Given that the business dynamics of some markets don’t always lend themselves to search for all categories, the result speaks volumes about how keen marketers are to build relationships with consumers online.
“I would never have thought that a text-based, non-glamorous marketing medium that’s dependent on complex algorithms would gain so much popularity,” says Argha Sen, head of marketing and CRM for Toys R Us Asia. “I hope this is not just a fad, but marketers are actually doing this because they are getting great results out of search.”
Search is a relatively new marketing tool and marketers in general are still working out the best tactics to leverage it. Creativity, a major issue highlighted by the poll, is paramount. The best search terms may not be the most obvious ones.
Viral email and blogging also proved popular. In both areas, brand managers need to tread carefully, as mishandled marketing here can really come back to bite the brand. “As a consumer, I have nightmares of being hit by a tsunami of advertising or marketing blogs every time I Google a brand,” Sen says. “The same goes for viral emails. Perhaps not as irritating to the consumer as a sales call on the cellphone, but almost there.”
While certain elements of the digital mix are taking off, others are more niche. Just one in three marketers has concrete plans for mobile marketing for instance, with even fewer looking at mobile advertising or building a WAP site.
Although mobile has some clear benefits as a medium — people tend to carry their phones with them wherever they go and, in some markets, penetration is far greater than online — marketers also contend with sizeable hurdles, not least of which are the strict controls operators have over content that appears on their networks.
The huge costs of 3G licenses may precipitate a change in attitudes, opening up this massively underexploited medium, says Marcus Spurrell, new media manager for adidas in Asia-Pacific. “Operators need to tear down their walled gardens and open up their networks to independent content producers and share the revenues with them, while at the same time offering consumers flat-rate packages,” he says.
“Japan has successfully run this model for eight years.”
The main questions confronting marketers over digital are not whether they should incorporate digital into the marketing mix, but when and how — in many ways more difficult to answer. “We can’t just use digital as the new toy in the box,” says Darren Marshall, group marketing director for Coca-Cola Pacific.
“We need to fundamentally understand the interaction between how consumers are accessing digital, and how consumers are accessing our brands. Otherwise, it’s a waste of money for everyone.”
The question of when also ties fundamentally into ROI, Marshall adds, especially as different markets hit critical mass at different times. “Without that critical mass, particularly with a fixed cost investment like digital, we can very easily make the wrong decision.”
The 2007 communications plan
Online
Asian online ad spend is set to soar with double-digit growth, even in mature markets such as Japan.
“Marketers and their agencies will test the water with Web 2.0 and social media experiments, as online audiences spend increasing amounts of time sharing and creating community sites,” says MindShare Asia-Pacific CEO Ashutosh Srivastava.
Marketer spend plans: Much higher nine per cent; higher 42 per cent; no change 23 per cent; lower one per cent; much lower one per cent
CRM
Offering feedback and the promise of ROI non-digital channels find hard to match, CRM is also being fuelled by increasing interest in engagement and loyalty over simple communication. Two big challenges will slow development, however: the infrastructure enabling marketers to collect customer information, and internal process enabling them to both learn from it, and put those learnings into action.
Marketer spend plans: Much higher five per cent; higher 38 per cent; no change 32 per cent; lower three per cent; much lower one per cent
PR
As marketers grapple with how their relationship with consumers is changing through platforms such as blogs and user-generated content, many are re-evaluating their PR needs. Meanwhile, rising consumer activism, both on and offline, continues to underline the importance of good PR.
Marketer spend plans: Much higher seven per cent; higher 33 per cent; no change 49 per cent; lower five per cent; much lower one per cent
Sponsorship
This will be a big year for sponsorship in Asia, with marketers from multiple categories keen to strengthen their association with the main ‘passion’ areas, sports and music. With this kind of demand pressure, and still a limited pool of proven content sponsorship assets, costs will continue to increase.
Marketer spend plans: Much higher three per cent; higher 27 per cent; no change 36 per cent; lower six per cent; much lower three per cent
Magazines
Magazines continue to come and go very fast, with loyal readership enjoyed only by a few — usually titles targeting businesspeople, women and teenagers. “You will see less and less circulation and more specialisation,” says Jim Goh, Southeast Asia managing director for Omnicom Media Group. Magazines still offer a good environment for brands to engage information-hungry readers he adds, with publishers more open to closer collaboration with advertisers.
Marketer spend plans: Much higher one per cent; higher 28 per cent; no change 38 per cent; lower 13 per cent; much lower three per cent
Radio
When interactivity is becoming an issue for all media, radio, the original interactive medium driven by phone-ins and listener requests, is in danger of being sidelined as participation by listeners declines. Some stations are responding by staging on-ground events, with opportunities for brands to join in, but the medium still needs to do a lot more to promote itself.
Marketer spend plans: Much higher three per cent; higher five per cent; no change 28 per cent; lower 11 per cent; much lower four per cent
TV
Asia’s dominant media will continue to proliferate and innovate in 2007. More Asian marketers will create multi-stage, integrated campaigns, using TV for a broad reach and to pull audiences in to more interactive media to deepen engagement.
Marketer spend plans: Much higher three per cent; higher 22 per cent; no change 20 per cent; lower 11 per cent; much lower four per cent
In-store
Marketers will continue to see a greater range of instore formats, with audio and video elements becoming more readily available in developed markets, while retail specialists are increasingly moving into merchandising, offering events and activation. However, inflation is rising steeply in markets such as Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Marketer spend plans: Much higher three per cent; higher 21 per cent; no change 26 per cent; lower two per cent; much lower one per cent
Newspapers
Newspaper ad revenue should continue to grow slowly, with India and Indonesia two notable exceptions, spurring publishers to look more at the brand and less at the medium. “Expect creative cross-media platforms for 2007, especially in the area of mobile and digital,” says Ashutosh Srivastava, CEO of MindShare Asia-Pacific.
Marketer spend plans: Much higher two per cent; higher 25 per cent; no change 36 per cent; lower 13 per cent; much lower four per cent
Outdoor
More than ever, advertisers will be looking for bigger, better, never-seen-before, out-of-this-world outdoor executions — and are more likely to get it, forecasts Jim Goh, Southeast Asia managing director for Omnicom Media Group. Governments in markets such as Singapore are becoming increasingly open and flexible with regards to outdoor, while technology enabling consumers to interact with outdoor formats through their mobile phone will continue to spread.
Marketer spend plans: Much higher four per cent; higher 18 per cent; no change 31 per cent; lower six per cent; much lower three per cent
THE OUTLOOK FOR 2007
When we asked marketers to outline the main challenges facing them in 2007, their answers highlighted just how difficult a job it is to keep their brands competitive and relevant in 2007.
The competition is keener than ever as more and more brands enter the marketplace, making differentiation tougher and more important. Consumers, meanwhile, are not only getting smarter and choosier, but more elusive too, as a cluttered media environment continues to fragment. Being able to master all this, and keep costs under control as media rates and operating costs mount, while prices feel the squeeze, is a task few would envy.
As David Shaw, director of brand marketing and integrated marketing communications for Lenovo Asia-Pacific, points out, in an ideal world, marketers should balance the short and the long terms. In the real world, they often find themselves serving the present by mortgaging the future.
Despite all this, optimism would seem to be the watchword for 2007. Three-quarters of the brand managers questioned in Media’s sixth annual marketers poll foresee a relatively sunny 2007, with one-in-five forecasting a very good year. “It’s cautious optimism,” remarks Craig Harvey, regional media director for Synovate. “Within Asia, we’ve had financial crises in the late ’90s, Sars, bird flu and natural disasters. People know how things can change quite quickly.”
As Asian marketers know only too well, the best-laid plans can easily be overturned by matters outside their control. However, unlike more mature markets in Europe and the US, where brands are locked in unrelenting rivalry fighting fiercely for slivers of market share, brands in Asia who win can win big as economies grow and more people are able to buy what they have to sell.
Budgets are going up for just over half of the respondents in the poll, with the extra money more likely to go areas such as PR, CRM and market research than established communication channels. “There’s a lot more emphasis on building a relationship with the consumer,” Harvey explains.
Media spend is rising for two out of every five, however, a reminder that traditional communication channels still have a crucial role to play. Around a quarter of marketers are looking to spend more on newspapers, magazines, TV and outdoor, with radio looking like it is in danger of becoming a forgotten medium, with only eight per cent eyeing an increased investment here.
“The traditional way of using radio is quite tired,” says Nike’s marketing director for Southeast Asia, Tim Parkinson. “I still think it’s a great way to connect with people, to connect with specific audiences, but the challenge is to use that medium in ways that are as exciting and vibrant as some of the ways you can use other media like online.”
Radio broadcasters must take responsibility, with the way they sell their medium showing little signs of change, Parkinson adds, a charge can be levelled at most owners of traditional media. Only outdoor, re-energised by new formats and new technology, is starting to show real signs of refreshing its sell.
A quarter of marketers considering TV spend, organic growth notwithstanding, strikes Parkinson as quite high. “It may be only one-in-four, but it’s still one-in-four,” he says. Investment in traditional media may also be a reflection of how hard it is to move from established communications channels, with marketers pointing to entrenched structures and the necessary attitude change that a real shift entails.
“What is the reluctance in diving headlong into the brave new digital world?” ponders Neil Stewart, marketing director for Motorola in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and India.
“Lack of people you trust to guide you, lack of measurability? Or the way to really connect your brand in an environment where genuine relevant presence needs to be earned by the consumer programme directors —rather than merely bought?”
Media also asked marketers which brand’s marketing, other than their own, they most admired in the region. Here, in order, are the 10 most esteemed.
1 Apple
At Apple, marketers are involved from concept to launch. Just as impactful has been its move to take control over the retail environment, demonstrating how the consumer experience lies at the heart of its success.
2 HSBC
The world’s local bank, a positioning stretching back almost a decade, lives up to its name through HSBC’s marketing, achieving an admirable balance between brand consistency globally and tactical agility locally.
3 Cathay Pacific
Celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2006 with a multimedia push that also picked up Hong Kong’s premier Kam Fan creative award, Cathay’s marketing has long demonstrated how creativity can underline a positioning to create a truly distinctive brand.
4 McDonald’s
McDonald’s marketing reflects a deep understanding of how and why customers use the brand, continuing to deliver its brand promise as restaurants are re-imaged through simple and consistent communication.
5 Nokia
Keeping people front-of-mind as technology keeps changing has helped Nokia nurture strong connections with consumers, whatever new features and products the competition may devise — core to its brand strategy.
6 Nike
Engagement and involvement are key to Nike’s success, looking well beyond traditional media to realms where the marketing puts the consumer inside the action, not in front of it, coupled with a deep understanding of consumers and their lives.
7 Coca-Cola
With such a broad reach, everything Coke does gets noticed, but its enduring belief in positivity provides its marketers with both a solid brand foundation and a rich palette of emotions to work with, inspiring great creative work.
8 Samsung
Samsung’s consumer-led product development and marketing has helped redefine the relationship people have with electronic goods. Its global success has paved the way for other Korean companies to follow.
9 Motorola
In-store, PR and CRM sit side-by-side with advertising, media and digital in campaign development, helping Moto achieve a degree of integration and consumer engagement few brands can match.
10 Singapore Airlines
Superior in-flight service epitomised by the now iconic Singapore Girl has been successfully harmonised with leading-edge product delivery to create a formidable brand.
Source: Media’s Marketers Poll 2007
Methodology
Media’s sixth annual marketers poll had thee main aims; to evaluate current trends in marketing actions and strategies; to understand the outlook for 2007 in terms of business performance and marketing investment; and to gauge business performance for 2006.
On behalf of Media, market research company Synovate sent out online self-completion surveys to marketers on Media’s database, resulting in 159 replies, a response rate of nine per cent.
Just under half of respondents, 49 per cent, had local responsibilities, while 43 per cent had regional responsibilities and eight per cent global responsibilities. Over half, 54 per cent, worked for a company with more than 1,000 employees worldwide, while nearly half, 47 per cent, had more than 10 years’ experience in marketing. One-in-10 had more then 20 years’ marketing experience, while a further 12 per cent have between 16 and 20 years’ experience.
The survey fieldwork period was between 11 to 26 January 2007. Incentives for taking part in the survey were a charitable donation and an advance summary of some of the survey findings.
