Jan 9, 2015

Wrap-up: 9 things you need to know this week

Taxi wars, flying T-shirts, instant coffee, CES and a peep through the 2015 crystal ball. Here's a round-up of some of the stories you might have missed this week.

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Wrap-up: 9 things you need to know this week

1. Taxi apps in Singapore battle for brand loyalty

The launch of well-funded services like GrabTaxi, Easy Taxi, Uber and Hailo is timely. Singapore’s leading taxi company, ComfortDelgro, has about 22,000 taxis, but they are not easy to come by. But as these brands push commuters to adopt their services, a dominant player has yet to emerge.

2. Let’s have more marketing-oriented thinking at the top, says former boss of Virgin Atlantic

In an interview with Campaign Asia-Pacific in Hong Kong, Steve Ridgway, former Virgin Atlantic CEO stressed the value of marketing at global companies. “With the global economy picking up, people are realising that their companies are only going to benefit if they have good marketing propositions and if they develop brands,” he said.

3. IKEA evokes the joy of storage with a flock of flying T-shirts

Our sister title Campaign UK chose it as their ‘ad of the day’, and our staff (including Ad Nut) rather enjoyed it too.

4. Starcom MediaVest Group rejigs its management structure

As part of the new changes, SMG has hired industry veteran Mike Amour to head Asia-Pacific as president. THe reshuffles the company’s regional structure revert to the more traditional APAC, EMEA, LATAM, North America and North Asia groupings. “While it’s very easy to call Asia-Pacific one region, the truth is, it’s a mix of geographies, economies and abilities,” commented Amour.

5. "People have gut feelings when something is wrong or inconsistent and they can tell you if something feels off brand more easily than if something is on brand"

We spoke exclusively to the Chris Fjelddahl, co-founder of Eight Partnership, the agency tasked with refining Cathay Pacific's branding. From the lounge to in-flight service, the company recently worked to breathe fresh life into all the airline's customer-facing elements.

6. Dust off the crystal ball

Bacteria-chic, teetotal millennials and hipster macha! We've delved through JWT Intelligence's Future 100 trends report and picked out the most eyebrow-raising predicitons in the list. Not included in our extract are everybody-knows-this insights on wearable tech, 3D printers and Xiaomi, for example.

7. How do you sell instant coffee in Vietnam?

Like this, apparently! Nescafe, through Publicis Vietnam, has deployed YouTube's interactive technology to promote a variety of iced coffee. But the effort leaves us cold. What do you think?

8. Is there such a thing as Chinese UX?

Yes, says Eugene Chew, chief digital officer at JWT Shanghai. And foreign brands are making a mistake by failing to translate their experiences in a way appropriate for local culture.

9. Finally, for everyone that couldn't swing a trip to CES in Las Vegas

We couldn't either, FYI! But some of our US and UK colleagues are attending the annual consumer-electronics extravaganza, where they serve up platters of food for thought for marketers. We've gathered some of their CES insights from the future of wearable tech to content creation and commerce.