AME round-up: day two

Brien urged marketers and agencies continuing to take a traditional approach to acknowledge the impact of digital media on the lives of consumers.

“Our business is not restricted to advertising and what we say in confined conventional spaces. It is no longer about creating persuasion-based activities. We have got to understand the power of user activities and recognise that not everything can be bought.”

He added: “We have got to be much more sales-minded and understand that consumers are under much more pressure.”

Brien was followed by Sanjay Behl, group head - brand and marketing for Indian company Reliance Communications. Behl described how Reliance had undergone a major brand transformation to create what he called a “monolithic brand architecture”. Touching on the current dowturn, he revealed that Reliance had raised marketing budgets by 40 per cent to boost share of voice and reduced tactical promotions by 50 per cent.

Two case studies highlighted different strategies being pursued by brands around the region. First, Jason Guo, chief operating officer of Li Ning, offered an insight into the Chinese sportswear brand’s Olympic campaign. Li Ning's market share rose to 50 per cent in 2008, despite being a non-sponsor, on the back of a smart campaign based around a ‘Hero’ theme. The brand is already planning its campaign for the London 2012 Olympics.

Second, Nick Baker, executive general manager for marketing at Tourism Australia, described in depth the tourism authority’s tie-up with the film Australia. Combating negative press reports regarding the film and the campaign, he pointed out that 23 million people around the world had effectively paid to see a very long ad. He also pointed out that Tourism Australia had not paid anything toward the making of the film.

The end of the day was devoted to digital, with a panel examining changing spending patterns in China’s digital market. Peter Cheng, COO of AdChina, revealed that Chinese clients are only now looking at CPM models of buying digital, and largely still use cost per day. Both he and Jeff Kwek, senior consultant online media at Tencent, said that they had seen rising digital spend from Chinese clients.

Finally, Gary Wang delivered a case study on Tudou, suggesting that this is a crucial year for video advertising platforms in China. He is expecting the industry to triple, or more, in the next year. However, Wang indicated three factors that have held the industry back: television is still widely in use due to the simplicity of measuring effectiveness and reach; it is difficult to provide measurement for advertisers; and the pressure of allocating budget in the economic downturn.