour, and companies must remain optimistic even during the recession.

AdFest Lowdown

2009-03-23T16:07:00.004+08:00

I just got back from Thailand after a tiring but exciting four days at AdFest, which despite the impact of the recession was a great event this year.

Numbers and entries might have be down but attendees were in great spirits and some of the work on show was very inspiring. AdFest is still the number one Asia Pacific show for the advertising industry to get together, and it was great to meet and chat to some of not only Asia's top ad people but the world's. Names like Hegarty and Tutssel don't drop in to this part of the world every week.

The highlights for this year have to be the emergence of China as a creative powerhouse, Japan's strong showing (particularly in Cyber), some great radio work from Leo Burnett Melbourne, the NSW Government's strong production push and some great TV ads from Ogilvy in Thailand. Another thing to mention was the relatively meek showing at AdFest from Singapore, not only in terms of awards but in attendees from the city-state. It was a little disappointing.

I hope you enjoyed our live blogging from Pattaya. There is a lot of video to come from the festival so keep your eyes out for it in the coming days. We've also some posted some videos from AdFest on our sister blog - The Pitch HK - which is for Marketing Hong Kong. You can check it out here.

Thanks

The Pitch: How not to gain consumer trust

2009-03-05T14:10:00.005+08:00

In times like these when gaining the trust of the consumer is so vitally important for brands, the last thing they want to do is get caught out for deceptive marketing…twice.

A Spanish tourism board has taken two shots to its integrity this year alone, both for publishing photographs of other countries to promote their tourist destinations.

The Costa Brava Tourism Board recently used a photo of a man and young boy standing hand-in-hand on a beach to promote a gastronomical fair on Spain’s north-east coast. The only problem was that the shot was of a beach halfway around the world – in Perth, Australia.

When the tourism board was caught out, they admitted to their mistake but maintained they were unaware the photo was actually of City Beach in Western Australia.

To make matters worse, it was the second slip-up from the tourism board after just last month they withdrew an ad campaign which featured a photo of the Bahamas to promote the Girona province as a holiday destination

The Getty Images shot was also digitally altered to dull the sand towards a greyer shade typical of the Costa Brava coastline.

The tourism board director claimed photos of sufficient quality could not be found and that it was never their intention to cheat consumers in any way. A spokesperson also defended the two fake photographs as isolated incidents.

But surely consumers have a right to feel aggrieved if they travel to Costa Brava only to find it’s nothing like what’s promised in the photographs?

What the photos have done is throw a veil of doubt over the brand’s integrity – a perfect example of how deceptive marketing can badly hurt a brand’s image. It will certainly be interesting to see what effect the bad news stories have on the tourism industry in Costa Brava.

Sports sponsorship takes a further pounding

2009-02-26T16:41:00.008+08:00

First there was the Michael Phelps “Bong-gate” saga. Then A-Rod’s steroid drama and now there’s the crisis surrounding Texan billionaire Allen Stanford. Why can’t the sports sponsorship industry take a trick at the moment?

So far 2009 hasn’t been kind to the world of sports endorsements.

Firstly the impact of the recession has meant brands are cutting back on their expensive sports partnerships, which is a global trend that has hit everything from F1 to the English Premier League, golf, cricket and tennis.

And then came the News of the World’s Phelps scoop, which was a wake-up call to many brands. Then one of the world’s most famous baseballers Alex Rodriguez admits taking steroids, news that can’t be good for his partners Nike and Activision. Another sports star to hit the limelight recently has been the NBA’s Dwayne Wade, who is going through a messy divorce and has been accused of allegedly doing drugs and holding orgies. But his sponsors are sticking by him.

And then there’s sports very own version of Bernie Madoff, Allen Stanford, who’s financial transgressions are having a big impact on English and West Indian cricket, several tournaments he sponsors and the likes of football’s Michael Owen and golf’s Vijay Singh.

Where has it all gone wrong?

Sports stars mucking up is not a new trend, it's as old as the hills. It will always happen and it's are one of the inherent risks marketers should be aware of when endorsing any sports brand. But this bad run coupled with the dire reality of the economic crisis is a double whammy for the sports sponsorship industry. It needs it now like it needs a hole in the head.

When iconic sports stars and blue-chip brands like Tiger Woods and LeBrone James are losing sponsors, simply because companies are cutting their sponsorship budgets and through no fault of their own, you know your in trouble.

The downturn’s digital drumbeat

2009-02-24T13:56:00.001+08:00

Digital marketing continues to rise in prominence in the wider marketing communications industry in Singapore, if an event held this morning is any sign.

About 100 people turned up to the Old Parliament House to see Lori Sobel from Google and Siva Ganeshanandan from Interwoven battle it out in The Great Marketing ROI Debate, which was organized by Marketing magazine.

We had some great presentations from the two speakers and some great debate from the floor, clear evidence that as the recession kicks into another gear the industry is turning to digital solutions and strategies to be their savior. There definitely seems to be a hunger from Singapore marketers to learn more about how to maximize their online investments.

After the event we caught up with Google’s Sobel about search marketing, why traditional media is not dead and asked how what affect the downturn is having on Google’s business in the region.

We also chatted to Interwoven’s Ganeshanandan about why optimizing your online content is so important and the fact that most websites aren’t actually engaging for users.

The Dragon’s fire

2009-02-23T11:42:00.002+08:00

More great work from JWT for Nokia featuring martial arts legend Bruce Lee.

This viral for the N96 phone in China is one of a series of ads. And in this one you see why Bruce would have been handy if you needed a light.

I blogged about the first Nokia viral featuring Bruce’s ping-pong ability back in November. You can see that clip here.

I’ll be stunned if this work doesn’t win some awards.

Lessons from Obama

2009-02-17T12:07:00.006+08:00

There’s a lot that marketers in Asia can take from Barack Obama’s ground-breaking use of digital in his meteoric rise to the US presidency. And one of the most telling insights for marketers, according to Fleishman-Hillard’s global digital guru David Wickenden, is that they simply can’t ignore online as a medium and as a powerful marketing tool anymore.

I caught up with David yesterday in Singapore.

Obama not only invested a lot in his online strategy, in staff, hardware and software, but his people fully believed in the power of digital. There was constant engagement from the Obama team with the public, a complete understanding of what users wanted and how to help them get involved, a leveraging of all the channels they used (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, mobile, MyBarackObama.com etc etc) as well as total commitment to the digital campaign from the Obama camp. This was no half-assed, toe-in-the-water strategy.

Wickenden said we have “left the world where you can shovel out a marketing message”. Marketers must now add value to consumers, give them content and entertain them.

He said marketing has become a service, and if brands have a “lame product or a lame message, you can use all the social media you like but it won’t work”.

Wickenden also said marketers can’t avoid digital anymore as that’s where today’s audiences are, and he cited Dell’s dellhell.net initiative and General Motors gmnext.com portal (a portal which focus on the future of the car) as two examples of recent innovative digital marketing.

Wickenden is managing director and senior partner for Fleishman-Hillard’s Digital Intergation Group, which worked on the Obama campaign, and he has more than 20 years experience in designing and managing large-scale integrated communications campaigns, working on digital strategies for the likes of AT&T, the US State Department and Visa.

Do you agree that its essential that marketers in Asia must saddle up for the digital express?

SingTel remains open on cuts

2009-02-10T15:53:00.002+08:00

While SingTel admitted its taking a hit due to the ongoing global crisis, like most companies, CEO Allan Lew said that its important for the telco to continue strengthening its brand identity.

Lew mentioned, while continuing to invest in customer acquisition, SingTel would "adjust" its marketing budget according to the current climate. So he's leaving the door open on potential reductions in 2009. Here is what he had to say:

Grey’s downturn tips

2009-02-10T14:22:00.004+08:00

During the recession better creative work will be more leveragable than ever before, and the smartest marketers will continue to experiment and innovate. Business will need to be done differently and agencies must raise their game, according to Grey’s global management.

Recently in Singapore for Grey’s Asia Pacific ‘Business Unusual’ conference, global chairman and CEO Jim Heekin said those in the industry must “use this time to get even better”.

“Now is the time to innovate. The best companies are experimenting. We won’t let all the doom and gloom slow us down out here,” Heekin said. Here I had a chat to him:

Grey Group has bold ambitions for Asia Pacific, which we have reported previously here, as it sees the region as its primary growth market for the future.

Heekin said growth in APAC will be achieved in three ways – opportunities with current clients, attracting new clients and through acquisitions “in markets where we don’t have critical mass”.

Tim Mellors, Grey’s global creative director, agrees with Heekin and believes the standard of creative work in the industry will rise during the downturn, as greater pressure leads to greater work. Mellors plans to raise Grey’s creative profile in APAC.

Australia - The Bit that Broke Off (in Maori)

2009-02-09T11:08:00.017+08:00

In timing with Waitangi Day, the public holiday held each year in New Zealand to celebrate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi (New Zealand’s founding document) on February 6, a viral ad attracting Kiwis back from Australia has been doing the rounds.

The continuing exodus of Kiwis to Australia has long been a source of debate, for both countries involved, and this ad from New Zealand global talent network Kea has a go at luring a few of them back.

They say their intention is for it to generate growth in Kea’s membership numbers and to get the word on Kea out to New Zealand expats and friends of New Zealand around the world.

It’s basically a fictional look at the origins of the New Zealand-Australia relationship and it has a dig at the age-old Aussie habit of claiming successful Kiwis as their own.

Ian Haigh did the viral animation while the Australian-based brand consultancy Yello Brands worked on the creative. It was sent out to Kea members on Waitangi Day and will hit other channels such as Facebook and the Air New Zealand database soon.

Haigh is in the process of putting the ad up on YouTube but for the meantime, here’s the link - it's worth a watch.

Microsoft Advertising to focus on ROI, better creative

2009-02-06T15:28:00.002+08:00

Microsoft Advertising plans to squeeze as much as it can out of its allotted budgets to maximize ROI, push the boundaries of creativity and offer deeper solutions to clients during the downturn, according to greater Asia Pacific general manager Richard Dunmall.

It’s a view in line with what we have been hearing from several industry bigwigs and creative top brains for sometime now.

Dunmall joined Microsoft Advertising, following the acquisition of ad network aQuantive, which he headed. He’s got fair amount of experience on the agency side, having worked as MD for MindShare Interaction UK and mOne UK, a digital and direct marketing offering set up by MindShare and Ogilvy.

I caught up with Dunmall when he was in Singapore and spoke to him about the new Windows Live, Microsoft Advertising’s plans to counter the downturn and much more.

Take a look:

Newspapers go back to the future

2009-02-04T12:09:00.005+08:00

It’s a fact of life that many newspapers all over the world are feeling the pinch, suffering from declining circulation, ad revenue and readership as many people turn to the internet. But this was foretold a long time ago.

The past few months have been dominated by bad press (excuse the pun) for the newspaper industry. In the UK a former KGB spy took over the trouble London Evening Standard and The Independent is now up for sale, just two of many papers there in dire straits, while in France even president Sarkozy has joined in trying to revive the ailing French print industry. In Australia jobs have been cut and the five top newspaper editors in the country have been replaced.

And let’s not even start on the US, where too many papers to name are in strife. The newspaper industry in America is not on its deathbed yet, but it looks like it's not far off.

Funnily enough though, the problems of newspaper reader and advertiser migration online is not a new problem. Just check out this video, a bit of an eerie and amusing view back in time.

So if the industry or at least parts of it has been vaguely aware of this issue for nearly 30 years, why hasn’t a solution been reached? Or is there just no solution?

It seems as though its going to be survival of the fittest in the newspaper market and many papers, some great brand names, will sadly become extinct.

Super Bowl ads fall short

2009-02-02T15:34:00.008+08:00

As always, there was about as much anticipation surrounding the commercials played during today’s Super Bowl as the actual game itself.

But following the Pittsburg Steelers’ 27-23 victory over the Arizona Cardinals, it wasn’t just the Cardinals left disappointed by the end result. On the whole, the ads were a bit of a letdown.
Of course there were a few exceptions but it’s fair to say none of the 2009 selection will go down in history like the McDonald’s commercial from 1993 featuring Michael Jordan and Larry Bird playing for a Big Mac and Fries.

The recession was obviously a popular theme and it was actually these ads which were the pick of the bunch. Hyundai had a couple of beauties – and this careerbuilder.com ad is definitely worth a couple of looks.

Bob Dylan has lent ‘Forever Young’ to Pepsi – with a cameo from Will.I.Am of the Black Eyed Peas – while the Doritos and Denny’s commercials should also prove pretty popular.

It’s hard, however, not to get the feeling that a lot of the commercials were only rehashing old material. Talking chimpanzees certainly aren’t innovative, nor are talking babies, and the majority of the celebrities hardly produced anything memorable.
The number of Budweiser commercials fell terribly short.

That said, it’s hard not to enjoy this effort from Etrade.com

Here are a couple of others which managed to stand out from the bunch:

Cadbury raises a few eyebrows

2009-01-28T10:29:00.009+08:00

Here’s Cadbury’s follow up to its hugely successful “Gorilla” ad, another Glass and a Half Productions TVC with “Eyebrows”. Created by Fallon and released in the UK last week, it shows a brother and sister’s ability to get funky with just their eyebrows.

It's a good ad but will be tough to beat “Gorilla” in terms of worldwide success. Here's the famous "Gorilla" for those who haven’t seen it.

Tribal DDB wishes you Gong Xi Fa Cai

2009-01-22T18:35:00.005+08:00

Here’s a fun viral that Tribal DDB Singapore has sent out for Chinese New Year.

It hasn’t been done for any particular client, just for the DDB Group Singapore itself, and aims to bring a smile to people during these tough economic times with a bit of quirky online stroking.

You can see it here at this site.

Separation at birth

2009-01-21T13:53:00.001+08:00

I attended a talk recently, organized by the Institute of Public Relations in Singapore, where Upstream Asia CEO David Ketchum was speaking on trends in the digital PR space. An interesting observation he made was that we might see digital divisions of PR agencies, set up as a separate division, shutting down.

Is keeping digital separated from other operations, not only in the PR industry but in advertising as well, the way to go? Or does this split put a stranglehold on ultimately the growth and success of your entire business?

It’s clear that the future is digital, and perhaps siphoning digital away like a petulant child, away from the other children, instead of fully embracing it will actually be harmful. But as no one seems to have come up with the perfect digital model as yet, where all divisions, strategies and disciplines are truly integrated and play nice together, who knows.

Should digital be your first thought/cab off the rank when trying to solve a marketing problem? Or is it crucial that digital be used in partnership with other mediums?

Send us your thoughts.

Brands say yes we can, too

2009-01-20T19:15:00.005+08:00

Obamamania has reached fever pitch the world over, and many companies unsurprisingly are trying to tap into it. But are some going too far?

We’ve seen the number of tie-ins that brands have forged in the lead-up to Obama’s inauguration, particularly CNN and Facebook’s partnership which makes great sense.

MySpace has done its own smart campaign with 50 celebrities making video pledges of service to president Obama.

We’ve even seen a cheeky local example which DDB Singapore did for the salon Strip, with its ‘Farewell to Bush’ and its offer to ‘Celebrate Change’ with free Brazillian waxes. This was cute, cheeky and topical marketing.

But I think this TV effort from Chrysler in Australia just doesn’t work and could backfire on them.

Compared to the others it looks tacky and cheesy. What’s your opinion of it, does it go too far?

Engage don't preach

2009-01-19T13:37:00.004+08:00

Putting all your money online at the moment might not be the best approach, as an increasing number of people are living in both analog and digital worlds, and so it’s a must to give consumers a taste of both in a well-balanced way.

That’s the view of Denuo CEO Rishad Tobaccowala, who spoke at the recent seminar “Dawn of the new era: How consumers and communications are changing and What you can do to thrive”, a joint digital event between ZenithOptimedia, Starcom Mediavest and Digitas.

Tobaccowala says merely advertising on social networks like Facebook and MySpace is not doing real justice to the dollars marketers allocate to digital marketing.

“If you’re coming up with online campaigns let there be elements where people can speak back to the brand. It may be more of a customer affair thing and not a media or a marketing move,” he says.

A couple of interesting insights that he shared on consumer trends caught my attention. For instance, he speaks of consumers becoming more and more voyeuristic with God-like features.

“People want to express themselves and like to watch other people and are curious to follow them, particularly celebrities. No longer can a consumer be treated as idiots rather technology has made them kings with God-like features,” he says.

And to communicate with such a well-equipped audience, marketers need to speak with them rather than to them. According to Tobaccowala, the single biggest change that has happened in recent times is the move towards a globally decentralized linked network.

“People can trust their own research before buying any product, be it cars or mobile phones, so it only helps companies to be more transparent and be where the conversation is rather than trying to bring people to their own conversation,” he adds.

Tobaccowala is a veteran with over 25 years in marketing and strategy and also serves as an advisor and director on the board of many leading multi-national organizations in global marketing communications.

Ignore IP at your peril

2009-01-15T09:22:00.005+08:00

The state of the world economy may be the one issue on everyone's minds, but for the marketing and advertising industry intellectual property (IP) is still a key issue and protecting those rights is now more important than ever.

Last week I attended the second Global Forum on Intellectual Property (GFIP) in Singapore, which saw over 80 Global IP practitioners, IP thought leaders and business leaders explore the theme "The Evolving Intellectual Property Ecosystem: Conflicts Or Consensus?".

The event aimed to raise the bar on IP knowledge and standards, both regionally and globally, with topics ranging from traditional copyrights and design, patents and trademarks, to developing areas such as IP financing and strategic intellectual asset management.

I spoke to David Llewlyn, chairman of the GFIP 2009, who talked about IP and about the protection of IP rights at the Formula 1 night race in Singapore last year.

The best and the worst brand ambassadors

2009-01-12T10:57:00.008+08:00

Interesting story in The New York Times recently about how Barack Obama is the perfect brand ambassador for Blackberry, and it isn’t costing the company one cent.

They estimated that Obama could earn anything from US$25 million to US$50 million if he was allowed to earn from promoting Blackberry.

This led me to think of other good and not-so-good celebrity brand ambassadors, who don’t earn a red penny from their unintentional plugging of a brand, product or way of life.

There’s Angela Jolie and Brad Pitt, who are walking ads for adoption. English premiership footballers can be always seen cruising in expensive sports cars such as Ferrari and Porshe, although if you think of Cristiano Ronaldo’s driving ability lately maybe that’s not the best partnership.

So who would be the unlikelest celebrities you would like to see plugging a particular brand?

How about George W Bush and pretzels, or Bill Clinton and Viagra? Or Mel Gibson preaching about the dangers of drink driving? It would be great to see Maradona preaching the virtues of the likes of Weight Watchers or Fitness First.

Australia the turkey

2009-01-08T12:01:00.006+08:00

Tourism Australia’s plan to boost its ailing tourism industry off the back of Baz Luhrmann’s new film Australia is in trouble, if the early signs are any indication.

As it has been well documented, the Australian government made the big step of pinning its hopes on Luhrmann’s film to revitalize its vital tourism sector.

After suffering declining numbers for the past few years, and the failure of its last big marketing campaign – Where the Bloody hell are you? – the new Labour government decided Baz was the trick. With Australia’s most famous two actors – Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman – a famous Aussie director in Luhrmann and a storyline set down under, what could go wrong? Hell, even the title of the film is the name of country.

But the simple fact is the film is bad, really bad. It’s a turkey. I saw the film in the UK and as an Australian citizen I wanted it to succeed, but the whole time I had to restrain myself from walking out, the film was that bad. Now I’m no Leonard Maltin, but take a look at some of the reviews Australia has been getting since its release.

New Zealand critic Michael Field described the film as "a long, tedious shocker and an embarrassment to a film industry with an otherwise outstanding record". He said: "Every white Australian character in the movie -- other than Drover (Hugh Jackman) -- is portrayed as a nasty white racist or ... a drunkard. The one seemingly intelligent woman, Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman), is English. Aborigines are all spiritual beings ... Australian women are all painted in the movie as cows."

Rolling Stone magazine said: “If looks were everything, director Baz Luhrmann's epic salute to his native land would be the movie of the year. But, crikey, a padded script bloated with subplots and shameless sentimentality can wear you down… beautiful scenery and the best intentions can't save Australia from dissolving in goo.”

Peter Bradshaw, of The Guardian newspaper in the UK, commented that “Baz Luhrmann's ambitious attempt to make an antipodean Gone With the Wind is a shallow, overblown and embarrassing failure”.

Now reviews might not be everything, but even the Australian scenery in this cliché-ridden film doesn’t look that good thanks to all the CGI.

A classic story, good acting and lush scenery worked for New Zealand tourism with The Lord of the Rings, but Australia doesn’t even have one of those three. With so much invested in marketing the country through the film, it will be interesting to watch if tourist levels correspond to box office numbers.

What do you think of Australia the film? Should Tourism Australia be worried?

TV advertising banned

2009-01-06T15:13:00.004+08:00

Interesting bit of news coming out of from France today, as millions of French TV viewers watched their Monday evening prime-time shows ad-free.

No, it’s not a gimmick to get more people to watch a particular show. The news comes as a result of the President Nicolas Sarkozy's ban on advertising on France's public television network after 8pm – the first few steps of his controversial media reform. It is expected that advertising will be phased out gradually between now and 2011, with the period from 8pm to 6am affected first.

It has been reported that Sarkozy has said the ban on advertising is a major step to model French public television along the lines of the British Broadcasting Corporation.

But in that same report, it said the reform had been criticised for handing an advertising revenue boon to private broadcasters such as TF1, owned by Martin Bouygues, a friend of the president.

Politics aside, it will be really interesting to watch how French consumers react to the ad-free content – you would imagine they will love it.

But as time wears on, what sort of content will be produced now that state television no longer has to air shows with mass appeal. Will the standard of content suffer or will we get more interesting stuff? And how big a boost will the ban actually give private broadcasters such as TF1?

It has been reported that the 450 million euros needed to plug the revenue gap has already been written into the 2009 French budget.

When the going gets tough, the government gets going

2008-12-11T14:53:00.014+08:00

Every business has its modus operandi of dealing with the global economic crisis - some lay-off, some freeze hiring, some seek policy support to bail them out and some turn towards government accounts to make sure business keeps flowing.

And it is the advertising/marketing industry in particular of late that is pouncing upon any government or quasi-government account that is out to pitch. A recent briefing for a pitch from a government department drew as many as 45 agencies to attend the briefing session.

Another government tender saw 15 agencies, much less of course, but on any given day it’s a lot more than what is the usual turn-out for a government account.

Some of the ongoing tenders include the Ministry of Foregin Affairs and the family development division of the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports.

On this trend, one industry insider says: “Welcome to 2009. I am not surprised. It had to happen”. Another remarks: “The situation was almost similar back then during the SARS period.”

The entire uncertainty that looms large over the corporate sector, has made agencies jittery to pitch for some accounts, particularly those in the banking market. Another industry source says, “It’s strange to see even the big ones [agencies] pitch for the smallest government account.”

The pinch is being felt everywhere isn’t it?

Recent lay-offs announced by banks and financial institutions, most of which cover support services like marketing, have undoubtedly had a bearing on the way agencies approach an account. Well, it is a nightmare if you are an agency in the middle of an ongoing pitch and one fine morning you learn that the entire marketing team is laid-off and the pitch revoked.

It will be interesting to see how agencies will behave during the boom that will follow the recession (It has to, it always happens).

Bold, provocative and controversial, but going too far?

2008-12-10T18:10:00.009+08:00

Sportswear brand Skins has been renowned for its unique and often controversial advertising in the past few years, but recently the brand suffered a massive setback, igniting a question about just how far should marketing push beyond its boundaries?

Last week the Advertising Federation of Australia (AFA) took back its illustrious gold pinnacle award that it gave to Skins’ creative agency The Furnace in 2007. Why? Well as you can read here the award recognized The Furnace’s work for Skins and honored a particular campaign for the compression garments manufacturer which stated that Skins doesn’t pay sports stars to wear their products, sports stars pay Skins for them.

This is the ad:

But last year the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) brought a court action against Skins when it was revealed that the brand actually did pay sports stars to wear its products. Oops.

Last week the ACCC unsurprisingly finally found Skins guilty of false and misleading advertising, and the AFA asked for its award – Australia’s equivalent of a gold Effie – back.

Skins and The Furnace have been doing campaigns that push the limit for quite a while. Here’s another of their efforts.

These ads have been very successful in that they have driven huge sales of Skins' products and put the brand on the world stage.

Now I personally feel there’s nothing wrong with controversial advertising, if it has a point or message behind it. It’s so hard to get cut-through these days and to actually get the attention of consumers, so advertising must be unique and different to have an impact. But there’s also a very fine line that once you cross, you’re in trouble. Making unsubstantiated claims about a brand, like the first Skins ad above, is a no-no.

But the second ad above, shot in LA and featuring a series of African-Americans, is in my opinion, OK, and has an actual message for the viewer. It's not controversial for the sake of being controversial. Sure it’s provocative, but it doesn’t go too far. However, the ad ran into trouble in the UK and US for being deemed as 'racist'.

What do you think? Has Skins gone too far in these ads? Should advertising be controversial?

Brand’s brainstorms bloggers

2008-12-05T15:18:00.001+08:00

Brand’s, the manufacturer of a range of health supplements who’s selling point is that they increase brain power, recently organised the first Brand’s Blogger challenge where five well-known bloggers from Malaysia and Singapore competed in a mental challenge.

While the quiz was as run-of-the- mill as it can be, the event garnered much attention and enthusiasm as it involved social media, a marketing move that Isabella Tan, vice president for regional marketing at Cerebos (Brand’s holding company), says helped them engage with their audience.

Inspired by a regional survey commissioned by Brand’s on how Asians in eight countries viewed their mental performance, this was the first time that a team of Singapore bloggers were pitted against their Malaysian counterparts in a series of mind challenges.

Here is what Tan had to say about the challenge and the idea behind getting bloggers to quiz:

The survey revealed that that Singaporeans, compared to the rest of Asia, were relatively less engaged when it comes to undertaking activities that would help boost their mental performance. Comparatively, Malaysians are more engaged than Singaporeans in this aspect.

But Singaporeans, do have a reason to cheer, even if the results of the survey didn’t favour them, they emerged the winners of the first Brand’s blogger challenge.

Is there any loyalty in the industry anymore?

2008-12-04T12:21:00.002+08:00

Around half of the marketing, media and communication executives in Singapore barely stay with an employer for more than two years, a new study from Aquent has found.

Steven Pang, Asia regional director of Aquent, spoke to Marketing’s sister publication Human Resources about the Aquent Orange survey, and he nominates a few ways companies can increase their staff retention rates.

The topic is definitely an interesting one and raises some questions.

Is loyalty dead? Or is it just the Generation Y trend to move jobs regularly? What is the real affect of high staff turnover in the marketing, media and advertising industries? And during the downturn, will turnover levels increase or improve?

Musings on Burger King and Borat

2008-12-03T15:04:00.012+08:00

Despite the many shocked faces I see when I say I haven’t watched Borat, I refuse to lend my eyes and sacrifice my ears to view a single minute of it. Reading about it is bad enough for me. Imagine having to sit through Mr-Hanging-Balls and camera-crew scour the remote villages of ‘Kazakhstan’ (in reality filmed at Glod, Romania)-- making fools of unbeknownst villagers, have them open their doors, catch them on tape and next overlying the most wretched of fictitious dialogue over what was filmed.

Borat humiliates "Mom", has an Incestous "Sister" and The Man with a Sex Toy Fist

The BIASED me says that the producers and Cohen himself were preying on the lack of knowledge and the communication divide between the natives and him.

So when I chanced upon this campaign named “Whopper Virgin”, by Burger King to market its burgers, I was having mixed feelings. And believe you me, I am a Burger King fan.

According to the website, the ads will document the ‘Virgin’ whopper experiences of people from what I see to be (purely from guess work at the moment) maybe some Eastern Bloc country (dressing and beaded hats), an Inuit community (physical appearance and furry shoes) and a remote SE Asian village from Vietnam/Thailand. Some also get to do a taste test between Burger King’s burger and its bitter rival’s Big Mac.

www.whoppervirgins.com

Not exactly Borat… (At least these people don’t get sex-toys affixed to their body parts and they got to eat something they have never eaten.). I don’t know if this ‘talent’ get paid for their appearance or they are aware that they are being filmed for a commercial.

Anthony Bourdain once lamented that mass tourism was changing the landscape of remote villages in Laos. Somewhat similar in this case, this talent have been brought from the realm of the unknown to know the existence of commercialism - like how some missionaries worked in days of the past, perhaps these natives should feel ‘enlightened’ as they have been touched and duly greased by the oily fingers of fast-food.

My point is this, while many TVCs are scripted and mostly always 'fake', and even though these ‘real reactions and emotions’ bring to the art of filming advertisements to another ‘high’….

Is it considered ethical? Am I over-reacting or is there a tiny inkling of deception and exploitation is this new “adver-mentary” (advertising-documentary) style of speaking to the target audience while ‘connecting’ with them?

As a practioner, is this to you considered acceptable?

The ad/film has not been revealed yet and this are just my preliminary thoughts on it. Perhaps it has been tastefully done, with large stroke of humanity and a sprinkle of commercialism.

Perhaps I will eat my words along with a huge whopper and fries.

Perhaps.

Bondi blow-up dolls

2008-11-27T09:27:00.002+08:00

You have to admire vodka brand 42 Below’s marketing strategy.

They really are unafraid to take risks and are famous for their cheeky and controversial ad campaigns.

Their latest work, by Sydney creative hotshop The Glue Society, sees a group of strange figures who are dressed in white and doing weird installations across New Zealand and Australia. In one of the executions they’ve set up 100 inflatable sex dolls on Bondi Beach.

In other executions, the white-clad group set up a rainbow of plastic chairs in the snow.

They also have wrapped a street of cars with Christmas paper, set up a UFO-style shell in the New Zealand highlands, created a giant coloured snowman in Sydney’s Circular Quay and repainted the roof of a skyscraper. See them at www.becausewecanonline.com.

The installations are all part of a global campaign promoting 42 Below’s “Because we can” brand positioning. The web-based movement is aimed at celebrating those with a spirit of adventure, free thinkers, as well as to honour actions that are done for no reason other than for happiness, intrigue or exploration.

42 Below is encouraging the public to get involved with its own user-generated content, and is offering a US$4200 prize each month for the best submission.

As I said before, the premium alcohol brand has had no problem differentiating itself from its competitors. Being unique is something that 42 Below has spruiked from its early beginnings, as these ads show.

In the space of a just a few years, 42 Below has gone from being a tiny vodka brand based in Auckland to a global player that was snapped by drinks giant Bacardi for NZ$138 million in 2006. And marketing has played a massive role in its phenomal growth.

So does being different ultimately pay off?

Don’t mess with the Dragon

2008-11-26T09:06:00.001+08:00

Nokia has released a great viral to promote its N96 phone in China.

Created by JWT Beijing, the ad shows martial arts legend Bruce Lee playing table tennis with nun chucks, and kicking arse. On this from he would have given Forrest Gump a run for his money.

The clip has had nearly 430,000 views on YouTube since 18 November, which ain’t too shabby.

There is also this website - www.nokia-lee.com.cn/ - featuring a fighting Bruce and the phone.

Bubble boy

2008-11-20T14:31:00.006+08:00

Before he jetted off to fulfill his many other obligations, I managed to catch Y&R Group chief insights officer, John Gerzema for a quick video interview on his new book The Brand Bubble.

The book has been making waves of late, and he even made an appearance on Bloomberg yesterday (I think it was after I interviewed him) as well. I must admit, I haven't read the book cover to cover yet, but I am three quarters of the way through and its given good insight into today's consumer, the market performance of brands, and exposed the true value of brands.

He talks a bit about the book, which he co-authored with Ed Lebar, to Marketing here.

If you want, you can also get involved in The Brand Bubble conversation.

Lessons from Lenovo

2008-11-19T14:04:00.008+08:00

Yesterday, I was at the Brand Couture Congress 2008 where i got to hear Lenovo's chief marketing officer for Australia and NZ, Yu Dan Shi, give a presentation on how to take a new brand from obscurity to a household name in 12 months , i.e. what she's done with Lenovo in the last 12 months.

It was a fascinating story on how she succeeded in building the brand in Australia and New Zealand with a limited budget (in one of her examples, she mentioned how she bartered something like $8 million worth of laptops / Lenovo products with Channel 7 for marketing opportunities during the Olympics).

I asked her a couple of questions on credit crunch marketing.

For more information on marketing during the economic crisis, see our December issue cover story where we talk to marketers and agencies across several markets, and get them to discuss on which strategies work.

Finger lickin' good

2008-11-17T17:30:00.006+08:00

It’s rare that you get a piece of advertising that is not only unique but of benefit to the community.

McCann Erickson Singapore has taken this path with a new TVC they have created for KFC, adding in a bit of Xmas cheer.

Generally when you think of the Colonel’s finest, you might not think of helping others, or silence. But this could change with this ad (below).

The commercial was shot at virtually no production cost, as it was shot on a humble handycam, and the money saved from the making of the ad is being donated to the Singapore Association for the Deaf.

It’s a good example of a different creative idea that both is a piece of advertising and supports a cause.

And congrats to both KFC and McCann for doing it.

Building sandcastles in the air?

2008-11-11T14:47:00.008+08:00

Ever since talks began on building an integrated resort or Singapore’s excuse, I mean euphemism, for a casino resort - marketers have more than supportive of the venture, as they hope to see more tourism dollars fly in and that they will act as a catalyst for a more a robust local retail and entertainment landscape.

There were two awardees, Las Vegas Sands for the Marina Bay Sands and Genting International with Star Cruises, Universal Studios for the Resorts World at Sentosa. The latter recently announced its intentions to build a Transformers-themed ride, which has been met by a rousing response following the movie’s successful global run.

In fact as the structures become ‘more concrete’, many marketers will be setting their sights to be part of the development. Just yesterday in The Straits Times there was an article on the Sentosa resort’s plans to create 300 fairly senior positions. Marina Bay too held its hiring spree late last month, which saw more than 10,000 responses.

We can be sure marketing hires too would be part of the exercise. So dear HR departments other than drawing up retrenchment packages and handing out pink slips (it seems like a daily affair these days anyway), shouldn’t you be keeping a close eye on your lead marketers?… if not we might be meeting some of them for coffee in Sentosa or Marina in the near future.

Ahhh….with all these talk on investments, hiring and themed rides… Everything sounds all merry and happy in casino-land ain’t it?

But sorry my dears good things don’t come too easy. Las Vegas Sands seems to be in for some trouble. Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire owner who controls 65% of the company was in Singapore recently and was having tête-à-tête sessions with the Singapore government, as the company is suffering a severe cash-flow problem.

Las Vegas Sands, which is set to open next year, had committed the highest development investment of S$3.85 billion. Which means it is likely to exceed S$5 billion in total investment, making it one of the most expensive casinos in the world. Imagine the company’s market capitalization was $49 billion in October last year but as of October 23 this year its value was $3 billion! A value even lesser than what it was to put into Singapore!

So what is to happen now we aren’t sure. Adelson says the show will go on. Would this mean the Singapore Government digging deeper into its own pockets to finance the Sands? Or will the pitch in due time be reopened to find the next bigger better player to carry on the project? Perhaps, but it would be very unlikely that the project will be abandoned completely.

Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong has called for Singaporeans to spend if they can afford to as to stave off the recession, but if print headlines continue their daily runs as ‘bearer of bad news’ its unlikely we’ll see much improvement in consumer spend.

This serves as another chilling reminder to marketers out there that counting chickens before they are hatched isn’t the best business practice to have, while in this case it would mean…Building sandcastles in the air.

The good 'ol days

2008-11-06T14:15:00.006+08:00

In case you are working in advertising or marketing and have been living under a rock for the past 14 months, there is a US television program that is a must-see. And finally it has landed in Asia.

Mad Men is set in the 1960s in New York’s Madison Avenue advertising scene, and focuses on the fictional agency Sterling Cooper and its charismatic creative director Don Draper. Mad Men was created by former Sopranos writer and executive producer Matthew Weiner, and similarly has Sopranos-like tendencies – its high quality TV, compelling, intelligent and witty. The show is simply compulsory viewing thanks to its brilliant writing and attention to detail.

For those who haven’t seen it, here’s a quick tease.

The show debuted in the US in 2007, and has quickly become a global hit. It won Emmys and Golden Globes in its first season, and the second season is on is the US right now. Mad Men just launched on FX in Singapore and Hong Kong last night.

You also know you’ve made it to the big time when you’re parodied by The Simpsons.

Mad Men really is a fascinating insight into what some might call a golden period of advertising, and the internal politics and mechanics of a big ad agency. The show is full of smoking, sexism, rampant drinking and has a distinct lack of political correctness.

Which begs the question. What was life really like back in the advertising and marketing scene in the 1960s? And have we lost some of the fun out of the business?

Money-Money-Money-Money, but is that enough?

2008-11-03T12:05:00.003+08:00

The US presidential election is nearly over, and it has been a fascinating insight into big brand marketing.

Barack Obama has been spending money on advertising for his campaign like it was going out of style. He has broken records by spending around $600 million on his campaign, according to a story in The Straits Times, and raised in total a record-breaking $1 billion. $207.4 million of that has gone on TV advertising, almost a $100 million more than John McCain has spent on TV spots.

Last week Obama bought a 30-minute slot on three of the four national American TV networks and on three cable networks, right before a World Series baseball game. The move was virtually unprecedented in a US election campaign (apart from Ross Perot’s effort in 1992) and the one-off media buy would have cost the Obama camp roughly between $3 million and $5 million.

And it was by far a huge success, at the very least in ratings terms. According to Nielsen Media Research, the infomercial was seen by 33.55 million viewers, which was more than the World Series game which followed it and more than last season’s finale of American Idol.

That’s scary stuff.

But is it all about money? Is money all that counts, or does substance and a more stylish campaign message go a long way?

Well another thing in Obama’s favour is his slogan or tagline of ‘Change’. Obama has marketed himself as an agent of change and hope, as ‘the Saviour’ and ‘the One’. As someone who is different from the norm and who presents a break from other politicians and bi-partisan politics.

It's something that McCain has struggled to fight against

Obama has a few simple facts to back up his change message – he is young (47) compared to McCain (72), and has a very different background. He is African-American, charismatic and articulate, and thanks to two of these three facts he resembles another former popular Democratic leader in JFK.

So couple Obama’s massive bank balance with an effective campaign message, regardless of actual policies and real ideological differences, and it’s a pretty tough arsenal to compete with.

The Democratic camp has also utilized new media a lot better than the Republicans, with this viral effort one example: http://www.wassup08.com/

So putting all this together, does John McCain stand a chance?

Well, in a perfect world, marketing would definitely not decide a political election and perhaps not play such a massive role. But as they say, only in America.

In a few days we’ll have our answer.

Ogilvy celebrates in style

2008-10-29T10:35:00.003+08:00

You have to love those crazy Ogilvy folks, they really know how to party.
The team at Bold Ogilvy Athens, Ogilvy’s Greece outfit, recently made this tribute to David Ogilvy.

Its in honour of the agency founder’s 60th birthday and is, as you can see, a very “interesting” homage.

Its got in it everything one could love from European pop music – attractive singers, a great sound and catchy lyrics like “David so bold and avid”.

All I can say is bring on Eurovision 2009.

To pay or not to pay, that is the question

2008-10-20T16:55:00.005+08:00

The message seems loud and clear – the pitching process has become an unruly battleground in Singapore and needs to be cleaned up. But is bringing in compulsory pitch fees the way to nirvana?

It’s obvious that ad agencies in Singapore are fed up with the pitch process. We explore this issue in this month’s magazine.

Many are clamoring for a mandatory pitch fee system to be introduced, as is the case in Malaysia. But most recognize this drastic measure would have several negative implications.

Smaller agencies may miss out on more pitches, as clients get selective on who they invite to pitches. Marketers may be less likely to take risks, as adding an extra layer of fees on to the advertising structure may mean the end product is of a lower of standard of work.

And more questions emerge – how big should the fee be? Is there a one-size fits all policy, or would the fee depend on the size of the client’s budget? And how would the process be regulated? In many ways the whole pitch fee issue offers more questions than answers.

One way for forward for making pitching more transparent could be to introduce one-day workshops between clients and agencies, instead of 20 or 40 minute presentations.

It’s a process Trinity P3 recently used in Australia for the Vodafone pitch, and its one that has been used in Europe for quite a while. In the workshop marketers and agencies get to spend time together and build a relationship, giving each more of an opportunity to get know each other and see if a partnership would work.

This technique wouldn’t work for every client, but it may work for some. It’s just an idea, and probably an overly-ambitious one, but overall the view seems clear that something must be done to make pitching here a more open process.

What do you think, how can pitches in Singapore be improved?

When a good idea is pushed too far

2008-10-17T09:34:00.007+08:00

A great ad can do a lot for a brand, but the over-flogging of that great ad can also do a lot of damage.

The famous Australian “Rabbits” TVC which was created by the agency BWM a few years ago for BigPond, a part of Australian telco giant Telstra, is a good example.

The ad was a hit, BigPond’s brand grew and grew as a result, and the ad is regarded as one of the best and most successful to come out of Australia in recent years.

The two characters were very well received by Australian viewers – the young son, cute and innocent, and the father who is cheeky but endearing. The quote that the Great Wall of China was built by “Emperor Nasi Goreng'' to “keep the rabbits out'” has become a part of Aussie culture, a claim that few ads can make. And the father and son characters have since popped up in numerous ads for Telstra BigPond over the years, like this one

this one

and this one

BigPond did deviate briefly with this one-off effort featuring notorious American rocker Tommy Lee.

But few of the ads since “Rabbits” featuring the characters have managed to replicate its massive success. The latest one, titled “Australian Day”, was another continuation and was launched with much hype, but failed to reach the heights of “Rabbits”.

Now this early this week I was dismayed to hear that the characters from “Rabbits” were apparently to be turned into a feature film. It was revealed earlier this year at Cannes by BigPond group MD Justin Milne that Telstra was considering turning the ad into a TV sitcom.
For whatever reason this hasn’t happened, but now BWM has apparently started work on developing a script for a film based on the “Rabbits” characters.

According to the report “conversations are underway with some of Australia’s most prominent script writers to work on a screenplay”, and BWM has “been approaching writers from Australian classics such as Strictly Ballroom, The Castle and The Dish to garner interest in the project, though some of these have already declined”.

Surprise surprise that those writers have declined. Common sense dictates that they would be flogging a dead horse.

Telstra BigPond and BWM had a great ad with “Rabbits”. It was a huge hit, it’s still very popular and won a swag of awards. But they have to move on it from it now. If they did want to make a film based on the ad, they’d want to be very, very careful to make sure the film is entertaining. The damage a film flop would do to the brand would be immense.

Later this week Telstra backtracked big time and came out publicly flatly denying the film would be made. A Telstra spokesperson told industry magazine AdNews that reports it plans to create a film based from characters from the ad were a BWM “PR stunt”.

For me, that’s good news and a smart play by Telstra.

There’s a very fine line between having a great ad which remains being held in high esteem for years, both by the public and the industry, to many great ads which become far too exposed and over-flogged so that consumers literally switch off when they appear.

Viewers appreciate and enjoy a great 30-second ad, but I don’t know many cinema-goers who get excited or would pay to watch a two-hour commercial.

A groovy kind of road

2008-10-14T16:49:00.007+08:00

Yes you enjoy music, you hum to the tunes, and you’ve seen “plastic plants” dance to the beat. But have you seen or rather heard of a singing road?

Let's rock & roll!!

It all started in Japan when a dude named Shizuo Shinoda drove his bulldozer over unlevel roads. Road engineers eventually developed a musical road surface turning cars into ‘tuning forks’ when they travel over grooves cut at specific internals which produce different tones depending on the width between the grooves.

This same technology was used in a little stretch of road about an hour from Toyko, built at a couple of hundred thousand yen as a municipal town’s way of creating novelty to encourage people to visit their home town as it was extremely deserted.

But this ain’t something too new, apparently, it was been done at Disney World many years ago with the intro to "When You Wish Upon a Star" playing as one drove down the road towards the Magic Kingdom entrance; Zip-a-dee-do-da was tried too. According to a blogger at a directory website, the sound was freaking some drivers out hence it was discontinued.

Zip-a-dee-do-da from 'Song of the South'

The ad agency for Torrance-based American Honda, RPA of Santa Monica, decided to incorporate the peculiar music-making method into a Civic commercial that will air nationally in late September.

Perhaps the Americans didn’t think much about the repercussions except for its novelty, Lancaster Town in Virginia had a Civic Road with similarity carved track lines which ‘drove’ to the sound of ‘The William Tell Overture’ at 55 mph, the posted speed limit. It lasted for around 18 days when it was forcefully discontinued as it was “creating too much noise”, residents complained.

This hyper-sensitive little town with its graying population complained to the authorities that it was too loud and they could not stomach the ad campaign for Honda Civic.

To date, these roads have been built in cities like Japan, South Korea and Holland. I suppose I wouldn’t complain if they did anything like such is Singapore. Imagine the roads along Esplanade playing ‘Singapore Town’ [… take a little trip around Singapore town In Singapore city bus…] or along the Padang playing [Majulah Singapura]. Think of all the ad jingles!!

It makes me even more motivated to get my driving license!!

However if you think fuel charges are too high and having music while cruising drives you up the wall. You can always opt for something less noisy, and something that you do everyday and most of the time more than once – one of Hasbros’ most popular product in recent years - ‘The only toothbrush that puts music in your mouth” - Tooth Tunes!!

Make me laugh

2008-10-09T15:14:00.002+08:00

When it comes to delivering a social message, government bodies and affiliates are often faced with two options, a) do it through a hard hitting shock tactic type execution, or b) through humor. Which one works best?

The reason I ask is, today Grey sent me a series of TVCs its Melbourne office did for WorkSafe which highlight, in a pretty gruesome manner, the dangers that young people face in the workplace. It's pretty effective in getting the message across, have a look at the one where the kid gets boiled by scalding water.

Stark contrast to last year's well known 'pinky' ads the Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) New South Wales did for anti-speeding which we blogged about here. Closer to home, Singapore has also adopted a less gory approach to road safety. This year's Road Safety Outreach Campaign is a complete u-turn to most of the road safety stuff i saw last year in Singapore (especially from the ones shown in the cinema with the creepy and annoying voice overs).

For me, personally, I prefer the humorous ads but shock-ads, done well , definitely leave a lasting impression.

Politics: The great creative inspiration

2008-10-07T15:03:00.009+08:00

What is it about politics, especially American politics, that inspires such an outpouring of creativity?

When ever its election time in the US there seems to be a mad scrambling together of all sorts of creative types, who come up with great content aimed at the voting public. In this instance, ad agency Droga5 has worked with comedian Sarah Silverman to make this pro-Obama message.

There’s also been a ton of stuff directed at Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin. As you can see, Saturday Night Live has a field day with several skits about Palin. But so has many other groups from writers, actors, comedians and just the public in general. Here’s one, and here’s another.

There’s also been some interesting ads to get Americans to register to vote. Here’s one with Jessica Alba in a Hannibal Lecter-style mask. Other notable efforts include this TVC, which was done during the Democratic nominations and designed to separate Obama from Hilary Clinton.

The other side of this coin is some of the terrible advertising that gets produced during elections. Like this ad (yes, it’s a real ad) for Republican nominee Mike Huckabee and this TVC for Mike Romney.

And there’s also the attack ads, which have become a big part of elections, especially American elections, and are the other side of this issue. Why does politics inspire the best, and often the worst, in the creative community? And is this lacking in Asia and in Asian politics?

Give us your thoughts.

You know something's wrong when....

2008-10-07T11:42:00.002+08:00

Mainland Chinese stop splurging! The Hong Kong Tourism Board yesterday announced that visitor arrivals from Mainland China during this year’s National Day Golden Week holidays reached 481,987, a 9.5% jump on the same period last year. Good numbers for sure, but what's got the retail market in Hong Kong worried is that retail sales were worse than expected. It's long been touted that mainland Chinese would be the saving grace for Hong Kong's retail market in this period of financial uncertainty, particularly in the luxury goods market. But apparently not.
The South China Morning Post is reporting that while individual mainland travellers jumped 14%, sales surged less than 5% compared to the same period last year with expectations from store owners significantly down.
"We're a bit disappointed because this is lower than the 10 per cent target," Lau Hak-bun, sales director at Chow Sang Sang Jewellery, said.
The SCMP also says that Oriental Watch store saw its revenue over the Golden Week dropped by about 20% to 30% for its Central shop, although our Tsim Sha Tsui and Jordan shops did better. Maybe it wasn't a Golden Week after all.

Give me your Ideas and I’ll give you my brand...

2008-10-03T14:31:00.005+08:00

Brands and corporations have been aligning themselves with student bodies for a long time...offering book prizes, scholarships, exclusive internship opportunities etc… Nobody ever complains as these schemes benefit the students and are likely to influence their job opportunities after gathering these accolades.

In recent years we’ve been seeing more marketers willing to work with schools in several different ways - sponsoring competitions, giving out bursaries etc. Business schools have their sales, branding, and marketing competitions, (Think ‘The Apprentice’ on slightly smaller less glamorous scale). Creative outlets have also been holding competitions looking out for their next protégé.

Mastercard, Microsoft, Toyota, Nestle, Yahoo and Vidal Sasson, to name just a few, are some of the brands out there who are capitalising on young, untapped energy and talent.

Perhaps I am a little to harsh and skeptical here, but I can’t help but wonder if this is the new route brands are taking - capitalizing on students' ideas as a cheaper alternative to consultancy firms.

“Hmmm I could hire a consultancy or an agency to work on my next branding campaign, but why don’t I try to see if any of the marketing, design or tech students out there can create ideas to lift my brand from obscurity? Or even better, get them to develop a programme that will make my new product less susceptible to hackers and the likes?” Executive A thinks.

Executive B continues, “Perhaps they are can be very run of the mill and unexciting but some can be a little more innovative and daring, we don’t have to pay them gazillions, just offer them a prize, an internship, a token sum for their efforts.”

“In fact, I can get a couple of schools to take part in it. Wow!!! Think of the potential of many ideas from students. It’d be like a pitch, free ideas galore!!” Executive C shrieks.

“ And that is not all, we can get publicity too for our CSR efforts!!” Executives A, B, and C chime in unison.

But there's a sliver of truth in it isn’t there… when companies move in favour to support communities and students, other than the fact that the students benefit from the relationship, these marketers are likewise banking in on students’ “eagerness” to be associated with the brand.

Perhaps as budgets get slashed and marketers are told to cut costs, more student activities woill be held across the island as the services of such young, talented individuals are procured for the “simple want for the better good”.

The worst kind of PR

2008-10-02T17:11:00.004+08:00

The Chinese poisoned milk scandal just goes from bad to worse. It kind of reminds me of George W Bush’s American presidency, it started off in controversy, took some more big hits and still continues to get worse at an alarming rate.

The complete inability of the Chinese government and the Sanlu Group (the company at the centre of the crisis) to actually deal with the scandal is astounding. The latest installment, according to a story in today’s Straits Times, is that Sanlu had actually asked the Chinese government for help in covering up the crisis. The authorities were made aware of the problem about a week before the Beijing Games began, and chose to sweep it under the carpet.
Apparently they were worried about the scandal ‘tarnishing’ China’s image before the Games, and wanted to “avoid creating a negative influence in society”.

Well they were ‘successful’, on some levels, as they did cover up it during the Games so that China’s first Olympics went off without a hitch. That is of course if you forget the dramas surrounding the Olympic torch and Free Tibet protests, the pollution in Beijing and the attempts to stifle the freedom of world media before the Games started. Yeah sure, the 2008 Olympics were problem-free.

And trying to avoid creating a negative influence in society? Well they’ve failed miserably at that. When babies die, you have your negative influence right there. It’s unavoidable. Child fatalities kind of do that to you. Any sort of cover up of that is simply pointless.

The reaction to the tainted milk crisis from those involved as been pitiful at best. It took the intervention of the New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark to spur the Chinese government in to action. Since then panic has spread, and more milk related products have been pulled from the shelves on a daily basis. The affect on the milk, confectionary and dairy sectors has been devastating, and will continue to be so for months, maybe years to come. The crisis has spread from China to the rest of APAC, and global giants such as Nestle, Cadbury, Unilever and Heinz been tainted.

China has not managed to contain the crisis, or managed to minimize its fallout. Some of this could have been avoided by going on the offensive.

Taking cues from the reactions to other product contaminations in other countries, the Chinese government and Sanlu should have ordered a massive product recall. Before there is a chance to test all the products, get them out of stores, even if some may be OK. The mere question of possible contamination should be enough to pull it off the shelf.

Secondly, there should have been a huge public information campaign to inform consumers of what was happening and why, and to reassure them that the problem will be fixed. At a time like this information is vital, and to stop harming more people and creating more hype you have to get active. But now this is basically too late. 53,000 children are ill and four babies are dead. Consumers in China are enraged, and rightly so, while consumers the world over are skeptical about buying anything that might hail from Asia and be milk-related.

Trying to cover up information that will eventually get out is pointless and very harmful. It is much better to try engage with the community, to work to solve the crisis, rather than trying to avoid it or to point fingers at those responsible.

The damage has been done now, and it’s going to take a hell-of-a-lot of advertising and marketing dollars to put the likes of Sanlu and the other brands involved back to the position they were in before the scandal began.

I was wrong, well not as wrong as Ferrari

2008-09-30T12:58:00.007+08:00

I have to admit watching over this past few months the sluggish lead up to Singapore's F1, both from a marketing/sponsorship perspective and a logistics and engineering one, I kind of thought the Singapore F1 might run about as smooth as a Ferrari refueling stop.

However from my spectacularly well located seats on the first corner (thanks to Marketing's good friends at ESPN - see pic) I was delighted to be completely wrong about it in the end.

Apart from the sheer animal enjoyment of being that close to that much horsepower and breathtaking technology crammed into a tiny carbon fiber shell, I think for brand Singapore, along with chief sponsor Singtel and all those who threw their hats into the ring with various sponsorship deals and those who took up hosting options, it was a hugely successful event.

There was no other place to be over the weekend then jammed up against tens of thousands of others from the obsessed perennial fans, like the brave lad who painted his body in support of the US and its great hope, Scott Speed (yeah it's really his name), through to the excitable F1 virgins. But it took me to see some of the footage on the box last night on BBC to realise just how impressed the world was with Singapore's F1.

As for the branding, the Singtel stuff was everywhere and while many suspected it had under-leveraged the lead up to the event itself, the livery on the track beamed around the world was extremely important in establishing the telco as a brand name globally. How useful that is depends on how far over the horizon the telco thinks it wants to scale its business.

But the real winner was definitely Singapore. When you live there the continuous claims that it is a world class city with world class facilities and service become a little monotous (particularly if you have been exposed to the other side of that service imperative). But to see that illuminated track snake around some of Singapore's finest features,the organisational planning that had gone into the trackside event and the ease with which it was seemingly pulled off certainly gets you on board.

Yes there did seem to be an absence of long sighted F1 marketing strategy, but then the stands were full and while the sponsors and government did a reasonable job of trying to include everyday Singaporeans in this major event, the reality is F1 isn't a sport for the heartlanders its a high cost sport that demands of its sponsors large amounts of cash and so investments have to be maximised.

Like the Olympics (which incidentally, according to Mediacorp saw less viewers than the F1 among Singaporeans - 780,000 compared to 765,000 for the Beijing Olympics) its largely watched on TV by the people who live closest to it.

So offering cut priced seats and doing tactical ticket sales marketing isn't really practical, you need premium clients who want big hosting deals. That then, according to a number of folk I spoke to over the weekend is why marketing didn't seem tobe omnipresent in the lead up to F1 - a lot of it was B2B and relationship based.

The success of the F1 will do more to market Singapore as a destination for international leisure and business tourists than any of the TVCs produced under the Uniquely Singapore badge because what makes an international destination is a destination that can host the world and the F1 proved Singapore can.

Of course I can't write about the F1 without pointing out where the organisers dropped the ball, ie the beer tents - the lines were crazy (although not as crazy as those strange animal figurines in the beer tent - see pic - does anyone know what that was about?). In fact I was sitting near a bunch of Aussies who swore they would never come back because it was so hard to get a beer.

Thankfully the first few laps served to both drown out their moaning and distract them from what they were complaining about in the first place.

Thankfully my hosts had wisely sat four beers down in front of me before the race began.

The war for talent is over

2008-09-18T16:14:00.003+08:00

I recently came upon the following quote in my readings: “The war for talent is over. It has been won by talent.” (You’ll have to forgive me for losing the great mind who made this statement, I can’t seem to retrieve the document in which I read it.)

Indeed, the war for talent has been won by talent. Throughout the world, more and more companies are facing ever-greater challenges of finding the right talent at the right time. The competition is fierce, the consequences terrifying, the salary-bidding accelerating.

In China, the case is even more so. At a recent seminar, I heard Starbucks China’s main man talk about his employees as the coffeemaker’s number one priority challenge. Not the difficult retail-landscape of China, not its complicated logistics, not the competition from local low-cost chains, not the protection of Starbucks’s intellectual property. Finding and keeping qualified employees, that was his number one preoccupation.

Let’s run through this short thought exercise: Imagine almost half of your total customer base constantly on the look-out for competitive products. Imagine your whole customer base needing to be completely renewed every year and a half. Now imagine the strategy and tactics needed to keep your customers loyal in such a heated market situation. The corresponding communications, promotional and loyalty plan budgets are simply mind-boggling.

Well, I invite you to sit back and take in a few of these astounding figures. Over 40% of all current workforce in China is actively looking for a new job. The average job duration for under 30’s in my stepmother city Shanghai is just 17 months. China needs up to 75.000 world-class quality executives within the next 5 to 10 years, with universities projected to supply only 3.000 to 5.000.

Talent in China is scarce and extremely volatile. Finding it is a challenge, keeping it an even bigger one.

But why am I writing about talent, and the challenge of finding and keeping it, in a marketing forum, of all places? Quite simply, because employees are your brand. They live and breath it, they convey it onto your customers at all imaginable (and unimaginable) touch points. And Starbucks’s number one knows this.

Going about attracting the right talent is less and less the mission of only the Human Resources department. The employee base is becoming a corporate, top-level issue, with cross-functional ways of thinking, inspired by an ever more so marketing talk. Getting the right employee candidates to meet with your recruiters is only possible after a thorough segmentation of the employment market: which types of profiles can you expect to find where, and in which concentrations? How do you interact with them, and attract their attention towards your company in the first place?

Once your recruiter talks with them, all interviewees, both the hired ones and the rejected ones, will return to the employment market and talk with their peers. What will they tell them about their experience at your company? And how will that affect your power of attraction?

Once you’ve conquered a candidate’s heart, and he becomes an employee, how do you keep him? Nurture your employees, like you do your customers. Employees don’t tick to only salaries, like consumers consider more than price when buying your product. Build up a relationship with your employee, like you do with your customers, getting to know him, what motivates him, what frustrates him, what will keep him going strong. And then tailor programs to fit these needs: trainings, career path coaching, team building.

Talent has won, so get it on your side.

Catherine Crevels works for the Belgian marketing consulting firm The House of Marketing out of its Shanghai office.

Emotions all around

2008-09-09T15:09:00.001+08:00

All over town, it’s emotions emotions emotions.

At a seminar on branding in China that I recently attended, various speakers from the advertising industry defended and promoted the use of emotional bonding in all brand communications. The general message was to communicate with your consumers on a human level about subjects that are relevant to them- creativity, simplicity, power, status.

The audience was overwhelmed with proof of this statement: an impressive overview of best-in-class examples of integrated, holistic campaigns in which the deeper emotional benefits of a brand were central. Nokia connects people, in all possible interpretations of those words. Sony delivers colour, sound, memories, like no other. Nike uncovers the hidden athlete in all of us, encouraging everyone to just do it. Coke spreads happiness and vitality in a bottle through its vision on the Coke side of life. BMW goes beyond the functionalities of a high performance vehicle, and invites us to enjoy the pure pleasure of driving.

Having spent a significant part of my recent past in multinational consumer goods companies, I too remember the value I attached to the emotional positioning of our leading coffee brand: cosiness and human warmth. We expressed these values through any way possible, always reminding our consumers that they were paying more for our brand because it provided them more than a good-tasting drink and a boost to wake up in the morning.

Looking at the examples discussed during the seminar, one could state that indeed, the emotional branding and strong campaigns of these world-class brands are the basis of their success in China. And building on this statement, we can conclude that also in China, emotions are key, right?

For me, this is the real question that remains: is China ready for emotional branding? True, global, best in class brands are successful in China, and these same brands globally play out their emotional card. But does the same apply to smaller brands, or to domestic Chinese brands?

Talking to quite a few people in the industry, and simply walking around Shanghai, observing shoppers’ behaviour, I’ve learned that for many Chinese, quality, price, value and practicality are the main reasons for purchasing a product. True, any international brand name offers status to China’s new and upcoming consumers, but to go as far as to say that they prefer Nokia’s “connecting” qualities over Samsung’s advanced product features is a leap I wouldn’t dare to take.

Going one step back into the value chain, talking to companies building and fostering brands in China, I notice that they are not talking purely about emotions. It’s about channel strategy, building up a sound distribution system, with logistics that keep up speed, delivering a stable brand promise with the same quality throughout the country, tapping into the sales potential of an increasingly large potential consumer base.

When it’s all about growth in a rapidly developing market, the important thing is to be there, and keep up. Emotions are nice, and crucial to a brand’s essence, but it is only really necessary to communicate about them in mature, saturated markets, where consumers no longer decide with their wallets but with their hearts.

Catherine Crevels works for the Belgian marketing consulting firm The House of Marketing out of its Shanghai office.

Simply the Best

2008-08-28T17:39:00.002+08:00

Only the best is good enough in China. On asking a Chinese how many medals China had won 5 days into the Games, the answer was 17. Impressed as I was, I asked my contact how many of these were gold. Gold? Oh, all of them! In total they had won some 40 medals, but apparently only the gold count. That should help to explain the attitude of the heavy weight who recently won bronze, only to throw it to the ground in discontentment. This strategy of course led only to disqualification and a loss of the medal altogether.

The quest for the absolute best also goes for marketing. In our European home base, one of our most popular services is helping companies identify their unique selling proposition and positioning, and to help them differentiate themselves from their competition. Basic marketing strategy, right? Segment, target, position. Be unique.

Not right. Offering to help a Chinese brand differentiate itself will never work. Chinese don’t want to be different, even if it is in a relevant and sustainable way, tailored to a specific target audience. This target audience in turn also doesn’t want a different product or service, tailored to its needs.

Chinese want the best. Simply the best. And if this means copying a great idea, only to make it even better, so be it. As one China-connoisseur once put it, there is no merit to be gained by being innovative.

This helps explain why all premium brands, be it Kohler toilet seats, Garmin navigation devices or Pepsi cola, swear by testimonials for their advertising. Do we see any originality here? Any great consumer insights? Any right-on positioning? No. All we see is repetition of the same great idea, letting a famous person tell the world how good your product is. But who’s asking for originality anyway?

Catherine Crevels works for the Belgian marketing consulting firm The House of Marketing out of its Shanghai office.

Sporting rivalry turns cheeky

2008-08-26T14:48:00.003+08:00

There’s nothing like a bit of old-fashioned sporting rivalry being played out in the media. Especially if the media is newspapers, and especially if it’s Australia and Great Britain going at it. It can get quite ‘clever’ at times, and lead to cheeky creative executions.

B&T Today carries the story of The Daily Telegraph hitting back at British tabloid The Sun’s attempt to poke fun at

Australia

’s gold medal haul. The Sun hired tray-top trucks in both Sydney and London to boast about Great Britain’s 19 gold medal tally to Australia’s 14, and accompanied by the Tourism Australia inspired tagline “So where the bloody hell were you?” against a back drop of the Union Jack.

24 hours later and The Daily Telegraph responded with its own take on the gold medal standings. The article says a truck has been driving around Sydney with the words “Where the bloody hell were we?” “Above you on the medal tally”, comparing Australia’s 14 golds to the 13 earned by athletes only from England – excluding Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Great stuff!! Too bad Singapore and Malaysia only have one silver medal each which doesn’t leave much room for the papers to poke fun at each other. Unless Malaysia brought up the fact that their Silver medalist was actually a Malaysian and not imported from China…

China, the promised land?

2008-08-22T18:13:00.003+08:00

China, the land of opportunity. The promised land of retail. The soon-to-be biggest market for consulting in the world.

Be it leading executives of world-class brands, expensive reports by international research agencies, or small-time entrepreneurs venturing out into the world’s biggest developing market, they all seem to agree on one thing: China is the place to be.

With a middle class growing by double digits annually, millions of spend-happy consumers trying out anything new at any price, a youth culture increasingly built on brands, and a growing need to project personal achievement through material assets, China does indeed seem the place to be to bring in the big wins for companies in many industries.

But the question remains how to do it.

Our consulting company came to China last year. After concluding that also for us marketing consultants, China is the promised land, we set up shop in Shanghai and got out our forks and knives, ready for devouring some major business.

Because marketing is the next big thing, right? After being the world’s factory for decades, China is ready to step up the value chain. Beijing is increasing investments in R&D, emphasizing innovation as the way forward, even setting up the somewhat obscure China Top Brand quality label. China is consciously building 200 homegrown brands that are set to conquer the world (much like the country’s top athletes are bred and trained to top all Olympic charts). The next Sony, Nike, Nokia and McDonald’s are sure to be Chinese, and these companies have a long way ahead of them.

So the cake is huge, but how to get a piece of it?

The very first thing I read in different books in preparation to coming to China, is that you can’t just copy a successful business model and paste it in the Chinese environment: it never works. After 6 months in Shanghai, building up a marketing consulting business in an intercultural team, I can truly say that I’ve experienced this learning first hand. In order for something to work, it’s just not enough to “adapt”, “translate” or “Chinese-ize” your product, service or business. You need to throw everything on the table, distill the real essence of your business model, and then rebuild it, taking into consideration the specific Chinese market environment and business givens.

On top of the business-related challenges in redefining your added value towards Chinese companies, are the everyday interpersonal challenges of cross cultural communication. On the surface, modern Chinese life seems very similar to what we know in the West. Under the surface however, the differences are huge. I’ve experienced that the Chinese have another perspective of time, timing and deadlines. A deadline is set and worked towards, but if it becomes clear that the deadline will not be met, it is simply delayed, hence losing all its intrinsic purpose. I’ve also learned that the Chinese are very process oriented as opposed to task- or result-driven. It is the way something is done, the way people interact that is important, not the result that is or must be achieved. The Chinese have a greater appreciation than me for power distance: the boss can never be wrong, can never not know something, and must always be pleased, even if this is impossible. Straightforward reporting and honest feedback become rare luxuries in this context.

It’s clear that there’s no guaranteed recipe for success. The hundreds of self-help books on how to become a millionaire overnight only slightly overshadow the number of titles written around how to be successful in China. But the naked truth is this: it takes courage, hard work, patience and perseverance.

For my colleagues and me, every day sheds new light on the mystery of success in China, and brings us closer to our goals. Let’s hope our hard work and patience will pay off. And in the meantime, you can follow my experiences of living the economic boom in the fast evolving Chinese communism, in a city that for me is the most capitalist I’ve ever seen, where the essence of marketing is ever-changing.

Catherine Crevels works for the Belgian marketing consulting firm The House of Marketing out of its Shanghai office.

Are you compelling?

2008-03-14T16:30:00.002+08:00

You need to earn the right to get your consumers out of lurker mode.

That was what Mitch Joel, president for Canadian-based digital marketing agency, Twist Image wrote in his blog which if you haven’t read yet – you should – because he’s one marketer who has a real understanding of the digital space and how to use it.

He describes ‘Lurker’ mode as someone who is on your website, but has not identified themselves, be it through leaving an email address or a comment. So what irked him enough to post a blog about marketers needing to earn the right to get consumers out of lurker mode?

Well I had the pleasure to meet Mitch once at an event in Singapore and after you’ve listened to him give a talk about digital marketing, social media etc, you’ll see how passionate he is about the subject. So when he stumbled upon more examples of traditional media asking consumers for “their stories”, he “shook his head in disbelief” and started typing.

He reckons, and rightly so I might add, that User Generated Content needs to be something so compelling that the people creating the piece of content are compelled to do it.

His advice to marketers:

It's also important to, sometimes, take a step back (and a deep breathe) and ask the toughest question of all: “does anybody care about us that much that they'll take time out of their busy schedule to tell us why?” And the next (logical) follow-up question, “If they do... what will do with it, and how do we honour their efforts?”

Well it isn't rocket science to figure out that there are a lot of lurkers on The Pitch and I can admit that our inability to update the blog regularly has also driven many users away as well. I’ve been trying to update the blog as much as I can, of late, but I think it’s going to take a bit more than that to get the ‘comments’ coming in again. Watch this space, one day soon we’ll start becoming more interactive, adding podcasts and videos and of that.

Marketers beware

2008-03-10T11:21:00.002+08:00

When an idea seems so good that you’d be crazy not to do it, please take a moment and consider the following: Does this ad tactic really fit your brand?

If your answer is, “maybe not but I still want to give away a new car to every member of the studio audience”, then have a read of what Steve McKee, president of McKee Wallwork Cleveland Advertising, writes in a BusinessWeek article.

In ‘When Your Ad Tactics Don’t Fit Your Brand’, McKee cites numerous examples of how marketers fell in love with an idea without thinking about whether it created long-term value for the brand.

He wrote that when marketers are faced with a new tactical opportunity, no matter how exciting it appears, you should run it through the filter of your overall brand strategy. If it's consistent, it may be a good opportunity to generate additional, relevant exposure. If not, you can find better uses for your money.

In other words, don’t assume that creating a ‘most watched’ viral video on YouTube means positive things for your brand. We just don’t know what the real value of the messages put on YouTube are…yet.

The King of Good Times spills beans

2008-02-28T23:05:00.005+08:00

Kingfisher CEO, Dr Vijay Mallya on day 1 of the World Effie Festival made everyone wait almost two hours to hear him speak about creating a brand personality, truth is, it was worth the wait.

While The King of Good Times declined to be interviewed by the press after his presentation, Mallya shared the story of Kingfisher's successfull branding in India - the genius behind it, the luck involved - and why branding is sacred to him.

I have to admit I came into this Thought Catalyst session not knowing too much about Kingfisher and Mallya (except that he has been dubbed "the Indian Richard Branson" by the media) so forgive any factual inaccuracies that may appear in this post which I am doing for the benefit of our readers who didn't get to go...

"Selling alcohol or an airline seat is no different from selling consumer goods," Mallya said at the WEF. "You need to understand your consumers". With that in mind, Mallya set about on his task to make Kingfisher beer a success. Before he launched the brand, Mallya had to define who his target audience was and what got them excited - what are their expectations? Hanging around colleges and pubs in Bangalore, he did his own market research by talking to consumers and found out that they thought beer was refreshing, and a summer drink, but not exciting.

"There was no draw, no consumer pull...I looked at the brands out there and none were appealing," he said. So he started building a brand with personality and pushed the idea of selling a lifestyle - The King of Good Times was born.

He did admit that there was a fair bit of luck involved as well, unknown to him at the time was the fact that India had a young demographic and every year millions of Indians reached a drinking age.

To support his idea of selling the Kingfisher lifestyle, the beer became, and still is, a force supporting the local fashion industry. From there, Mallya moved the brand into the direction of sports sponsorships. In India, cricket is a religion but Mallya hardly had the money nor burning desire to sponsor the Indian national team. Instead he went with the West Indian cricket team which according to him was "a better brand fit". The West Indians are known to 'have a good time' on and off the pitch it seems. At the 1995 World Cup, going against his team of marketers who told him that sponsoring the West Indian cricket team (who are more than decent side on the pitch) was a bad idea especially if India were drawn as opponents, Kingfisher sponsored the West Indians. In that same year, Kingfisher became internationally known when the brand sponsored the Benetton F1 team.

Then when Kingfisher asked consumers to choose the name for its new airlines, the vote overwhelmingly swang for Kingfisher to be the name of the airlines. The brand that was born as a beer but pushed as a lifestyle was deemed good enough by consumers for it to seamlessly become an airline brand.

"You won't see consumers naming a plane Heineken," he said.

To make this long story short, the Kingfisher airline brand lived up to the brand promises the lager version was built on - experiencing the good times. The airlines became the first in India to offer personal video screen entertainment to all passengers because "Indians love entertainment". When the competition jumped on the bandwagon, Mallya upped the services to offer 'live' entertainment on the flights - meaning passengers could keep track of the stock market while watching CNBC live or watch the criket live as well.

Anyways this is part of the story on how Mallya became known as The King of Good Times, something he has grown fonder of over the years.

"There's no harm in being a cheap and cheerful brand ambassador rather than paying some Bollywood star to be one," he said.

Mallya went on to talk about more of the brands under his company's umbrella but before i wrap up, let me leave you with some more quotes from him which give an insight into his definition about branding.

"We must talk to the brand. The brand must talk back. There has to be a debate. It can't be a one way traffic where the marketer or creative director decides, no this is the colour for this and this is the something for that. I've seen many make this mistake. Branding is sacred. We brand every brand in our umbrella. We know that in India consumers in the North-East are different from the North or the South for example. We have to tweak our message to fit each market," he said.

New Post: "Because you're worth it"

2008-02-20T18:04:00.010+08:00

“Once upon a time a little-set-up was bought over by the Big Daddy .The owners of the little-set-up retired in comfort and lived happily ever after. The End.”

That’s a fairy tale many little companies wish to hear and it’ll most definitely happen - during bed time, that is, in your dreams. And we know also of many well established ~~ad agencies~~, little ones in the talks with ~~conglomerates~~ Big Daddies, hoping to get ~~taken up~~ picked up.

Last year we held a marketing peer briefing where we invited Jane Hoban from the Body Shop to speak. One of the topics that was brought forth during the Q&A was the acquisition of the UK company by French cosmetics giant L’Oreal.

Hogan gamely replied that it has not affected the values of the company and in fact Body Shop has been trying hard to influence L’Oreal’s policies internally and that its delay in hitting the booming China market was due to - the non-conformity of the motherland’s policies with its own on not testing with animals.

Say no to animal cruelty

Fair enough. Good try.

A few days later I met up with a lady that was familiar with the Mag’s peer briefings because she had been to a couple previously. I asked her about her non-attendance this time and she replied, “After the acquisition, I don’t think I can stand alongside their values any longer.”

So herein lies the question do mergers and acquisitions necessarily work for brands? For any company you wish to create a connect with your target audience. But what if you do well and agree to a merger or nod your heads at being acquired?

Like Lonely Planet to BBC, Hallmark to CNBC, You-Tube to Google, Reebok to Adidas.. and now possibly Yahoo with “the-highest-bidder-wins”.

Have they or will they fare well?

Some are too premature and will need a longer incubation period to see the effects but its seems to be that if you’re the one being eaten, you will insist that nothing will change and it will be for the better. However slowly but surely, intrinsically you’ll start to lose your identity till perfect merger occurs and you’ll be remembered only with a wistful smile and a wave of the hand as your past-fans wax lyrical about your glorified past.

Well I suppose if Body Shop did ask L’Oreal for a comment on a merger they’d probably answer,

"Because you're worth it"

652 million pounds that is.

But as a marketer or even as a consumer… how do you feel when your pal seems to have sold out and moved on to the darker side? Share with us your thoughts.

Mamma Mia!

2008-02-15T09:44:00.010+08:00

Some might call this clever, others might call this distasteful – whatever you call it, it certainly gets the eyeballs, practically grabbing them out of their sockets in disbelief as you scream OMG! and point at the pizza box that once contained a yummy tasting Italian treat.

Adrants turned me on to this, shall we say, unique pizza box advertisement. As you can see from the following images, the ad for an extermination company is placed under the pizza so the consumer doesn’t see it until he’s finished with the meal. I think i've seen something similar to this before though but it's still worth a look..

Mamma Mia indeed!

Stand up for the champions

2008-02-12T19:44:00.000+08:00

As a proud Manchester United fan, I was left shell shocked by the manner of our 2-1 derby defeat to Citeh – on the 50th anniversary of the Munich Air crash no less – but our local rivals were not the only winners that afternoon as the ‘sponsor-less’ commemorative jerseys worn by the United players seemed to magically spell out AIG every time I looked.

AIG paid in the millions to get their logo on Man U’s jerseys but if brand awareness could be considered the end all and be all of ROI then it was well worth it. As much as I hate how modern football jerseys look these days (with the huge logos of sponsors plastered all over the place), I have grown accustom to it – and the absence of it in Sunday night’s match kept reminding me that something was missing. It seems in my mind that AIG and the English champions go hand in hand – not a bad association to have for a brand. Too bad we played so badly!

Of course I know if I lived in the red half of Manchester then I would be amongst the minority to think so positively about AIG because of events leading up the match. A lot of fans were non-to-happy that AIG managed to get their logo onto a tribute graphic outside of Old Trafford.

Here’s what a Manchester United blog called Red Rants had to say about the whole incident.

I can’t help but cringe at the shallowness underneath it all that’s somehow made it up through the corridors of power that inhabit Old Trafford these days.

Doesn’t the appearance of the AIG logo stink? They got the shirt deal and all that. But it has been made clear everywhere that no one should be allowed to make any commercial gains from the Munich tribute. It is a tragedy that is meant to be beyond petty advertising and attention crabbing whores. It is for the families/players affected by the tragedy and for the fans.

And this is why the presence of the AIG logo, however inconspicuous they intend to make it look, concerns me. It shows a total lack of understanding on not just the part of the owners; we really don’t expect them to know too much, do we? But it is appalling that people like David Gill, who do have some say and understanding of the sentiments of fans, seem to have ignored this detail.

And not just that. How could they even get the words of United Calypso wrong? It’s okay if it was a typist rattling away on his keyboard trying to meet some article deadline. But in full blown panels that occupy the East Stand facade of OT that’s just unforgivable, and terribly negligent. It would certainly be grating for fans entering the premises.

Oh well AIG, I guess you can’t win ‘em all.

The day after…

2008-02-05T20:06:00.000+08:00

This year’s Super Bowl provided plenty of drama even without any wardrobe malfunctions. Something like 40 ads were aired that day, all of them watched, not all of them remembered. Which ones did you love, hate or just thought were weird.

The ones I liked and why…

I have to say that as a beginner to the madness that is Super Bowl ads, I was expecting a lot of highly creative work – the cream of American creativity I expected. What I did find was more like the cream of American slapstick humour which I have been desensitised too. That being said, here’s my Super Bowl top 5: -

1) E-Trade ‘baby’ ads – a talking baby giving you financial advice with a funny twist at the end. It’s good because the message is not lost on the humour and you will definitely remember the ad.

2) Pepsi’s Timberlake ad – seeing Justin Timberlake getting thrown around would make anyone smile. But the ad also effectively gets a simple message across – every sip gets you closer to Justin Timberlake mp3s, etc….” Watch for the crotch shot towards the end!

3) T-Mobile’s ‘Hi Chuck’ ad – maybe it’s the fact that I have been a basketball fan since the days of Sir Charles Barkley or Chuck, but I just thought this ad was great. Having him put up-and-comer Dwayne Wade into his T-Mobile’s fave five function showcases the product in a funny but believable light.

4) Audi’s ‘Hood’ ad – spoofing all-time great scenes from famous movies can be a no-no but here Audi is able to tap on the Godfather reference and connect with its target audience.

5) Go Daddy Danica’s exposure ad – this spot didn’t run on Super Bowl because it was rejected for being too crude. But they ran a spot directing viewers to its site where they hosted the ad. It’s funny as hell but you still get the message in the end.

So 97.5 million viewers saw the New York Giants' last-minute win over the New England Patriots making it the most-watched Super Bowl ever and second biggest event in American television history. And it has proven once again to be a TV event where just as many people watch the ads as they do the program.

Of course there were plenty of crap ads out there and to keep this post short I wont go into them – please feel free to comment on which ones you hated though – one thing that was interesting about this year’s Super Bowl was that it featured only one beer ad and four for either soft drinks or flavored water.

Cloverfield: Don’t believe the hype?

2008-01-18T12:51:00.000+08:00

This morning, a small section of our office had been debating whether or not Cloverfield is a bad movie with good marketing or a good movie but only if you don’t pay attention to the marketing.

Thanks to Getty Images who furnished my colleagues and I with tickets to watch the screening at VivoCity which I thought was an “awesome” movie – however, my colleagues had far less enthusiasm for it and after a few more “awesomes” from me this morning…I was hardly the most popular man at Lighthouse.

So what is the cause of this polarised opinion? Taking out of consideration that certain genres of movies just don’t appeal to some – I reckon the marketing and the hype the filmmakers attempted to stir prior to its release should take some of the blame.

The colleague, who had the most negative things to say about the movie, was the one in the office who knew the most about the movie, and had seen its viral marketing efforts, and was already raving about the film she hadn’t seen. In short, she was the one who had been infected the heaviest by Cloverfield’s viral marketing game plan which involved the strategic release of two trailers with the first trailer disclosing the release date and not the movie title, and second trailer confirming the title months later.

The appearance of an untitled trailer fuelled media speculation over the film’s plot that generated global hype and in the case of my colleague – led her to put the film on a pedestal just as so many did with the Blair Witch Project where an amazing amount of people within your inner circle of friends passed on the message that you’re about to watch the most scariest show ever… I was pretty disappointed at the end of that show.

This time however, I didn’t buy into the hype and watched Cloverfield without knowing anything about the film except that it was going to be told from the point of view of the protagonist’s video camera and that the statue of liberty’s head gets ripped off – cool I thought to myself.

At the end of the day, the basic success measurement of the marketing will be judge on crowd numbers that watch the film but it will interesting to wait and see what happens when disappointed film-goers start ripping into film via online platforms. Will that make more people want to see the film to judge for themselves or will it deter people from buying a ticket?

If you go to watch the film though, make sure you sit near the back because the shaky camera theme can be nauseating to some.

NEW POST: Firefox viral backfires

2008-01-15T14:14:00.000+08:00

Let’s start with a little bit of history: Web (Browser) War I ended with IE’s victory over Netscape - that has since close to vanished.

Then it got a little haughty and a little lazy, sitting on its laurels and no new version from IE appeared for years.

2004, Mozilla roared into the picture. Web (Browser) War II between the victor of Web (Browser) War I and the noob thus started.

Oct 2006 was a significant month for technology.
The unavoidable face-off occurred - IE retaliated and catapulted IE7 and Mozilla blasted out Firefox Ver 2.0.

The IE7 guys as a gesture of goodwill sent over a cake to congratulate Mozilla’s launch.

Since then, according to http://www.netapplications.com/, Mozilla’s market share rose from 7.82% (Feb 07) to 15.8% (Dec 07) last year. An amazing feat already but IE still reigns with over 75% of the market share.

Now back to the story.

To start of the year with a blast, Mozilla secretly launched a viral Campaign to push Firefox and announced it exclusively on TechCrunch on 7 January around 6am (so much for it being secret and viral) which can be described in a simple equation IE = Boredom - this formula it adopted to snigger at IE and keep its 'I’m Cool and Snazzy' status.

The foolhardy-daredevil planted a website http://www.fightagainstboredom.org/ , popped into blog sites, entered Facebook and posted a You-Tube video and decided to use STATISTICS probably with the intention to scare and wow, cos we all know numbers add credibility to any release.

A snippet here from the Tech Cruch article:
" Compared to Internet Explorer users, Firefox users are:
* 21% less likely to be a sales representative or agent at their current place of business.
* 45% more likely to have gone on vacation in San Francisco within the last 2 years.
* 33% less likely to live with others suffering from high cholesterol.
* 6% less likely to have eaten any meal at Chick-fil-A within the last 7 days.
* 24% less likely to live with others suffering from heart disease.
* 66% more likely to have viewed or listened to audio or video about politics or public affairs news within the last 30 day.
* 89% more likely to have purchased database software for work in the last year.
* 38% less likely to live with others suffering from breast cancer. "

And then they probably sat back, patted themselves on the back and waited to see numbers jump and gleefully giggled for page hits.

And hit it did. Hard.

The first wave of Netizens started attacking, incensed and chastising them on their denigration of morals, their insensitivities to real-health issues like heart disease and cancer. One even pulled out Mozilla's mission statement as a case to highlight his disappointment with the developer.

Paul Kim, Mozilla’s VP of marketing probably pulled the plug when he entered the office, around 10 am the same morning the campaign rolled out, and started on damage control - Mozilla promptly took down the sites, and Kim personally replied to comments.

Reply 1:
“ This is Paul Kim, VP of marketing for Mozilla. I want to apologize to anyone who was upset or offended by some of the stats on the not yet final website for this campaign. The list Techcrunch referenced was posted without a final review by Mozilla and wasn’t intended to be published as is. We’re working right now to correct this on the site, which goes live in a final form later today.”

Nice… Blame the Press.

Reply 2:
"Zachary: There is no way we would have gone live with a site that mocks cancer victims if there had been a review of these stats beforehand. Something went seriously wrong with our content development process, and I’m working to clean this up now. The site is up now for testing purposes, but should have been kept behind password authentication until we were ready to open it up. Regardless of these issues on our end, the main thing is to say that I take responsibility for the situation, and again, apologize to anyone who was upset by this."

And then he blogged:

Later today didn’t come and the site is still down.

Me wonders what will come out of this,

1. Blame a junior insider for the leak?
2. Blame the Press for jumping the gun?
3. Fire the marketing team that thought of the campaign?
4. Steer clear from Statistics?
5. Steer clear from Viral campaigns?
6. IE folks popping champagne and sending a cake again to Mozilla for a campaign well-done.

Print publishers look online for that ‘Ker-Ching!’

2007-12-12T14:05:00.000+08:00

As publishers are learning to leverage their print brands in the digital world, monetising their online properties are top of mind for most.

At this week’s FIPP Worldwide Magazine Marketplace (WMM) conference, Meredith’s (a leading media and marketing giant in the US) chief development officer, general counsel and secretary John Zieser said there has to be separate sales teams for online and for print properties.

John Zieser

“Someone needs to wake up every morning and focus on the internet,” he said, adding that this person has to always consider how to increase the value of the net.

However, to prevent net sales person and print sales persons from tripping over one another, there has to be one person overseeing everything in the brand, stewarding the brand across difference channels.

For the brand’s biggest clients, though, there has to be 360 degree teams managing them across the media options, especially since most agencies today ask for print and multimedia “bundles”.

According to Donald Kummerfeld, president & CEO, FIPP (International Federation of the Periodical Press), 75% of Vogue’s record 700+ ad pages in a single edition were sold bundled with something else.

Donald Kummerfeld

Kummerfeld also said with online properties, publishers should focus on profit, not revenue, because margins are “way higher” online than in print.

Zieser put things into perspective when he responded to a question from the floor on how much revenue Meredith today makes from online: “Our total revenue is two billion and, 100 million of that is purely from online.”

Yo dawg, we're the MDA, peace out!... word

2007-11-28T18:39:00.000+08:00

It is one of those moments when you don’t know whether to laugh, to cry, to roll your eyes or to just have a faint aching in your heart echoing your pity after watching something absolutely ludicrous (to some), but certainly new, unheard of and shall I say, different.

Yup, it’s the MDA Senior Management Rap!

Reports say that the rap video was meant to show a lighter side of the management and the ability to ‘walk the talk’ when it comes to spearheading creativity. Well, the first part has certainly been achieved…we hear it has definitely generated much laughter. As for walking the talk, that’s where it gets a little grey around the edges. Some don’t appreciate the organization’s efforts and wouldn’t consider that ‘creative’.

AsiaOne even reported it here giving us even more stats on how well the video is doing.

But somehow these guys from the MDA decided that to really showcase their ability to think out of the box and passion for developing Singapore as a creative hub, they had to really get down with the flo' yo'!

Question is: Is having top line executives and managers bop to the beat and mouth lyrics like “Experimentation is my cup of tea” going to help them with their many goals of ushering Singapore media onto the world stage?

Despite all the flack, one must admit that seeing a different side of the govt regulatory body has its merits. It demonstrates their willingness to be open, to change with the times and to not alienate itself from current trends. It makes you realise these guys have a sense of humour as well, not bad for a country once dubbed ‘uptight’. And that’s encouraging for the future of our media growth, even if we don’t dig their dance moves. After all, these guys have big plans for the Singapore media industry, as rapped about in the video.

But then before embarking on a corporate rap video, maybe they should’ve given it more consideration. Because having a mass rap party with senior managers while delivering their corporate vision, goals and daily operations takes quite a lot to pull off successfully.

Let’s analyze this from all angles, shall we?

Why this video is kinda cringe-worthy:

1. Rap uses concise, catchy and succinct sentences. The long sentences in the rap sounded like a normal speech these guys would give except they rhyme and it was spoken in a "rappish" manner. And the depth behind those words...I mean, RAP never had DEPTH! Most raps are either about sex, ice, rock (aka jewellery), being all glamorous or being so damn hot, sex, violence, did I mention sex?

2. It wasn't really rap rap, y'know waddamean? They had the CEO stand there and read some lines in a weird tone of voice and passed it off as rap...just cos' it rhymed and followed to the beat!

3. You can tell the lyrics are propaganda and PR-approved.

4. Sometimes it takes more than putting words like 'y'all' and 'rock-on' together with your message to make your message seem cool. Rap is all about the culture, the 'cool' factor right?

But don't you think "yo yo singapore rock on! We strive for the best yeah yeah you bet, and we’ll put singapore on world stage, go girl!" sounds kinda off? Yeah, I thought so.

Much less the lines in this rap. Check this out: "They call me the HDTV guy, my tasks include internal systems integration; HRFIS, PMP to iTrax, please stay tuned, next up channel X!" Er....ok.

5. Has any other government in the world done this?!

6. If it ain't comfortable, it ain't meant to be done. Some of them just look stiff. If you don't feel good or comfortable doing it, don't. If you really have to make a rap video, get people who are really enthusiastic about it.

7. They had a guy wearing a 'superman' looking costume, complete with red underwear worn outside, standing on top of some building. 'Nuff said.

Why this video is cool....in a way:

1. The way these senior guys danced...let’s face it, it’s kinda cute. There's something endearing about seeing seemingly ‘older therefore not so cool’ and ‘professional’ people try to dance and be hip. (I meant older than most people who rap properly)

2. They were actually gung-ho enough to do this, when they probably know they might (or rather, will) get embarrassed. Or wait, maybe the thought never occurred to them.

3. Some of them actually look like they were enjoying themselves…complete with happy dance moves and genuine smiles. 

4. The way it's so "awwww"-inducing when you see 'em old guys trying to do something they think will really help 'em showcase their creativity (dancing so cutely and all) when you know it's not really working. But they did get a lot of attention; I suppose that's good enough.

5. Has any other govt in the world done this? :) We’re original, man!

In conclusion, though many can criticize their attempt (c'mon lah, not all of us can dance like Justin Timberlake either…) at least it goes to show these guys are open enough to do a rap video...seriously, which crazy government body has the guts to do that?

Singapore does.

And in a weird way, though people all over the world may laugh, I'm kinda proud of them simply cos' of that. (Plus, these guys demonstrated their ability to entertain!)

Okay, thank goodness I can stop using rappy words like 'y'all'...

Signing off!

Phyllis Toh
oxoxoxoxo

LV does something...and wins [video]

2007-11-20T13:19:00.000+08:00

For a brand that vigorously fights to protect its trademark goods from the mass interest of counterfeiters worldwide, Louis Vuitton must have been surprised to see Britney Spears ripping off the brand for her video ‘Do Something’.

It’s been a while now since the video aired on MTV and on sites such as YouTube but on Monday LV won a lawsuit that alleged the video violated counterfeiting laws by showing a pink dashboard with designs similar to the brand’s Cherry Blossoms design. A Paris court has not punished Britney but instead ordered Sony BMG and MTV online to stop marketing the video.

I guess the sight of Britney tapping her fingers on the dashboard from inside her pink Hummer, was a little too much for LV to not do anything – especially since the brand already is a prime target for counterfeiters.

Or perhaps they watched the entire video and felt compelled to respond to her numerous requests for someone to ‘Do Something’.

The video is still on YouTube and the offending bit is about 30 seconds into the video...

Tipped out [video]

2007-11-13T10:03:00.000+08:00

Last week Guinness launched its £10 million (S$30 million) ad, the most expensive TVC in its marketing history turned a village in Argentina into a giant domino launch pad equipped with flaming hay bales and cars, and hundreds of villagers.

Called ‘Tipping Point’ the ad was directed by Nicolai Fugslig, he’s the guy who did the Sony Bravia’s ‘Balls’ ad, and bears similarities to that Honda ‘Cog’ ad which illustrated the domino effect with car parts.

Not bad… getting the books towards the end of the ad to give the illusion of a pint of stout being poured was the best part for me but I’ll never know how the heck they got it to pause and go up again (which is the correct way to pour Guinness stout isn’t it?).

I still think the Honda ad has the cool factor nailed down though…we’ll have to wait and see how viral this ad becomes.

Y&R wears its heart on the ST

2007-10-30T16:18:00.000+08:00

Y&R made a bold statement to the public today via a full page ad in The Straits Times, four days after declining to contest for the SingTel account which is currently up for grabs.

The ad features names of famous partnerships between musicians, filmmakers, sportsmen, cartoonists, comedians, songwriters, and last on the list was “SingTel and Y&R”. (I apologise for the crappy picture, any suggestions on how to improve it?)

The list also included the dates for which the partnerships endured but none were as long as that of SingTel and Y&R which was a whopping 19 years.

As with any agency client relationship, there’re always ups and downs and good times and bad times but this ad really does position Y&R as a big-hearted agency which is wishing its client all the best. It doesn’t matter the real motivation behind the ad, the idea is they put their money where their mouth is and forked out money for an expensive ST ad. (Anyone knows how much was spent? Just curious)

SingTel previously maintained Leo Burnett and Y&R as joint incumbents on the above the line responsibilities while below the line work was done by a number of small agencies but consolidated its entire business with Y&R in 2004.

The business came up for pitch on 13 September and don’t hold your breath for 31 December when the 16-week process is supposed to come to an end.

Good luck to BatesAsia, Saatchi & Saatchi, Ogilvy & Mather and Leo Burnett – which has a nice advantage over the rest from its past experience with the client I’m sure.

The last time I remember an agency splashed out on a full-page ad for itself was Publicis in December 2004. Many of you may remember how you felt when you opened the papers that morning and gasped when you saw the ad asking for a meeting with SIA’s CEO Chew Choon Seng. I remember it was timed to coincide with a visit from a Publicis boss – was it Maurice Levy?

The Straits Times and Today both carried stories on how SIA was less than impressed with the stunt.

Loo Loo skip to the Loo

2007-10-25T12:30:00.000+08:00

Belgium is famous for its beer, waffles, the artist Jan Van Eyck and well also the recently retired Tennis star Kim Clijsters..But this digital campaign from the Belgian arm of ING Bank will put it on the world map for a great campaign well done.

Totally wicked and digustingly splendid. Its a shame they did not bank in (pun intended) more on interactivity. It would definitely be memorable just like BK's Subservient Chicken when it first sprung up in the digital airways years back.

All these to sell a zero Euro ING Lion Credit and using the WC as first point of contact... that's definitely a first for any bank anywhere.For the lazy folks with bad wireless, here are some screen shots but please go invest in a better router or steal your neighbour's connection or head to Starbucks. It's worth a watch.

However it did make me think...Imagine if they expanded the campaign globally and localised the loos for different markets. Yuuucks...Toilets are pretty nasty in Singapore, even legendary in China, if they have used that as the prototype it would have been frightful and downright distasteful.

NEW POST! Swapping spaces for faces

2007-10-25T10:17:00.000+08:00

I had a schoolyard moment the other day when I asked a long lost friend to add me to her Facebook friends and she replied ‘actually I’m with Spaces’. OMG! I thought (I told you it was a school yard moment).

I remember when I was at school, yeah it was a few years ago, you just had to make sure you had the right shoes and the right school bag, so it was imperative when your Mum went shopping for school supplies at the start of the year that you went with her to politely inform her what was in this year. Not doing so could commit you to a year of being humiliated at best and bashed in the school yard at worse. Despite what a lot of marketing tells you, being a young consumer is more about conforming and fitting in than it is about individuality and standing out.

The new equivalent faux pas (to turning up with the wrong brand of sports shoes to school), and it now goes well beyond the schoolyard, is belonging to the wrong social network. My friend’s view was that she’s “hype-er sensitive” ie she can’t stand anything that is over-hyped and therefore signed up with Windows Live Spaces.

I replied “that’s all well and good but I am afraid that means we can’t be friends”. She was a little shocked and I wasn’t kidding, because the networks don’t talk to each other she can’t become my friend in Facebook and since I already have a network of friends I am sure as hell not moving across the Spaces.

Today I will ring her and inform her, in case she hasn’t heard, that even Microsoft is now signed up to Facebook, well not so much signed as the owner of a small 1.6 % sliver of the company which it bought for US$250 million. Holy internet bubble Batman!

It does sound a little extravagant in a climate where companies are already wondering if they may have been a little overzealous with their web 2.0 shopping lists, eg eBay which analysts outside the company and a few people inside it, think paid considerably more than they should have for the wonderful VOIP platform, Skype.

However the blogging community this morning thinks the Microsoft buy in to Facebook could make some sense as it will involve serving ads to a community of 50 million users – but then some suggest that the reason Spaces has had a luke warm reception in the face of the rapidly spreading Facebook epidemic is exactly because it serves ads on people’s Spaces.

Mind you the blogging community also seems more concerned with whether 22-year-old co-founder Mark Zuckerberg will now by a private party jet like Google’s founders.
…and everyone thought he was an idiot to turn down a US$1 billion offer for the whole of Facebook from Yahoo.